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In Brazil, as the instrument of the National Environmental Policy is an essential tool for the environmental license, Law 6938/81, in its article 2, item III, instituted the evaluation of environmental impacts. With the development of the license studies, it was found that the environmental agencies, no matter how better equipped they were, would not have the conditions to proceed with the environmental impact assessment studies of certain activities and large-scale projects. Thus arose the need for these studies to be synthesized in a special document. The synthesis document was called, in the licensing system for polluting activities of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Deliberation CECA 3, of 12/28/1977), the "Environmental Influence Report" (RIMA), currently called "Environmental Impact Report". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is an important public health concern because it can affect large populations, which, in most cases, does not have choices about the air they breathe. There are many sources of air pollution in both urban and non-urban areas. Environmental health indicators can be of particular importance to emphasize the greater vulnerability of certain populations, such as children or the elderly, and to account for it in public policies associated to health and the environment. The article aims at improving information support for environmental health policies and at bringing valid and useful information on Rio de Janeiro about health impacts of environmental hazards for decision-makers. Based on these characteristics, a structure is proposed for the application and managing specific environmental health problems, identifying PM10 as an urban air pollution indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines whether Japan's role in international activity towards a sustainable future has changed in the decade since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Japan since Rio; Change at the domestic level; Observation that Japan was playing a more active role on environmental matters at both the regional and global levels; Japan's concern with the climate-change debate; Japan's capacity for environmental leadership.

Focuses on the impact on the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) after 10 years. Urban challenge; Socio-environmental burdens and deprivations; Observation that brown agendas are still incipient, and concern that citizens are at risk has grown only recently; Potential of local Agenda 21 initiatives; Challenges to effectiveness; Action through education and empowerment.

Points out that the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, and the resulting Rio Declaration on Environment and Development document was a vital but not yet decisive victory in the ongoing battle over the meaning of scientific findings in environmental policy. Quantitative risk assessment; Precautionary principle; Definitional controversies; Lack of scientific certainty regarding cause and effect; Environmental implications of each and every planned activity.

Evaluates the impact of the last 10 years on the Rio North-South Bargain from the perspective of the South. 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sustainable development; Additionality principle; Common-but-differentiated-responsibility principle; Polluter-pays principle; State of malaise of global environmental politics.

This article adopts a constructionist perspective to analyse the emergence of the environment as a social problem in Rio de Janeiro. It deals with the set of practices and arguments that organise the dispute over defining the environment as an issue. After identifying the demands and actors involved in environmental conflicts in Rio de Janeiro, it presents the main discursive schemes conveyed. The article argues that the specifics of the environment as a public issue are related to the tensions and the possibilities generated by the polarisation between, on the one hand, the understanding of the environment as a public resource and, on the other, the particular nature of the comprehensions expressed in the context of the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of the 1980s, 'urban problems' have come to be perceived and treated in new ways in Brazil. Innovations introduced into public administration and legislation, at both the national and local levels, accompanied a broader social process and created conditions in which urban regulations, planning and management not only were equipped with new mechanisms for intervention in the urban context, but were submitted to a new approach structured around respect for environmental concerns. The ideas developed in this article begin with an outline of environment-related litigation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil offered as a way to identify the actors that are able to ensure that their demands and arguments for environmental protection circulate publicly. The second section is designed to begin the task of identifying the available repertoire of versions of the environment as a social problem in Rio de Janeiro. Some remarks are called for here in order to mark out the terrain on which environmental conflicts occur in Rio de Janeiro? The first relates to the role played by public institutions, which goes far beyond their participation as parties to litigation.

UN Conference on Environment and Development• Reports 204• Extracts from Statements: Plenary and Summit Segment 226EC• A Southerner's View 249On the Occasion of Rio : World-wide Net-working of Environmental Law Centres 249 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the impact of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10 years after. Observation that the momentum for interstate environmental diplomacy has ebbed dramatically; Deficiencies in Agenda 21, the action plan on issues ranging from desertification and soil erosion to water quality and urban settlements; Failure of the UNCED framework to come to grips with the socioeconomically transnationalized character of environmental problems.

The author reflects on the implications of the Earth Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil held in June 2012. The author notes that the agreement for modest commitments to sustainable development after 2015 received criticisms, but it was expected that governments will not sign new environmental treaties. Meanwhile, the author says that attendees were introduced to global problems like poverty and smart solutions to the problems.

The article examines the Biological Diversity Act 2002, considered as a landmark in the environment and development field. It notes that the Act was signed during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Earth Summit in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and it focused on balancing conservation and development. It presents the advantages and the drawbacks of the legislation that is seen as a comprehensive approach towards conservation of the earth's biodiversity.

Examines that the effect of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 after 10 years of globalization. Organizer Maurice Strong; Institutional and conceptual roots in the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment; Substantial transformation of the international institutional system leading to the diminishment of the United Nations and the interstate system.