1 History
o 1.1 Events Before Brundtland
o 1.2 Resolution establishing the Commission
2 Modern definition of sustainable development
3 Brundtland Report
4 Structure
5 Sustainability Efforts
o 5.1 Economic Growth
o 5.2 Environmental Protection
o 5.3 Social Equality
6 Members of the Commission
7 See also
8 References
History[edit]
After the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1980 World Conservation
Strategy of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the leaders of our world realized
that we needed to create an organization whose sole purpose was to raise awareness of the need
for sustainable development. During this time period, people in developed countries were starting to
become more aware about environmental issues stemming from industrialization and growth.
Developed countries wanted to reduce the environmental impact of their growth. On the other hand,
developing countries were becoming discouraged because they were not at and could not reach the
higher levels of economic growth that industrialized countries had. Because of this need for growth,
developing countries were desperate to use cheap methods with high environmental impact and
unethical labour practices in their push to industrialize. The United Nations saw a growing need for
an organization to address these environmental challenges which were intertwined with economic
and social conditions as well.
In December 1983, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Prez de Cullar, asked the
Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to create an organization independent of the UN
to focus on environmental and developmental problems and solutions after an affirmation by the
General Assembly resolution in the fall of 1984.[2] This new organization was the Brundtland
Commission, or more formally, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).
The Brundtland Commission was first headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland as Chairman and Mansour
Khalid as Vice-Chairman.
The organization aimed to create a united international community with shared sustainability goals
by identifying sustainability problems worldwide, raising awareness about them, and suggesting the
implementation of solutions. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission published the first volume of Our
Common Future, the organizations main report. Our Common Future strongly influenced the
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 and the third UN Conference on Environment and
Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. Also, it is credited with crafting the most
prevalent definition of sustainability, as seen below.[3]
Brundtland Report[edit]
Main article: Our Common Future
Structure[edit]
The Brundtland Commission was chaired by
former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem
Brundtland. Politicians, civil servants, and
environmental experts make up the majority of
the members. Members of the commission
represent 21 different nations (both developed
and developing countries are included). Many
of the members are important political figures
in their home country. One example is William
Ruckelshaus, former head of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. All members
of the commission were appointed by both Gro
Harlem Brundtland and Mansour Khalid, the
Chairman and Vice Chairman.
The commission focuses on setting up
networks to promote environmental
stewardship. Most of these networks make
connections between governments and nongovernment entities. One such network is Bill
Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development.
In this council government and business
leaders come together to share ideas on how
to encourage sustainable development. The
Brundtland Commission has been the most
successful in forming international ties between
governments and multinational corporations.
The 1992 and 2002 Earth Summits were the
direct result of the Brundtland Commission.
The international structure and scope of the
Brundtland Commission allow multiple
problems (such as deforestation and ozone
depletion) to be looked at from a holistic
approach.[10]
Sustainability Efforts[edit]
The three main pillars of sustainable
development include economic growth,
environmental protection, and social equality.
While many people agree that each of these
three ideas contribute to the overall idea of
sustainability, it is difficult to find evidence of
equal levels of initiatives for the three pillars in
countries' policies worldwide. With the
overwhelming number of countries that put
economic growth on the forefront of
sustainable development, it is evident that the
other two pillars have been suffering, especially
with the overall well being of the environment in
a dangerously unhealthy state. The Brundtland
Commission has put forth a conceptual
framework that many nations agree with and
want to try to make a difference with in their
countries, but it has been difficult to change
these concepts about sustainability into
concrete actions and programs. Implementing
sustainable development globally is still a
challenge, but because of the Brundtland
Commission's efforts, progress has been
made. After releasing their report, Our
Common Future, the Brundtland Commission
called for an international meeting to take place
where more concrete initiatives and goals
could be mapped out. This meeting was held
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A comprehensive plan
of action, known as Agenda 21, came out of
the meeting. Agenda 21 entailed actions to be
taken globally, nationally, and locally in order to
make life on Earth more sustainable going into
the future.[11]
Economic Growth[edit]
Economic Growth is the pillar that most groups
focus on when attempting to attain more
sustainable efforts and development. In trying
to build their economies, many countries focus
their efforts on resource extraction, which leads
to unsustainable efforts for environmental
protection as well as economic growth
sustainability. While the Commission was able
to help to change the association between
economic growth and resource extraction, the
total worldwide consumption of resources is
projected to increase in the future. So much of
the natural world has already been converted
into human use that the focus cannot simply
remain on economic growth and omit the ever
Environmental Protection[edit]
Environmental Protection has become more
important to government and businesses over
the last 20 years, leading to great
improvements in the number of people willing
to invest in green technologies. For the second
year in a row in 2010, the United States and
Europe added more power capacity from
renewable sources such as wind and solar. In
2011 the efforts continue with 45 new wind
energy projects beginning in 25 different
states.[13] The focus on environmental
protection has transpired globally as well,
including a great deal of investment in
renewable energy power capacity. Eco-city
development occurring around the world helps
to develop and implement water conservation,
smart grids with renewable energy sources,
LED street lights and energy efficient building.
The consumption gap remains, consisting of
the fact that "roughly 80 percent of the natural
resources used each year are consumed by
about 20 percent of the world's population".
This level is striking and still needs to be
addressed now and throughout the future.[14]
Social Equality[edit]
The Social Equality and equity as pillars of
sustainable development focus on the social
well-being of people. The growing gap between
incomes of rich and poor is evident throughout
the world with the incomes of the richer
households increasing relative to the incomes
of middle - or lower-class households.This is
attributed partly to the land distribution patterns
in rural areas where majority live from land.
