ABSTRACT
John Pezzey (1989) made a detailed survey of definitions of sustainable development present in the literature and policy in the 1980s. Even though its meaning is not unanimously accepted, most definitions refer to the approach adopted by the Gro Harlem Brundtland report (WCED 1987): ‘to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Thus sustainable development implies not only short-term equity (satisfying present needs), but also a much deeper concept of intergenerational equity. Consequently, solving present problems cannot undermine material and social foundations of further development.
