ABSTRACT
Gro Harlem Brundtland was Norway's prime minister for three periods between 1981 and 1996. In 1983, she was invited by the United Nations to chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). In time, this became known as the Brundtland Commission. Its report, Our Common Future, developed the idea of sustainable development, which in turn became a key focus of the 1992 Earth Summit, and the action plan that was developed from this, Agenda 21. The implication of having sustainable development as a policy goal is that there needs to be a focus on human wellbeing and on a well-functioning biosphere in order to make widespread and enduring human fulfilment a possibility. Happily for the global economy, this is unlikely to catch on, especially among the emerging wealthy middle classes in so-called developing countries. All this implies that sustainable development has to take wants into account if it is to be taken seriously.
