Abstract

In June 1992, the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosted the UN Conference on Environment and Development. In August 2016, the world’s eyes were again on Brazil and Rio, this time as host of the XXXI Olympiad, the first Olympic and Paralympic Games in South America. The Earth Summit on environment cleared the path for the Agenda 21, a UN non-binding action plan for governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world for sustainable development. Its ambitions were to stimulate actions on several levels toward protecting the environment, fighting poverty, and mobilizing groups in civil society toward the UN’s 21st-century development goals.