Crowther David - Sustainability after Rio

In 1983 the United Nations established the under the chairmanship of Gro Harlem Brundtland. It subsequently became known as the Brundtland Commission and its report, Our Common Future, is normally known as the Brundtland Report. The commission was created to address a growing concern about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development. In establishing the commission, the UN General Assembly recognised that environmental problems were global in nature and determined that it was in the common interest of all nations to establish policies for sustainable development. It is important to note that it was unquestioned that sustainable development was both desirable and possible.

In 1983 the UN General Assembly passed the Resolution 38/161, Process of preparation of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond establishing the Commission. 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.

The Report of the Brundtland Commission, called Our Common Future, was published by Oxford University Press in 1987. The report deals primarily with sustainable development and the change of politics needed for achieving that. The definition of this term in the report is very well known and often cited as sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.