Brundtland Commission

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Formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED),

the Brundtland Commission's mission is to unite countries to pursuesustainable
development together. The Chairman of the Commission, Gro Harlem Brundtland, was appointed
by Javier Prez de Cullar, former Secretary General of the United Nations, in December 1983. At
the time, the UN General Assembly realized that there was a heavy deterioration of the human
environment and natural resources. To rally countries to work and pursue sustainable development
together, the UN decided to establish the Brundtland Commission. Gro Harlem Brundtland was
the former Prime Minister of Norway and was chosen due to her strong background in the sciences
and public health. The Brundtland Commission officially dissolved in December 1987 after
releasing Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, in October 1987, a document
which coined, and defined the meaning of the term "Sustainable Development". Our Common
Future won the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in 1991.[1] The organization Center for
Our Common Future was started in April 1988 to take the place of the Commission.
Contents
[hide]

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]

Events Before Brundtland[edit]

During the 1980s it had been revealed that the World Bank had started to experience an expanded
role in intervening with the economic and social policies of theThird World. This was most notable
through the events at Bretton Woods in 1945. The ideas of neoliberalism and the institutions
promoting economic globalizationdominated the political agenda of the world's then leading trading
nations: the United States under President Ronald Reagan and Great Britain under Prime
MinisterMargaret Thatcher, both strident Conservatives.
These events led into an era of free markets built on a distortion of the international order forged in
1945 at Bretton Woods. Bretton Woods was transformed through the 1980s and 1990s, finally
ending in 1995 with the establishment of the World Trade Organization ushered in by United States
President Bill Clinton. Bretton Woods was formed as an arrangement among the industrialized
nation states, but was transformed into a global regime of ostensibly free markets that
privilegedmultinational corporations and actually undermined the sovereignty of the very national
communities that established Bretton Woods.
The Brundtland Report was intended as a response to the conflict between the nascent order
promoting globalized economic growth and the accelerating ecological degradation occurring on a
global scale. The challenge posed in the 1980s was to harmonize prosperity with ecology. This
postulated finding the means to continue economic growth without undue harm to the environment.
To address the urgent needs of developing countries (Third World), the United Nations saw a need
to strike a better balance of human and environmental well-being. This was to be achieved by
redefining the concepts of economic development as the new idea of sustainable development, as it
was christened in the Brundtland Report.[4]
To understand this paradigm shift, we start with the meaning of the key term: development.

Resolution establishing the Commission[edit]

The 1983 General Assembly passed Resolution 38/161 "Process of preparation of the
Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond", establishing the Commission.[5] In
A/RES/38/161, the General Assembly:
"8. Suggests that the Special Commission, when established,
should focus mainly on the following terms of reference for its
work:
(a) To propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving
sustainable development to the year 2000 and beyond;
(b) To recommend ways in which concern for the environment
may be translated into greater co-operation among developing

countries and between countries at different stages of economic

and social development and lead to the achievement of
common and mutually supportive objectives which take account
of the interrelationships between people, resources,
environment and development;
(c) To consider ways and means by which the international
community can deal more effectively with environmental
concerns, in the light of the other recommendations in its report;
(d) To help to define shared perceptions of long-term
environmental issues and of the appropriate efforts needed to
deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing
the environment, a long-term agenda for action during the
coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world
community, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the
session of a special character of the Governing Council in
1982;"[5]

Modern definition of sustainable

development[edit]
Main article: Sustainable development
The Brundtland Commission draws upon several
notions in its definition of sustainable development,
which is the most frequently cited definition of the
concept to date.
A key element in the definition is the unity of
environment and development. The Brundtland
Commission argues against the assertions of the
1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human
Environment and provides an alternative
perspective on sustainable development, unique
from that of the 1980 World Conservation Strategy
of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature. The Brundtland Commission pushed for the
idea that while the "environment" was previously
perceived as a sphere separate from human
emotion or action, and while "development" was a
term habitually used to describe political goals or
economic progress, it is more comprehensive to
understand the two terms in relation to each other
(We can better understand the environment in
relation to development and we can better
understand development in relation to the
environment, because they cannot and should not
be distinguished as separate entities). Brundtland
argues:
"...the "environment" is where we live; and
"development" is what we all do in attempting to
improve our lot within that abode. The two are
inseparable."

The Brundtland Commission insists upon the

environment being something beyond physicality,
going beyond that traditional school of thought to
include social and political atmospheres and
circumstances. It also insists that development is
not just about how poor countries can ameliorate
their situation, but what the entire world, including
developed countries, can do to ameliorate our
common situation.
The term sustainable development was coined in
the paper Our Common Future, released by the
Brundtland Commission. Sustainable development
is the kind of development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. The
two key concepts of sustainable development are:
the concept of "needs" in particular the essential
needs of the world's poorest people, to which they
should be given overriding priority; and the idea of
limitations which is imposed by the state of
technology and social organization on the
environment's ability to meet both present and
future needs.[6]
Most agree that the central idea of the Brundtland
Commission's definition of "sustainable
development" is that of intergenerational equity. In
sum, the "needs" are basic and essential,
economic growth will facilitate their fulfillment, and
equity is encouraged by citizen participation.
Therefore, another characteristic that really sets
this definition apart from others is the element of
humanity that the Brundtland Commission
integrates.
The particular ambiguity and openness-tointerpretation of this definition has allowed for
widespread support from diverse efforts, groups
and organizations. It lays out a core set of guiding
principles that can be enriched by an evolving
global discourse. As a result of the work of the
Brundtland Commission, the issue of sustainable
development is on the agenda of numerous
international and national institutions, as well as
corporations and city efforts. The definition gave
light to new perspectives on the sustainability of an
ever-changing planet with an ever-changing
population.

Brundtland Report[edit]
Main article: Our Common Future

The Report of the Brundtland Commission, Our

Common Future, was published by Oxford
University Press in 1987, and was welcomed by the
General Assembly Resolution 42/187.[7] One
version with links to cited documents[8] is available.
The document was the culmination of a 900 day
international-exercise which catalogued, analysed,
and synthesised written submissions and expert
testimony from senior government representatives,
scientists and experts, research institutes,
industrialists, representatives of non-governmental
organizations, and the general public held at public
hearings throughout the world.
The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to: [1]
re-examine the critical issues of environment and
development and to formulate innovative, concrete,
and realistic action proposals to deal with them; [2]
strengthen international cooperation on
environment and development and assess and
propose new forms of cooperation that can break
out of existing patterns and influence policies and
events in the direction of needed change; and [3]
raise the level of understanding and commitment to
action on the part of individuals, voluntary
organizations, businesses, institutes, and
governments (1987: 347). The Commission
focused its attention on the areas of population,
food security, the loss of species and genetic
resources, energy, industry, and human
settlements - realizing that all of these are
connected and cannot be treated in isolation one
from another (1987: 27).
The Brundtland Commission Report recognised
that human resource development in the form of
poverty reduction, gender equity, and wealth
redistribution was crucial to formulating strategies
for environmental conservation, and it also
recognised that environmental-limits to economic
growth in industrialised and industrialising societies
existed. As such, the Report offered [the] analysis,
the broad remedies, and the recommendations for
a sustainable course of development within such
societies (1987: 16). However, the Report was
unable to identify the mode(s) of production that
are responsible for degradation of the environment,
and in the absence of analysing the principles
governing market-led economic growth, the Report
postulated that such growth could be reformed (and
expanded); this lack of analysis resulted in an
obfuscated-introduction of the term sustainable
development.[9]

The report deals with sustainable development and

the change of politics needed for achieving it. The
definition of this term in the report is quite well
known and often cited:
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs". It contains two key
concepts:

the concept of "needs", in particular the essential needs of

the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be
given; and
the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology
and social organization on the environment's ability to meet
present and future needs."

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

growing problem of environmental

sustainability. Agenda 21 reinforces the
importance of finding ways to generate
economic growth without hurting the
environment. Through various trade
negotiations such as improving access to
markets for exports of developing countries,
Agenda 21 looks to increase economic growth
sustainability in countries that need it most.[12]

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

idea of environmental protection whereby some

scholars saw environment as something of its
sake. The Commission has thus reduced the
number of people living on less than a dollar a
day to just half of what it used to be,as many
can approach the environment and use
it.These achievements can also be attributed to
economic growth in China and India.[14]

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

Nuclear power proposed as renewable

energy

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
[hide]

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Home > DEP Home > DEPweb > What is Sustainable Development
About DEPweb
What is Sustainable
Development?

What is Sustainable Development

Learning Modules
Beyond Economic
Growth Student
Book
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and Games

There are many definitions of sustainable development, including this

landmark one which first appeared in 1987:
"Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs."

DEPweb Site Tools

DEPweb Home
Resource Room

from the World Commission on Environment and Developments

(the Brundtland Commission) report Our Common Future
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).

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Contact Us

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?

The Long and the Short of It

People concerned about sustainable development suggest that meeting
the needs of the future depends on how well we balance social,
economic, and environmental objectives--or needs--when making

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.

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