Global inequality has been declining, but the
world is still extremely unequal, with the richest
1% of the worlds population owning 40% of the
worlds wealth and the poorest 50% owning
around 1%. The Brundtland Commission made
a significant impact trying to link environment
and development and thus, go away from the
Members of the
Commission[edit]
Chairman: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)
Vice Chairman: Mansour Khalid (Sudan)
Susanna Agnelli (Italy)
Saleh A. Al-Athel (Saudi Arabia)
Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Mexico) (ceased to
participate in August 1986 for personal
reasons)
Bernard Chidzero (Zimbabwe)
Lamine Mohammed Fadika (Cte d'Ivoire)
Volker Hauff (Federal Republic of Germany)
Istvn Lng (Hungary)
Ma Shijun (People's Republic of China)
Margarita Marino de Botero (Colombia)
Nagendra Singh (India)
Paulo Nogueira
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Nogueira_Net
oNeto (Brazil)
Saburo Okita (Japan)
Shridath S. Ramphal (Guyana)
William D. Ruckelshaus (USA)
Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria)
Emil Salim (Indonesia)
Bukar Shaib (Nigeria)
Vladimir Sokolov (USSR)
Janez Stanovnik (Yugoslavia)
Maurice Strong (Canada)
Ex Officio
Jim MacNeill (Canada)
[15]
See also[edit]
Sustainable development portal
Agenda 21
Our Common Future
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
References[edit]
1. Jump up^ "1991- The United Nations
World Commission on Environment and
Development".
2. Jump up^ History of Sustainability
3. Jump up^ This Norwegian's past may
connect with your future
4. Jump up^ worldsustainability /
PreludeToBrundtland
5. ^ Jump up to:a b United Nations.
1983. "Process of preparation of the
Environmental Perspective to the Year
2000 and Beyond." General Assembly
Resolution 38/161, 19 December 1983.
Retrieved: 2007-04-11.
6. Jump up^ Environment Magazine What Is Sustainable Development?
Goals, Indicators, Values, and Practice
7. Jump up^ United Nations. 1987. Report
of the World Commission on
Environment and Development, General
Assembly Resolution 42/187, 11
December 1987. Retrieved: 2007-11-14
8. Jump up^ Our Common Future, Report
of the World Commission on
Environment and Development, World
Commission on Environment and
Development, 1987. Published as Annex
to General Assembly document
A/42/427, Development and International
Co-operation: Environment August 2,
1987. Retrieved, 2007.11.14
9. Jump
up^ http://www.islandvulnerability.org/m/
ahmedm.pdf
10. Jump
up^ http://web.archive.org/web/2012041
7131934/http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/
csd/csd15/media/backgrounder_brundtla
nd.pdf
11. Jump up^ DSD :: Resources Publications - Core Publications
12. Jump up^ DSD :: Resources Publications - Core Publications
13. Jump
up^ http://www.awea.org/learnabout/pub
lications/reports/upload/3Q-2011-AWEAMarket-Report-for-Public.pdf
14. ^ Jump up
to:a b http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/
climatechange/shared/gsp/docs/GSP16_Background%20on%20Sustainable%2
0Devt.pdf
15. Jump
up^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brundtl
and_Report
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Home > DEP Home > DEPweb > What is Sustainable Development
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What is Sustainable
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But what does this mean? What are the needs of the present? Take a
minute and jot down five to ten needs that you have in your own life.
Have you listed any needs that conflict with one another? For example, if
you listed clean air to breathe, but also listed a car for transportation,
your needs might conflict. Which would you choose, and how would you
make your decision? If within ourselves, we have conflicting needs, how
much is that multiplied when we look at a whole community, city,
country, world? For example, what happens when a companys need for
cheap labor conflicts with workers needs for livable wages? Or when
individual families needs for firewood conflict with the need to prevent
erosion and conserve topsoil? Or when one countrys need for electricity
results in acid rain that damages another country's lakes and rivers?
How do we decide whose needs are met? Poor or rich people? Citizens
or immigrants? People living in cities or in the countryside? People in
one country or another?You or your neighbor? The environment or the
corporation? This generation or the next generation? When there has to
be a trade off, whose needs should go first?
decisions today. Some of these needs are itemized around the puzzle
diagram.
What social, economic, or environmental needs would you add to the
puzzle?
Many of these objectives may seem to conflict with each other in the
short term. For example, industrial growth might conflict with preserving
natural resources. Yet, in the long term, responsible use of natural
resources now will help ensure that there are resources available for
sustained industrial growth far into the future.
Studying the puzzle raises a number of difficult questions. For example,
can the long term economic objective of sustained agricultural growth be
met if the ecological objective of preserving biodiversity is not? What
happens to the environment in the long term if a large number of people
cannot afford to meet their basic household needs today? If you did not
have access to safe water, and therefore needed wood to boil drinking
water so that you and your children would not get sick, would you worry
about causing deforestation? Or, if you had to drive a long distance to
get to work each day, would you be willing to move or get a new job to
avoid polluting the air with your car exhaust? If we dont balance our
social, economic, and environmental objectives in the short term, how
can we expect to sustain our development in the long term?
What sustainable development dilemmas do you and your family face in
your everyday lives?
Going Further
Explore some of the social, economic, and environmental challenges
that are part of the sustainable development puzzle by working through
theLearning Modules on this site. Delve into the issues that people
around the world strive to balance when making often difficult decisions
about development.