Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave?

In this briefing, Simon Maxwell, Executive Chairman of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), analyzes the failures of 'first wave' environmentalism surrounding the 1987 Bruntland Report and the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. He argues that for the Rio+20 Summit to transform development, it must avoid three historical errors: failing to establish the relative urgency of environmental issues compared to immediate economic crises, lacking a convincing narrative on growth, and remaining isolated within environmental ministries rather than engaging mainstream economic planning.

• The 'first wave' of environmentalism failed because it could not convey the relative urgency of natural resource catastrophes when compared to the immediate economic crises of the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as debt crises, structural adjustment, and famine in Africa.
• Agenda 21, the action programme from the 1992 Rio Conference, lacked a substantive narrative on growth, mentioning the word only 46 times across nearly 300 pages, mostly in the context of population, disease, or forests, and offering only bland policies on 'sound economic policies'.
• Early environmental agendas were restricted to the domain of environmental ministers and specialist institutes (such as IIED, IISD, and WRI) rather than engaging economic development ministers or generalist institutes like IDS or ODI.
• The UN Secretary General's High Level Panel report attempts to address previous failures by utilizing concepts of planetary boundaries and tipping points to establish urgency, and by proposing 56 recommendations across three pillars: empowering people for sustainable choices, working toward a sustainable economy, and strengthening institutional governance.
• The 'zero draft' of the Rio+20 outcome document, published on 10 January, includes a chapter on green growth consisting of 19 paragraphs, though the author describes the current text as largely aspirational with minimal substance.

APA

Maxwell, S. (2012). Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave? Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/resource/will-second-wave-environmentalism-learn-from-the-errors-of-the-first-wave

Chicago

Maxwell, Simon. Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave? Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2012. https://cdkn.org/resource/will-second-wave-environmentalism-learn-from-the-errors-of-the-first-wave.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Maxwell |first1=Simon |title=Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave? |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=18 February 2012 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/will-second-wave-environmentalism-learn-from-the-errors-of-the-first-wave |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{maxwell2012will, author = {Maxwell, Simon}, title = {{Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave?}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2012}, month = feb, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/will-second-wave-environmentalism-learn-from-the-errors-of-the-first-wave}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }