The Brundtland

Commission
Report.

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 INTRODUCTION

 She was born on 20 April 1939.

 She is a medical doctor with a public health
degree. She is former director of the World
Health Organization. Gro Harlem Brundtland

 A feminist, she was Prime Minister of

Norway  (1981, 1986–89, 1990–96), the first
woman and youngest ever.
 She was chosen to direct the U.N. World
Commission on Environment and
Development.
 Since 2007, she is a special U.N. envoy on
climate change.
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 OUR COMMON FUTURE
 The Brundtland Report (former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem
Brundtland), published 27 years ago.

 It has been successful in forming international ties between

governments and multinational corporations.

 Described sustainability as a three-legged stool with people, planet and

profit taking equal importance in the equation. 

 The report led the production of Agenda 21, an action plan of the UN
with regard to sustainable development

 Agenda 21 entailed actions to be taken globally, nationally, and locally

in order to make life on Earth more sustainable 3
 Our Common Future aimed to discuss the
environment & development as one single issue

 The Brundtland report (Our Common Future)

defined sustainable development as “development
that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.”

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The Brundtland Report highlighted the
three fundamental components
of sustainable development,
the environment, the economy,
and society.

 Environment
We should conserve and enhance our resource base, by gradually
changing the ways in which we develop and use technologies.

 Social Equity
Developing nations must be allowed to meet their basic needs of
employment, food, energy, water and sanitation. If this is to be done
in a sustainable manner, then there is a definite need for a sustainable
level of population.

 Economic Growth
Economic growth should be revived and developing nations should
be allowed a growth of equal quality to the developed nations.

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 The environment – a few facts

Flooding May Change the World Map

If global warming continues areas less than 30 feet above sea

level will be vulnerable to flooding.

Those areas most at risk of flooding, due to the rising sea level
would be island nations like the Maldives….and the UK!

10% of the worlds population live in areas likely to be affected

by rising sea levels such as Shanghai, and Lagos and The
Atlantic Gulf Coasts of the USA.

Scientists project as much as a 3 foot sea level rise, by 2100.

Also threatened are Holland, Belgium, Denmark, & parts of

China and India.

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 SURVIVAL
The scale and complexity of our requirements for natural resources have
increased greatly with the rising levels of population and production.

• Greenhouse effect
• Ozon layer deletion
• Air pollution
• Deforestation
• Diposal of toxic
waste
• Desertification
• extinguishes species
of plants and animals

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 ELEMENTS / DIMENSIONS OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

 Political
 Economic
 Institutional
 Technological
 Socio-cultural
 Ecological

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 PARAMETERS OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
ECONOMIC
 Maintaining a sustainable population
 Maintaining productivity and profitability of environment and natural
resources
ECOLOGICAL
 Adopting environmental management weapons in policy and decision
making
 Protecting the environment and conserving natural resources
TECHNOLOGICAL
 Promoting proper management of wastes and residuals
 Adopting environment-friendly technologies
POLITICAL
 Empowering the people
 Maintaining peace and order
SOCIO-CULTURE
 Promoting resource access and upholding property rights
 Promoting environmental awareness, inculcating environment ethics and
supporting environment management action
INSTITUTIONAL
 Improving institutional capacity/ capability to manage sustainable
development
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 Sustainable Development

“Development which meets the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”
or
Sustainable Development means making sure that the
things we do, the goods we buy and the lifestyle we
have today will not harm the environment for us, for
people in other places and for future generations

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sustainable development is about

social progress
which recognises the needs of everyone
sustainable development is about ensuring

employment
and economic security for everyone
sustainable development is about

environmental
protection being at the centre of everything we do
sustainable development is about the

prudent use
of the earth’s natural resources
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES
Critical objectives for environment and development policies that follow
from the concept of sustainable development include:
1. · Reviving Growth; developing nations focus their efforts upon
eliminating poverty and satisfying essential human needs, then
domestic demand will increase for both agricultural products and
manufactured goods and some services.
2. · Changing The Quality Of Growth; Sustainable development
involves more than growth. It requires a change in the content of
growth, to make it less Material- and energy-intensive and more
equitable in its impact.
3. Meeting Essential Needs For Jobs, Food, Energy, Water, And
Sanitation; The principal development challenge is to meet the needs
and aspirations of an expanding developing world population.
4. · Ensuring A Sustainable Level Of Population; The sustainability
of development is intimately linked to the dynamics of population
growth. Population policies should be integrated with other economic
and social development programmes female education, health care,
and the expansion of the livelihood base of the poor.
5. · Conserving And Enhancing The Resource Base: Development
policies must widen people's options for earning a sustainable
livelihood, particularly for resource-poor households and in areas
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under ecological stress.
·
6. Reorienting Technology And Managing Risk; limits to global
development are perhaps determined by the availability of energy resources
and by the biosphere's capacity to absorb the by-products of energy use.
The development of environmentally appropriate technologies is closely
related to questions of risk management.
7.Merging Environment And Economics In Decision Making. Inter
sectoral connections create patterns of economic and ecological
interdependence rarely reflected in the ways in which policy is made.
Sustainability requires the enforcement of wider responsibilities for the
impacts of decisions. This requires changes in the legal and institutional
frameworks that will enforce the common interest.

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