Our Common Future (‘The Brundtland Report’): World Commission on Environment and Development

2013 ◽  
pp. 52-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Visser ◽  
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Keyword(s):  
Environment And Development ◽  
Common Future ◽  
Brundtland Report

Sustainable Development

Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip M. Fearnside
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Clean Development Mechanism ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Marshall Islands ◽  
Toxic Waste ◽  
The World ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Brundtland Report ◽  
Development Mechanism

Sustainable development is a concept that has quickly risen to prominence both in academic work and in policymaking at all levels, particularly since 1987 when the World Commission on Environment and Development, better known as the Brundtland Commission, released its report promoting this approach. The report defines sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” and states that “the concept of sustainable development does imply limits—not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organization can be both managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth.” The thinking behind the concept extends back for decades before the Brundtland Report, particularly since the early 1970s with rapid rise of what is known as “sustainability science,” although the term “sustainable development” was not coined until 1980. Sustainable development owes much of its political attractiveness to its vagueness, allowing hundreds of countries to sign onto international agreements that endorse the concept without fear that their development plans will be constrained. This advantage, of course, is linked to the disadvantage of allowing a “green” discourse to be used to promote just about any imaginable activity, no matter how damaging. Even countries importing toxic waste from the rest of the world claimed that they were practicing “sustainable development,” the Marshall Islands being the best known. The bibliography that follows presents some of the evolution of the concept of sustainable development and its scientific underpinnings. Two processes have proceeded in parallel: the political process of sustainable development that began with the Brundtland Report in 1987 and was extended by the United Nations (UN) Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and the scientific process that evolved autonomously in response to the vagueness of the Brundtland definition. The sequence of international agreements associated with sustainable development has led this concept to permeate the planning of actions by governments and other entities throughout the world. Current application focuses on the seventeen sustainable development goals, or SDGs, which were agreed at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, together with their 230 individual indicators and 169 targets. A clear example of the challenge of moving sustainable development beyond a role as a greenwashing discourse is offered by the Climate Convention. The Kyoto Protocol requires that all projects in the Clean Development Mechanism contribute to sustainable development, and in 1997 when the Protocol was signed this was seen as a way to prevent climate-mitigation projects from causing untoward social and environmental impacts. However, it was later decided that there would be no international standards defining what constitutes sustainable development, and it would be left up to each country to decide for itself whether proposed projects in the country met that country’s own criteria. A Designated National Authority (DNA) in each country would certify that each project represents sustainable development, with the result that projects are virtually never blocked on this basis. In Brazil, a dramatic example is the Teles Pires Dam, which was certified as “sustainable development” and now receives clean development mechanism carbon credit. The Munduruku indigenous people near the dam were never consulted, as required by International Labor Organization Convention 169 and by Brazilian Law. In 2013 the tribe’s most sacred site was fist dynamited and then flooded. This was the Sete Quedas rapids, which is where the spirits of respected tribal elders go after death—equivalent to heaven for Christians.

Review symposium: our common future: the world commission on environment and development

1989 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. M. Lea ◽  
Ernst Löffler ◽  
Ian Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Review Symposium ◽  
The World ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Common Future

The Brundtland report: ‘Our common future’

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Keeble
Keyword(s):  
Common Future ◽  
Brundtland Report

scholarly journals IAU: The Power to Foster Higher Education for Sustainable Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 345-353
Author(s):  
Pornchai Mongkhonvanit ◽  
Chanita Rukspollmuang ◽  
Yhing Sawheny
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Comprehensive Plan ◽  
Global Partnership ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Development Paradigm ◽  
Common Future ◽  
Brundtland Report

AbstractModernization theory, which believes that “development equates economic growth” and changes in social, political, and cultural structures are the pathways for societies to become modernized, has been the predominant paradigm for the development of nations for decades. However, the model was met with a lot of criticism, and there was a movement to rethink the real meaning of development and well-being. Alternatives for development were proposed, but the most widely accepted paradigm is “sustainability” or “sustainable development” which was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in the 1987 Brundtland Report (also called “Our Common Future”) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Under this development paradigm, programs, initiatives, and actions aim not only at the preservation of a particular resource but also at other distinct areas: economic, environmental, and social - known as the three pillars of sustainability. The Brundtland Report has had a worldwide impact. “Agenda 21”, a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment, was adopted in the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, followed by many other agendas, including the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (2000–2015) and the present United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development or the 17 SDGs.

6. Sustainable development

2018 ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Ian Goldin
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
The World ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Growth Prospects ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Natural Resource Base ◽  
Brundtland Report

The environment and development are intimately related yet this relationship has only recently come to the centre of development concerns. The 1987 Brundtland Report from the World Commission for the Environment and Development recognized that while economic growth has contributed to improved living standards and life expectancy, it has adversely affected the environment by depleting (or irreversibly damaging) the natural resource base, which in the longer term undermines future growth prospects and living standards. ‘Sustainable development’ considers the limits to growth and our planetary boundaries, concluding that given the scale and urgency of the need for new ideas, technologies, and finance to address the needs of sustainable development, much greater investment in environmental awareness and protection is required.

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