Abstract

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 was, without a doubt, a landmark event of contemporary multilateral cooperation. As the largest multilateral gathering ever at the time, the event left a permanent impression on the institutional architecture dealing with environmental issues and shaped the institutions resulting from the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. The Rio Conference was thus the starting point of a new institutional era and a new approach to multilateral cooperation for environmental protection. The institutional dimension of the sustainable development question has to address the progress that needs to be accomplished in order to have a better understanding of the sustainable development approach at the national level. It also translates the difficulty in adapting the original mandate of existing institutions to the multifaceted requirements of integration of environmental issues in the economic and social development processes. The institutional dimension requires above all a concerted action towards greater coherence in international action in service of a new multifaceted approach to environmental issues and of a development respectful of the ecological balance of our planet.