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(Brundtland Commission)
WorldCommission on Environment and Development
COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF BHUTAN
RINCHENDING
BHUTAN
Compiled and presented by:
Roma Adhikari 0214609

Overview
 Introduction
 History
 Focus of the organization
 Environmental problems
 Our common future
 Scope of sustainable development
 Elements of sustainable development
 Solutions to the problems
 Reference

INTRODUCTION
 Formally known as the World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCED), the mission of Brundtland Commission was to unite countries
to pursue sustainable development together and was therefore established in1983.
 The UN general assembly realized that there was a heavy deterioration of the human
environment and natural resources. To rally countries to work and pursue sustainable
development together, the UN decided to establish the Brundtland commission.
 The Chairperson of the Commission was Gro Harlem Brundtland.
 The Brundtland Commission officially dissolved in December 1987 after releasing Our
Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, in October 1987, a document
which coined, and defined the meaning of the term "Sustainable Development".

HISTORY
 Ten years after the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, most of the
global environmental challenges had clearly not been adequately addressed. In several ways,
these challenges had grown.
 The 1980 World Conservation Strategy of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature, was the first report that included a very brief chapter on a concept called "sustainable
development". It focused on global structural changes and was not widely read. The UN
initiated an independent commission, which was asked to provide an analysis of existing
problems and ideas for their solution, similar to earlier commissions such as the Independent
Commission on International Development Issues (Brandt Commission) and the Independent
Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues.

 In December 1983, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, asked the Prime
Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, to create an organization
independent of the UN to focus on environmental and developmental problems
and solutions after an affirmation by the General Assembly resolution in the fall of
1984.This new organization was the Brundtland Commission.
 The organization aimed to create a united international community with
shared sustainability goals by identifying sustainability problems worldwide,
raising awareness about them, and suggesting the implementation of
solutions.
 In 1987, the Brundtland Commission published the first volume of “Our
Common Future,” the organization’s main report. “Our Common Future”
strongly influenced the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 and
the third UN Conference on Environment and Development in Johannesburg,
South Africa, in 2002. Also, it is credited with crafting the most prevalent
definition of sustainability.

FOCUS OF THE ORGANIZATION
(a) To propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development to the year 2000
and beyond;
(b) To recommend ways in which concern for the environment may be translated into greater co-operation
among developing countries and between countries at different stages of economic and social
development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives which
take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment and development;
(c) To consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with
environmental concerns, in the light of the other recommendations in its report.
(d) To help to define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and of the appropriate efforts
needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment, a
long-term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world
community, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the session of a special character of
the Governing Council in 1982.
The 1983 General Assembly passed Resolution 38/161 "Process of preparation of the Environmental
Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond", establishing the Commission, in the General Assembly:
Suggesting that the Special Commission, when established, should focus mainly on the following terms
of reference for its work:

The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to:
1.“ re-examine the critical issues of environment and development and to formulate innovative,
concrete, and realistic action proposals to deal with them;
2.strengthen international cooperation on environment and development and to assess and propose new
forms of cooperation that can break out of existing patterns and influence policies and events in the
direction of needed change; and
3.raise the level of understanding and commitment to action on the part of individuals, voluntary
organizations, businesses, institutes, and governments” (1987: 347). “The Commission focused its
attention in the areas of population, food security, the loss of species and genetic resources, energy,
industry, and human settlements - realizing that all of these are connected and cannot be treated in
isolation one from another”

OUR COMMON FUTURE
 “ sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.’’
-Brundtland report, 1987
 The Brundtland Report was published 27 in October
1989.
 Described sustainability as a three-legged stool with
social, environment and economy taking equal
importance in the equation.
 It has been successful in forming international ties
between governments and multinational corporations.

