Green Cross International was founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, building upon the work started by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 6 June 1992, the Rio Earth Summit delegates asked Gorbachev to establish Green Cross International, and around the same time Swiss National Council MP Roland Wiederkehr founded “World Green Cross”, with similar aims. The two organisations merged in 1993, becoming Green Cross International, which was formally launched in Kyoto, Japan, on 18 April 1993.