ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the precise definition of sustainable development remains particularly difficult to qualify in detail and to dissect in terms of political action. The notion of sustainable development was already on the agenda of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. The evolution of the sustainable development concept since the 1970s and in particular its implementation at the global level since the Rio de Janeiro conference in 1992 both reveal many contradictions in local and international political action. With the growth of economic and financial globalization, the links between sustainable development, international trade and financial globalization have been strongly highlighted and discussed at the international level. Alterglobalists portray themselves as an emancipation movement aiming to uncovering the lies of neoliberalism and provide information on the political issues of globalization. Part of the philosophical base that justifies this request by alterglobalists for political participation is related to the present crisis in intergovernmentalism and multilateralism.
