A list of documents that have set the stage for a reframing of the activities of NADRA GROUP, along with some brief information about each one:
Declaration of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm marked the beginning of modern international environmental law and regulation. The conference drew attention to the ecological impact of technological progress, emphasizing the need for nations to take responsibility for their environmental footprint. As a result of the conference, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established to set the global environmental agenda and promote transformational change for people and nature. UNEP studies the causes of the triple planetary crisis, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
UNEP has developed seven interlinked subprogrammes to address environmental issues: Climate Action, Chemicals and Pollutions Action, Nature Action, Science Policy, Environmental Governance, Finance and Economic Transformations and Digital Transformations. These programs work together to promote action on environmental protection, including at both national and international levels. Following the Stockholm Conference, there was an intensification of regulatory activities aimed at environmental protection.
The report "Our Common Future" by the International Commission on Environment and Development, published in 1987, introduced the concept of sustainable development for the first time. The report aimed to improve human living conditions while ensuring harmony with nature, promoting a model of human development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which was adopted in 1992 at the UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). It established the basic principles of environmental law and was accompanied by the Long-term Program for further actions on a global scale, also known as the "Agenda on XXI century."
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the first international agreement adopted in 1992, that aims to combat global climate change and its harmful effects. The ultimate aim of the Convention is to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system and prevent global changes in the atmosphere. This level must be reached in a period sufficient for natural, ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. This approach ensures that food production is not endangered and that further economic development can be pursued sustainably. The Convention defines the general directions of combating global climate change and the application of the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which takes into account the different level of socio-economic development of countries. The convention recognizes that industrialized countries and transition economies, which have made a greater anthropogenic contribution of CO2 in the process of their economic development, bear a greater responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is known as the principle of historical responsibility.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Earth’s atmosphere to solve global warming.
The Kyoto Protocol was in force from 2005 to 2020 and was adopted by 192 parties. The protocol covered six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The protocol established quotas for greenhouse gas emissions for each country, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. If a country did not use its entire Kyoto quota, it could sell the excess to another party, which would then have the opportunity to emit more greenhouse gases. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol began in 2008 and ended in 2012. The overall target of the protocol was to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by an average of 5% against 1990 levels over the period of 2008-2012. In 2012, a second commitment period was agreed upon, known as the Doha Amendment, which established a second commitment period for 37 countries from 2013 to 2020. While the Kyoto Protocol was considered a pilot and largely fulfilled its mission, the goal of keeping global warming under 2°C requires an even greater reduction of global emissions. Marginal global emissions must be reduced by 80% by 2050 in order to protect against irreversible changes in the global climate system. Achieving this goal requires a global transition to innovative energy-saving technologies and alternative energy sources. This is the only way to effectively combat climate change and ensure a sustainable future for our planet.
The UN Millennium Declaration, which was adopted in 2000 at the Millennium Summit. The Declaration presented 8 Millenium Development Goals. These goals included eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability (including integrating sustainable development principles into country policies and programs, reversing environmental resource loss, reducing biodiversity loss, reducing the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, and achieving significant improvements in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers), and developing a global partnership for development.
The outcome document of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (2012) entitled "The Future We Want". The conference adopted the concept for reducing poverty, promoting social justice, and ensuring environmental protection.
The outcome document of the new agenda "Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" adopted in 2015. This agenda outlines a set of new global goals and objectives that are integrated and indivisible. The agenda aims to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development, including the economic, social, and environmental dimensions.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are aimed at promoting universal elimination of poverty in all its forms; eliminating hunger, ensuring food security, and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable development of agriculture; ensuring healthy lifestyles and promoting well-being for all at all ages; ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all; ensuring gender equality and expanding the rights and opportunities of all women and girls; ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources and sanitation for all; ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern sources of energy for all; promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; creating resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation; reducing the level of inequality within and among countries; ensuring the openness, safety, vitality and sustainability of cities and settlements; ensuring sustainable models of consumption and production; taking urgent measures to combat climate change and its impacts; conserving and sustainable using oceans, seas and marine resources for the benefit of sustainable development; protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems and promoting their sustainable use, managing forests sustainably, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation and stopping biodiversity loss; promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, ensuring access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels; strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the global partnership mechanisms for the benefit of sustainable development.
The Paris Agreement of 2015, which superseded the Kyoto Protocol. The treaty was ratified by 186 countries and the EU. The parties to the agreement have committed to implementing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement places responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on all states, without establishing quantitative limitations on CO2 emissions. Each country determines its own policy in this area and adopts national climate action plans (NDCs), which include technological innovations and adaptation to climate change. The parties to the Paris Agreement also commit to developing national strategies for the transition to a carbon-free economy and establishing international transfer of "green" technologies in the areas of energy efficiency, industry, construction, and agriculture.
