World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission)

The question of a gradually changing climate due to Man's emissions of ‘greenhouse’ gases has now become a major political issue. Scientific assessments during the early 1980s, and an international conference in Villach in Austria in October 1985, brought this issue firmly onto the political agenda. The World Commission on Environment and Development, popularly referred to as the ‘Brundtland Commission’, presented its final report to the United Nations in 1987, and their General Assembly discussed, on that basis, the matter of a Man-induced global change of climate for the first time in the autumn of 1987.

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Constructing Sustainable Development By Neil E. Harrison. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. 175p. $54.50 cloth, $17.95 paper.

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055402364335 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 96 (1) ◽

pp. 241-241

Author(s):

Rodger A. Payne

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Global Environment ◽

State University ◽

The World ◽

Environment And Development ◽

Brundtland Commission

Nearly 15 years has elapsed since the World Commission on Environment and Development—the so-called Brundtland Commission—popularized the idea of “sustainable development.” The phrase turned out to be unusually slippery, providing both political cover and ammunition for almost anyone engaged in debates about the global environment and/or development. Indeed, scholars and policymakers of all theoretical or ideological stripes found creative ways to employ the phrase “sustainable development” to support a wide array of arguments in these discussions.

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The quest for sustainable agriculture

The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa ◽

10.4102/td.v2i2.283 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Peter Simon

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Sustainable Agriculture ◽

Environmental Degradation ◽

Private Property ◽

Economic Systems ◽

Money Flows ◽

Key Features ◽

Environment And Development ◽

Brundtland Commission

Since the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development published its report in 1983 the idea of sustainable development has become popular. Although many definitions of sustainable development have been proposed, the concept is not easily implemented in a world which believes that high rates of economic growth are essential and in which economic systems are run on the basis of money flows in a setting of private property. Environmental degradation is seen as external to the system. The article discusses the concepts of technicism and economism as the dominant features of Western culture, meaning that all problems can be solved by technical and economic means. This is followed by an analysis of technicistic and economistic concepts of sustainability. In order to develop a concept of sustainability that is not marred by technicism and economism, key features of reformational philosophy, as represented by D.H.Th. Vollenhoven are summarized, especially concepts of time. This leads to an idea of sustainability that seeks to maintain the integrity of the kingdoms of things, plants and animals through a human culture inspired by wisdom and careful stewardship.

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Sustainability and Asia

Nature and Culture ◽

10.3167/nc.2015.100101 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Els van Dongen ◽

Hong Liu

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Added Value ◽

Future Generations ◽

New Era ◽

The World ◽

Environment And Development ◽

Definition Of ◽

Brundtland Commission ◽

Common Future

What is the added value of investigating the contested concept of “sustainability” in tandem with the geographical marker of “Asia” in today’s world? To answer this question, we need to return to the formulation of the problematique of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” several decades ago. The Our Common Future report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)—also known as the Brundtland Commission—put forward the most commonly recognized and most frequently used definition of “sustainable development” (SD) in 1987.1 Development could be made sustainable, so the report stated, “to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987: 15). The report further proclaimed that there were limits to development, but that improvements in technology and social development could “make way for a new era of economic growth” (ibid.).

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