The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements. It was agreed that a five-year review of the Earth Summit progress would be made in 1997 by the United Nations General Assembly meeting in special session. This special session of the UNGA will take stock of how well countries, international organizations and sectors of civil society have responded to the challenge of the Earth Summit.

The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio was the largest meeting ever and created a lot of initiatives and ideas. But what has happened in the past 5 years? Have countries followed up on the agreements they signed? Or is the Rio Earth Summit just going to be remembered as a few great photo opportunities, and a lot of empty promises?

The UN has decided to call this special general assembly to check up on what everyone's been doing and review Agenda 21 for its relevance to today.