ABSTRACT
The concept sustainable development was coined in recognition of how connected the issues at stake are. Formal debates about the environment first emerged at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. The saliency of the environmental issues is increasingly recognized by institutional economists, who argue in this context for relevant reforms of economic organizations. Global market integration provides many opportunities, but also causes externalities prompted by rapid economic and technological progress. In a progressive move, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) established the Committee on Trade and Environment: "to identify the relationship between trade measures and environmental measures in order to promote sustainable development." The Brundtland Report stresses the vital importance of preserving the world's plants, animals, and micro-organisms. The Brundtland Report criticized reckless industrialization, which brought economic growth but had a devastating environmental impact.