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and perhaps the most important example where sustainable development was
included in the international environmental law agreements (Boyar 2020:1929;
Skalar 2015:68-69). The Brundtland Report, which is especially important for
defining sustainable development (Turgut 2017:94, Güneş 2021:87), and finally
the Rio Conference held in 1992, are remarkable for eliminating the ambiguity
of the concept in international agreements to some extent.
Preamble of The Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a
Transboundary Context dated 1991, known as Espoo Convention, contains
the expression of “the need to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable
development”.
Another important development in 1992 was the signing of the Framework
Convention on Climate Change. This Convention was recognized as one of the
most fundamental and important agreements on sustainable development,
and it is significant in terms of associating the increase in the greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere and climate change with sustainable development.
Furthermore, the Convention respected the right to development and
highlighted that non-sustainable production and consumption habits should
be removed, and stated that a supportive international economy system
should be established to combat the climate change at international level
(Boyar 2020:1934) and it also touched upon the concepts of “common but
differentiated responsibilities”, “prudence principle” and “common interest
of humanity”. The Convention on Biological Diversity signed in the same
year, assigned the task of sustainable use of biological resources to the states
(Skalar 2015:71).
In 1994, the concept of sustainable development was explicitly mentioned
in the Convention to Combat Desertification and the International Tropical
Timber Agreement.
In the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organisation dated 1994;
the expression in GATT Agreement of 1947 as “full use of the world’s resources”
was replaced by “the use of the world’s resources in the most appropriate way
for the sustainable development goal” (Skalar 2015:76).
In the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and entered into force in
2005, sustainable development was supported by setting numerical limitation
and reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions (Skalar 2015:70; Suluk
2021:72).
In the Preamble of the Aarhus Convention of 1998, it was aimed to raise
awareness about the environment and sustainable development and to
promote public awareness and participation in sustainable development
(Elliot 2013:307; Boyar 2020:1940).

52 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate