ABSTRACT
As the twenty-first century unfolds, the challenge of generating global governance to support sustainability has. become ever more acute. The precarious state of so many ecosystems and communities around the world, and the interconnections among them, have now become a well-recognised reality for many who were once sceptical of the urgency and integrated nature of the threat. In the developed world, it is becoming routine for the leading countries to embark on trade liberalisation only after environmental and social consequences have been assessed and taken into account. In the developing world, a succession of financial crises in an era of rapid globalisation has demonstrated that poor people can have their life chances - and the economic, ecological, and social resources on which they depend for survival - destroyed in a single stroke. Among interested citizens throughout the world, there is a growing consensus that further trade and financial liberalisation must take place only if it protects and promotes ecological and social values as well. The leaders of the world's most powerful countries, meeting at their G8 summits from Cologne in 1999 to Evian in 2003, have recognised and reinforced the call. While a rich debate flourishes about just how best to make the difficult choices required to integrate equitably economic, environmental, and social values, all agree that such hard choices must be made.
