ABSTRACT
Sustainable development has been on the world agenda since the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development. The outcome (the Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)) offered a viable alternative to the commonly-held view of environmentalists in developed countries: that pursuit of economic growth is incompatible with a responsible policy towards the environment. Such an attitude was unacceptable in developing countries, where increasing national wealth must be a primary aim, and where any global environmental policy that threatens growth would be seen as the rich countries ‘pulling up the ladder after them’. In the context in which the phrase ‘sustainable development’ was coined, it was the inclusion of the word ‘development’ that was particularly significant: it affirmed the right of a country to seek to develop – but only in a way that does not compromise opportunities for the future.
