Earth Summit

International meetings aiming at drawing up measures for the environmental protection of the world. The first summit took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. Treaties were made to combat global warming and protect biodiversity (the latter was not signed by the USA). The second Earth Summit was held in New York in June 1997 to review progress. The meeting agreed to work towards a global forest convention with the aim of halting the destruction of tropical and old-growth forests. The last Earth Summit took place on 17 March 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Russia backed the Kyoto treaty on global warming, ensuring that it would still go ahead despite US non-participation.