Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Global Enterprise and Sustainable Development (Ming Xu)/Sandbox Brundtland Commission

Introduction

Formally known as the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the Brundtland Commission's mission is to unite countries to pursue sustainable development together. The Chairman of the Commission, Gro Harlem Brundtland, was appointed by Javier Perez de Cuellar, 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 who 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 the Brundtland Report in October of 1987. The organization, Center for Our Common Future, was started up to take the place of the Commission. The Center for Our Common Future was officially started in April of 1988.

History

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 labor 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.

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Gro Harlem Brundtland attending a sustainability conference. She is one of the leaders in the sustainability field.

In December of 1983, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, 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. This new organization is the Brundtland Commission, or referred to more formally as 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 aims 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 organization’s 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 creating the most prevalent definition of sustainability, as seen below.

Events Before Brundtland

During the 1980s it had been revealed that the role bank had started to experience an expanded role in intervening with the economic and social policies of the Third World. This was most notable through the events at Bretton Woods in 1945. The ideas of neo-liberalism and the institutions promoting economic globalization dominated the political agenda of the world's then leading trading nations: the United States under President Ronald Reagan and Great Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, both strident Conservative people.

These events would be the ones that lead us into an era of free markets built on a distortion of the international regime 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 channeled 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 privileged the multinational corporations and actually undermined the sovereignty of the very national communities that established Bretton Woods.

The Brundtland Report was a response to the conflict between the nascent regime promoting globalized economic growth and the emerging ecological disaster on a global scale. The challenge posed in the 1980s was to harmonize prosperity with ecology. This meant that we needed to find a means of keeping growth without harming our environment. To address the needs of what was then perceived as the developing world (Third World), the United Nations knew that there needed to be a balance of growth and perservation. 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.

To comprehend this paradigm shift, we start with what we intend by the key term: development.

Modern Definition of Sustainable Development

The Brundtland Commission draws upon several notions in their definition of sustainable development, which has come to be the most frequently cited definition of the concept to date.

One element key to the formation of their 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 communal situation.

The term sustainable development was coined in the paper "Our Common Future" that was 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.

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 that equity is encouraged by citizen participation. Therefore, another characteristic that really sets this definition apart from others is in the element of humanity that the Brundtland Commission integrates.

According to the Commission, all countries need to start to unify their goals of economic and social development. The term development implies that there is a progressive transformation of the economy and social society. To make development sustainable, there needs to be a more rigid political and social standard implemented by which all companies and individuals need to .

The particular ambiguity and openness-to-interpretation 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 guided 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 particular definition gave light to new perspectives on the sustainability of an ever-changing planet with an ever-changing population.

Brundtland Report

Main article: Our Common Future

The Brundtland Report', or commonly known as Our Common Future, was released by the Brundtland Commission in 1987.

Structure

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 US 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 non-government 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 in a holistic approach.

Sustainability Efforts

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Venn diagram showing the relationships between the three main pillars of sustainable development.

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 initiates 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. .

Economic Growth

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 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..

Environmental Protection

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Wind turbines shown as an example of environmental protection initiatives.

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 had 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.. The focus on environmental protection has transpired globally as well, including a great deal of investing 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 "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 is still needing to be addressed now and throughout the future..

Social Equality

The Social Equality pillar of sustainable development focuses 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 richer households increasing relative to the incomes of middle or lower class households. Global inequality has been declining, but the world is still extremely unequal with the richest 1% of the world’s population owning 40% of the wealth and the poorest 50% owning around 1% of the world’s wealth. The Brundtland Commission has made an impact in helping to reduce the number of people living on less than a dollar a day to just half of what it used to be, but this can also be attributed to growth in China and India..

Members of the Commission

Chairman: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway)
Vice Chairman: Mansour Khalid (Sudan)
Susanna Agnelli (Italy)
Saleh A. Al-Athel (Saudi Arabia)
Bernard Chidzero (Zimbabwa)
Lamine Mohammed Fadika (Côte d’Ivoire)
Volker Hauff (Federal Republic of Germany)
Istvan Lung (Hungary)
Ma Shijun (People's Republic of China)
Margarita Marino do Botero (Colombia)
Nagendra Singh (India)
Paulo Nogueira-Neto (Brazil)
Saburo Okita (Japan)
Shridath S. Ramphal (Guyana)
William D. Ruckelshaus (USA)
Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria)
Emil Salim (Indonesia)
Bukar Shaib (Njgaria)
Vladimir Sokolov (USSK)
Janez Stanovnik (Yugoslauia)
Maurice Strong (Canada)

Ex Officio
Jim MacNeill (Canada)