CONTENTS OF OUR COMMON FUTURE
Part I. Common Concerns
1. A Threatened Future
I. Symptoms and Causes
II. New Approaches to Environment and Development
2.Towards Sustainable Development
I. The Concept of Sustainable Development
II. Equity and the Common Interest
III. Strategic Imperatives
IV. Conclusion
3.The Role of the International Economy
I. The International Economy, the Environment, and Development
II. Decline in the 1980s
III. Enabling Sustainable Development
IV. A Sustainable World Economy

Part II. Common Challenges
4.Population and Human Resources
I. The Links with Environment and Development
II. The Population Perspective
III. A Policy Framework
5.Food Security: Sustaining the Potential
I. Achievements
II. Signs of Crisis
III. The Challenge
IV. Strategies for Sustainable Food Security
V. Food for the Future
6.Species and Ecosystems: Resources for Development
I. The Problem: Character and Extent
II. Extinction Patterns and Trends
III. Some Causes of Extinction

IV. Economic Values at Stake
V. New Approach: Anticipate and Prevent
VI. International Action for National Species
VII. Scope for National Action
VIII. The Need for Action
7.Energy: Choices for Environment and Development
I. Energy, Economy, and Environment
II. Fossil Fuels: The Continuing Dilemma
III. Nuclear Energy: Unsolved Problems
IV. Wood Fuels: The Vanishing Resource
V. Renewable Energy: The Untapped Potential
VI. Energy Efficiency: Maintaining the Momentum
VII. Energy Conservation Measures
VIII.Conclusion

8.Industry: Producing More With Less
I. Industrial Growth and its Impact
II. Sustainable Industrial Development in a Global Context
III. Strategies for Sustainable Industrial Development
9.The Urban Challenge
I. The Growth of Cities
II. The Urban Challenge in Developing Countries
III. International Cooperation

Part III. Common Endeavors
10.Managing The Commons
I.Oceans: The Balance of Life
II.Space: A Key to Planetary Management
III.Antarctica: Towards Global Cooperation
11.Peace, Security, Development, and the Environment
I.Environmental Stress as a Source of Conflict
II.Conflict as a Cause of Unsustainable Development
III.Towards Security and Sustainable Development
12.Towards Common Action: Proposals For Institutional and Legal Change
I.The Challenge for Institutional and Legal Change
II.Proposals for Institutional and Legal Change
III.A Call for Action

 The report led the production of Agenda 21, an action plan of the UN with regard to
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
 Agenda 21entailed actions to be taken globally, nationally, and locally in order to make life on
Earth more sustainable

SCOPE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONMENT
We should conserve and enhance our resource base, by gradually changing the ways in which we
develop and use technologies. We should have the primary motive of protection of environment.
SOCIAL EQUITY
Developing nations must be allowed to meet their basic needs of employment, food, energy, water and
sanitation. If this is to be done in a sustainable manner, then there is a definite need for a sustainable
level of population.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Economic growth should be revived and developing nations should be allowed a growth of equal
quality to the developed nations.

ELEMENTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
 Political
 Economic
 Institutional
 Technological
 Socio-cultural
 Ecological

ECONOMIC
 Maintaining a sustainable population.
 Maintaining productivity and profitability of environment and
natural resources.
ECOLOGICAL
 Adopting environmental management methods in policy and
decision making.
 Protecting the environment and conserving natural resources.

TECHNOLOGICAL
 Promoting proper management of wastes and residuals.
 Adopting environment-friendly technologies.
 Not having technological development at the cost of envirnoment,.
POLITICAL
 Empowering the people.
 Maintaining peace and order.
 Maintaining world peace through various organizations.

SOCIO-CULTURE
 Promoting resource access and upholding property rights.
 Promoting environmental awareness, inculcating environment ethics
and supporting environment management action.
INSTITUTIONAL
 Improving institutional capacity/ capability to manage sustainable
development.
 Teaching youth about the importance of sustainable development.

REFERENCE
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brundtland_Commission
Retrieved from /SrutiSudhaMohanty/sd-47839277
Retrieved from /KuriakoseTD/brundtland-report-78584063?qid=26d73ae0-
18a2-466a-9991-971b6b25a2af

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Brundtland commission

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