Online version: PDF - DTIE
Online version: PDF - DTIE
Online version: PDF - DTIE
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
030<br />
SECTION 2:<br />
INTRODUCING SUSTAINABLE<br />
DEVELOPMENT<br />
‘Humanity has<br />
the ability<br />
to make<br />
development<br />
sustainable –<br />
to ensure that it<br />
meets the needs<br />
of the present<br />
generation,<br />
without<br />
compromising<br />
the ability<br />
of future<br />
generations<br />
to meet their<br />
own needs.’<br />
International recognition that environment degradation was threatening not<br />
simply economic and social well-being, but life on earth, came about in 1972,<br />
when 133 nations gathered for the Stockholm Conference on the Environment<br />
and Development – the first global meeting on the environment. One important<br />
result was the establishment of UNEP, with the mandate to catalyse environmental<br />
protection and improvement across the world.<br />
United Nations created the World Commission on the Environment and Development<br />
(WCED), often referred to as the ‘Brutland Commission’ after its leader, the then<br />
Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brutland. The Commission’s landmark<br />
report Our Common Future was published in 1987. It stated that while global<br />
economies had to meet human needs and aspirations, economic growth had to fit<br />
within the earth’s finite physical limits. It called for ‘a new era of environmentallysound<br />
economic development’ and declared, ‘Humanity has the ability to make<br />
development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present<br />
generation, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their<br />
own needs’ – hence the introduction and definition of sustainable development.<br />
In 1989, the United Nations began planning a conference on the environment and<br />
development to develop a methodology for sustainable development. Over the<br />
next two years, international negotiations commenced as never before. Thousands<br />
of experts from industry, business, government, non-government organisations,<br />
citizens’ groups and academic disciplines developed policies and action plans.<br />
These discussions culminated in the United Nations Conference on Environment<br />
and Development (UNCED), the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.<br />
The Earth Summit was unprecedented, not just because it was the biggest ever<br />
gathering of heads of state, United Nations agencies, industry, non-government<br />
organisations and citizens’ groups, but also because it made it clear that<br />
economic development, social well-being and the environment could not continue<br />
to be considered as three separate areas. Focusing on achieving sustainable<br />
development, the Earth Summit produced:<br />
• THE RIO DECLARATION OF ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT<br />
27 principles that define the rights and responsibilities of nations as<br />
they pursue sustainable development;<br />
• AGENDA 21<br />
A Global Plan of Action for Sustainable Development.<br />
Five years later, in 1997 and in compliance with Agenda 21, the UN Conference<br />
on Sustainable Development (commonly referred to as ‘Rio Plus 5’) met to report<br />
on progress in implementing Agenda 21. The conference stressed that added<br />
momentum was needed in working towards sustainable development, especially<br />
in relation to climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, and deforestation.<br />
S<br />
E<br />
C<br />
T<br />
I<br />
O<br />
N<br />
2<br />
2.1 An Outline of Agenda 21<br />
Agenda 21 is an important document. It is the blueprint for worldwide action on<br />
environmental improvement. The original document is 700 pages long and the<br />
outline presented below is based on Agenda for Change, A Plain-Language Version<br />
of Agenda 21 and other Rio Agreements by Michael Keating, published by the<br />
Centre for our Common Future, Geneva.