ABSTRACT
Sustainable development was first explicitly discussed in the context of the UN Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972. The idea of sustainable development was then elaborated at a series of international reports and meetings over succeeding decades, from the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Our Common Future , Brundtland 1987) to the World Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 and the Sustainable Development Summit, held in New York in September 2015. This chapter describes the evolution of thinking through these decades, analysing what was attempted and what was achieved at each. Throughout, achievements fell short of expectations, although there was some progress in establishing agreed agendas for what issues demanded global attention (for example, climate change or poverty), in establishing shared approaches to these problems, and in opening up intergovernmental debate about the need for action. Gradually, sustainable development moved to the centre of global policy-making and to the idea that problems of development (of poverty and human welfare), and of environment, were linked and had to be addressed together – even if serious constraints on action persisted and progress in addressing them was disappointing.
