What is sustainable development?
The concept of sustainable development has been around for several decades. It is a simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. The most widely used definition is ‘development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
Important contributors to sustainable development include the maintenance of biodiversity and natural capital; the primacy of local needs and of meeting them from local resources; recognition of and respect for an area’s cultural assets; keeping money and other assets within local communities; community ownership; reuse and waste reduction; and social inclusion, equity and justice. Discussions about sustainable development began in earnest at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which set out a course of action – ‘Agenda 21’ – to achieve sustainable development in the twenty-first century.
The most widely accepted definition of sustainable development is from the World Commission on Environment and Development, or the “Brundtland” Commission, in 1987: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition has been expanded and debated, but its essential declaration of ethical responsibility to future generations remains the same. Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992.
