United Nations General Assembly A/RES/60/192 Distr.: General 20 February 2006 Sixtieth session Agenda item 52 (a) Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 22 December 2005 [on the report of the Second Committee (A/60/488/Add.1)] 60/192. International Year of Planet Earth, 2008 The General Assembly, Reaffirming Agenda 21, 1 the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation”) 2 and the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015, 3 Noting that the wealth of scientific information available on planet Earth remains largely untapped and hardly known to the public or to policymakers and decision makers, Convinced that education in Earth sciences provides humankind with tools for the sustainable use of natural resources and for building the scientific infrastructure essential for sustainable development, Welcoming the decision of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to support the declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth with a view to highlighting the importance of Earth sciences, Taking into account the crucial role the Year could play, inter alia, in raising public awareness of the importance for sustainable development of the Earth’s processes and resources; disaster prevention, reduction and mitigation; and capacity-building for the sustainable management of resources; and its important contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 1. Decides to declare 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth; _______________ 1 Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3–14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigendum), resolution 1, annex II. 2 Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August– 4 September2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum), chap. I, resolution 2, annex. 3 Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (A/CONF.206/6 and Corr.1, chap. I, resolution 2). 05-49912