Main Navigation

Main Content

News

So, does “sustainable development” now just mean “growth”?

14 September, 2011
sd-growth

FDSD Director Halina Ward joined members of Friends of the Earth’s local group network in a seminar to discuss a worrying watering down of the definition of “sustainable development”. The seminar noted that the problem is becoming especially bad in local planning policy.

The most widely used definition of sustainable development came from the Brundtland Commission in the 1980s. It defined the term to mean: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. But that’s the short version. The full Brundtland definition goes on to emphasise specifically the …

Read More »
Leave a comment

Busy in Bonn: the run-up to Rio+20

3 September, 2011
maritim_hotel_bonn_exterior_bonn_germany-250

Many civil society groups around the world have been working towards a ‘zero draft’ Declaration to be agreed at the annual UN Department of Public Administration conference in Bonn. The Declaration is being used as the basis for negotiations during the run-up to ‘Rio+20’, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. FDSD submitted comments.

The Declaration includes calls for measures to ensure a green economy, an institutional framework for sustainable development, promotion of sustainable lifestyles and measures to ensure civic engagement in sustainable development governance.

 …

Read More »
Leave a comment