Brundtland report
The Brundtland Report is a report entitled Our Common Future , published by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (“Brundtland Commission”) in 1987 . The former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland chaired this commission. The report is known for its definition of sustainable development .
World Commission on Environment and Development
The World Commission on Environment and Development ( WCED ) was established by the United Nations in 1983. As a council of experts, it should draw up a report on the prospects for long-term environmentally compatible global development. In addition to chairman Gro Harlem Brundtland and her deputy, the former Sudanese foreign minister Mansour Khalid, the commission consisted of 20 members from developing and industrialized countries, mostly politicians. The commission worked in a consensus-oriented manner. In 1987 the result, the Brundtland Report, was published in six languages.
Definition of sustainable development
In its report, the Commission defined the concept of sustainable development in two ways:
"1. Sustainable development is development that satisfies the needs of the present without risking future generations not being able to satisfy their own needs. "
This definition of intergenerational environmental justice ( intergenerational equity ) is included in all subsequently agreed international environmental agreements .
"2. In essence, sustainable development is a process of change in which the use of resources, the goal of investments, the direction of technological development and institutional change harmonize with one another and increase the current and future potential to meet human needs and desires. "
This definition is cited less often. It includes the demand for a holistic change in behavior, which is therefore politically less consensual .
Effect of the Brundtland report
The publication of the Brundtland report is considered to be the beginning of the global discourse on sustainability and sustainable development . The report has been translated into many languages. It is one of the most cited works in environmental and development literature. Its publication was followed in 1989 by the convening of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (known as the Rio Conference or Earth Summit ), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Brundtland report was to be implemented in international action; Agenda 21 was adopted for this purpose .
literature
Primary literature
- World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1987. ( full text )
- Volker Hauff (Ed.): Our common future: the Brundtland report of the World Commission on Environment and Development . 1st edition. Eggenkamp, Greven 1987, ISBN 3-923166-16-1 ( formally incorrect ) .
Secondary literature
- Ecological Economy , Issue 1/2007 with a focus on 20 years of the Brundtland Report. ( online , open access)
Web links
- Further information on the meaning, composition and consequences of the Brundtland Report
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Kopfmüller, Fred Luks, Bernd Siebenhüner: 20 Years of the Brundtland Report . In: Ecological Economy . No. 1 , 2007, doi : 10.14512 / oew.v22i1.495 .
- ↑ a b Volker Hauff (Ed.): Our common future: the Brundtland report of the World Commission on Environment and Development . 1st edition. Eggenkamp, Greven 1987, ISBN 3-923166-16-1 ( formally incorrect ) , p. 46 .