UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)

About CSD

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is a ministerial forum established by the UN General Assembly to ensure effective follow-up of the Conference on Environment and Development, the ‘Earth Summit’, and is responsible for monitoring the implementation of Agenda 21 (adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002).

The WSSD adopted numerous recommendations in support of science and technology for sustainable development; including the need for increased scientific input into the work of the CSD. Consequently, the UN invited ICSU to participate in the CSD as a 'co-organising partner', together with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), for the participation of the Scientific & Technological Community as one of nine Major Groups.

The work of the commission is organized into two-year cycles: year 1 - review session; and year 2 - policy session. The current cycle (CSD-18 in 2010 and CSD-19 in 2011) is the fourth implementation cycle and focuses on sustainable consumption and production, transport, chemicals, waste management and mining. The themes for previous cycles were:

• CSD-16 & 17 (2008-09): agriculture, rural development, improved management of land resources, combating drought and desertification, and Africa
• CSD-14 & 15 (2006-07): energy, air pollution/atmosphere, climate change and industrial development
• CSD-12 & 13 (2004-05): fresh water, sanitation and human settlements

More information is available on the CSD website.