UNITED NATIONS – AGENDA 21 PROTOCOLS

The United Nations General Assembly approved Agenda 21 at its earth summit – declaration on environment and development - in 1992.   Within this protocol twenty seven Principles are laid out.  

These include:-

Principle 1  –   “Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.....”

Principle 3  –   Need to cater for future generations.

Principle 4 –    In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part

                             of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.

Principle 7 –    Global partnerships to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of earth’s ecosystem.

Principle 9 –    Pursuit of new and innovative technologies.

Principle 12 –  Economic growth and sustainable development.

Principle 15 –  Lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measure to

                              prevent environmental degradation.

Principle 16 –  Internalisation of environmental costs – polluter, in principle, to pay. 

Australian Government - Agenda 21 commitment

Australia has formally committed to Agenda 21.   This commitment can be seen in the form of National, State and Local Agenda 21 Plans.

The City of Warrnambool is an example of how this commitment has filtered down with its Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2008 – 13, which is directly linked to Agenda 21.   Likewise the Gold Coast Council is another example of one of the many municipalities to have made a formal commitment to Agenda 21.

State Governments – Agenda 21 commitment

Agenda 21 is encapsulated in the recently released ‘Provincial Victoria – directions for the next decade’ discussion paper.  

The South Australian government has likewise made a similar commitment.

FreshBins has significant capacity to assist Governments and Councils to meet their obligations to the environment and to our future generations.