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This article provides information about the evaluation of the genesis and evolution of sustainable development:
According to Eduardo Sevilla-Guzman and Graham Woodgate, the concept of “sustainable development” was the result of a dynamic gestation. Hence, they have attempted to trace its genesis in “official international discourse”.
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They have reviewed various international events and publications and schematically brought out their discovery/product and character. Adopting a similar approach, a brief review of the major international events/documents and their contribution to the making of the concept of “sustainable development” is outlined here.
In 1972, the United Nations Conference on “Human Environment”, took place in Stockholm, Sweden. The Stockholm Conference was historical in the sense that environmental problems received a formal recognition for the first time at the global level. The modern industrial societies could realise that there is only “one world”.
It was also recognised that environmental problems are global problems requiring international solutions, although the developed countries of the North and the developing countries of the South do not necessarily share the same environmental concerns. A report titled Limits to Growth the work of the Club of Rome has been credited as the first official study on global environmental deterioration. In this report, there is ecological analysis of industrialism.
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The report also focused on the predicted results of continuing levels of resource depletion, pollution and population growth. Due to this report, a sense of realisation grew that infinite growth was impossible with finite resources. Then, a diagnosis of the factors of global environmental deterioration brought out in a report titled Global 2000 — commissioned by the U.S. President, Jimmy Carter and published in 1980 — underscored that northern lifestyles cannot be reproduced globally.
Then, in the year 1981, the concept of “sustainable development” appeared for the first time. It was enshrined in the title of a key document – World Conservation Strategy: Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). According to the Strategy’s definition, “for development to be sustainable it must take account of social and ecological factors, as well as economic ones; of the living and non-living resource base; and of the long term as well as the short term advantages and disadvantages of alternative actions”.
In 1983, the United Nations set up the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway, as an independent body. Its objective was to re-examine the critical environment and development problems on the planet and to formulate realistic proposals to solve them and to ensure that human progress will be sustained through development without bankrupting the resources of the future generations.
The WCED published its report titled “Our Common Future” in the year 1987. This report presented the first official definition of the concept of “sustainable development”. The contribution of “Our Common Future” is threefold: (i) it offers the first official definition of sustainable development, (ii) it suggests, for the first time, an international strategy for confronting the crisis of modernity, and (iii) it brings about a paradigm change in conventional thinking regarding the notion of “development”.
Another document, “Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living”, has suggested a revised global strategy for the conservation of nature. More importantly, it was recognised by this work that global nature conservation requires the participation of local people. In 1992, representatives of over 150 countries met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the “Earth Summit”. The Earth Summit established important linkages between environment and development and contributed to the further development of the concept of “sustainable development”.
It produced the “The Earth Charter”- a code of conduct or plan of action for the 21st century i.e. Agenda 21, and Local Agenda 21 (LA21), an interpretation for local issues (which came later); the Climate Convention — a convention to control climate change due to atmospheric pollution, and the Bio-diversity Convention — a convention to promote the conservation of bio-diversity. The Rio Declaration also set out the framework of principles of conservation and use of forests and, established important steps that needed to ensure an environmentally stable and sustainable planet.
Correspondingly, at the international level, many nation-states have been trying to go ahead with the notion of “sustainable development”. They are striving to find out economic and political solutions for environmental problems. One also notices periodical attempts to take stock of the progress made by the nations in the direction of “sustainable development”. For instance, in 1997, “Rio+5” meet was held in New York in order to assess the progress towards “sustainable development”.
Again, as a further step, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held at Johannesburg, from 26th August to 4th September, 2002. The Johannesburg Summit is recognised as “Rio+10”. The agenda for this international meet was much beyond the review of the progress made in the direction of sustainable development in the 10 years since Rio. The agenda included every possible issue related to environment and development: energy, water and sanitation, health, forests, consumption patterns, poverty, trade, globalisation etc. Thus, the scope of “sustainable development” was broadened.
Sustainable development was seen as comprising three components: economic development, social development and environmental protection. The I newspaper reports which appeared during the Summit period highlighted that, there were discussions and debates over many issues which include: call for reduction of poverty, saving the planet’s fast- dwindling resources from further plundering, criticism against the European and American pattern of agricultural subsidies and a need to eliminate the trade distorting subsidies, dispute on the definition of globalisation and demands by the Third World countries for more aid, finance and fairer trade.