The UNEP Report: Global Environment Outlook 6 - the most comprehensive report on the world environment since 2012. The authors of the report provide a detailed description of today's global environmental problems, including air pollution, biodiversity loss, overexploitation of natural resources, illegal wildlife trade, pollution of aquatic environment with plastic waste, land degradation, the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections, and more.
The European Green Deal, announced in late 2019 for EU countries with a timeline until 2050. The EGD encompasses all sectors of the economy, including transport, energy, agriculture, construction and such industries, such as steel, cement, ICT, textiles and chemicals. In 2021, the EU updated and structured its climate agenda according to the thematic areas, including biodiversity, sustainable and smart mobility, industry (with a focus on transitioning to a circular economy, waste reduction, decarbonization of energy-intensive industries, and the introduction of a carbon tax), climate change (with a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and reducing emissions by 55% from the 1990 level by 2030), energy efficiency and efficient construction, sustainable agriculture, and zero pollution.
The Changing Role of Geological Surveys (2020). Publisher: The Geological Society of London – This publication is a collection of papers developed by the leadership of the world's geological surveys on how geological surveys are responding to national and international needs in a rapidly changing world. As countries move towards sustainable development and the public becomes increasingly aware of environmental issues through social media, the integration of resource capacity development and environmental stewardship becomes more important than ever. In this context, geological surveys will continue to provide critical information on Earth systems, hazardous natural phenomena, and climate change.
Declaration of the Significance of Geoscience Expertise to Meet Global Societal Challenges (2020) signed in solidarity by European Geosciences Union, American Geophysical Union, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Geological Society of America, Japan Geoscience Union, The Geological Society , DVGeo – Dachverband der Geowissenschaften, EuroGeoSurveys, The Geological Surveys of Europe, GEO*8 | International Association for Promoting Geoethics, International Geoscience Education Organization, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, International Union of Soil Sciences, Italian Society of Agricultural Chemistry, Italian Soil Science Society, Paleontological Society, Society of Society of America, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
New EU climate legislation (2021). The climate policy of the EU is the main element of the new development strategy, the European Green Deal (EGD), which aims to combat the effects of climate change and protect the environment. The EGD strategy includes 8 areas. Biodiversity: preserving and restoring ecosystems, supporting the role of the sea and the ocean in economic development through the "blue economy." Sustainability and smart mobility: reduction of transport emissions, transition to carbon-free fuels and ecological modes of transport, such as public transportation and cycling, use of smart technologies. Industry: transition to the principles of a circular economy, which involves reducing waste, decarbonization of the energy sector, introduction of a border carbon tax. Climate change: transition to carbon neutrality by 2050, reducing emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. Energy efficiency: development of renewable energy sources, transition to an integrated energy system. Efficient construction: increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through renovations and new energy-efficient construction. Sustainable agriculture "Farm to Fork": promoting organic agriculture, reducing emissions and waste, and supporting healthy eating habits. Zero pollution: reducing the use of harmful chemicals. The key feature of the Green Deal is mandatory reduction of all emissions.
This EGD differs from other environmental policy documents such as the Paris Agreement, which is of a framework nature and does not impose specific liabilities on countries. The EGD is implemented through large-scale "green" investments, with 1 trillion euros allocated over 10 years to "green" projects and the withdrawal of capital from outdated "dirty" industries. Financial instruments, such as the recently adopted EU Delegated Act on climate taxonomy, are being developed to determine which investments can be classified as "green" and which cannot. The European Commission's goal of transitioning the EU to be climate-neutral by 2050 is reflected in all spheres of the economy, as well as in cooperation with other countries in Europe and around the world.
Strategy of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) of 2021 - an investment fund and consortium, the creation of which was announced at the UN Climate Summit in 2014. OGCI brings together CEOs of the largest oil and gas companies, representing 30% world production. OGCI has identified 2 priority areas of its activity: accelerating the implementation of innovative technologies for carbon capture, storage, and utilization, as well as reducing CO2 and methane emissions in the global oil and gas industry. The organization aims to modernize oil and gas production, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and play an active role in accelerating the global transition to zero emissions through collective action.
The list above represents only a few of the many documents recognized within the professional geological community that outline the global agenda for sustainable development and the regulation of climate change as a critical global challenge facing humanity.
To develop new directions and expand the company's business, analysts at NADRA GROUP reviewed hundreds of other documents, including international convention texts, global reports from authoritative expert organizations involved in implementing the global agenda, reviews of global challenges and strategic markets, analytical materials from global discussion platforms and clubs of leading global players, strategic documents from geological surveys and professional geological organizations in different countries worldwide, among others.