GC34 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [1992U515]

The 34th General Council of The United Church of Canada

1. recognizes the world-wide significance of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), which met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1-12 June 1992; and

2. urges presbyteries and congregations of The United Church of Canada to raise and maintain awareness of UNCED agreements (The Rio Declaration, The Climate Change Convention, The Biodiversity Convention) for environmental protection and development;

3. recommends the use of the resource materials prepared by the World Council of Churches and the DMC, such as the booklet, What Your Church Can do about UNCED, the video Together in the Garden, and the One Earth Community Statement; and

   1. thanks the Canadian government for its role in the creation of the initiative taken at UNCED and expresses our disappointment that the United States of America failed to sign the Biodiversity Convention;

   2. urges conferences, presbyteries, congregations and members of The United Church of Canada to similarly write to their local MPs, expressing our thanks and disappointment;

   3. [would] write to the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, expressing our disappointment in the failure of the United States of America government to sign the Biodiversity Convention and asking them to continue to pressure their government to sign it in the future.

GC34 1992 ROP, p. 129