ABSTRACT
The idea of the Earth Charter originated through the United Nations when the World Commission on Environment and Development called for a means of guiding the transition to sustainable development. An attempt to secure endorsement in 2002 at the UN's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg failed, and formal recognition by the UN has still not happened. Given the recent creation of the Sustainable Development Goals, which are similar to but not the same as the goals of the Earth Charter. It glosses over the awkward fact that such social progress is often the result of trade-offs between interests and preferences, and it perpetuates the myth that there will only be winners from the sustainable development process. We wonder whether it will take as long for the values embodied in the Earth Charter to become accepted, or whether they will ever be, because of the contradictions they embody and the assumptions the Charter makes about the perfectibility of humanity.
