Cambio Climático

This article was published in the April 2005 issue of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Volume 47, Number 3, pages 8–21. © Robert W. Kates, Thomas M. Parris, and Anthony A. Leiserowitz, 2005. For more information about Environment, see http://www.heldref.org/env.php

WHAT IS
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT?
GOALS, INDICATORS, VALUES, AND PRACTICE
By Robert W. Kates,Thomas M. Parris, and Anthony A. Leiserowitz

Sustainable development is . . . Considering that the concept of sustainable development is now enshrined on the masthead of Environment magazine, featured on 8,720,000 Web pages,1 and enmeshed in the aspirations of countless programs, places, and institutions, it should be easy to complete the sentence. 2 But the most widely accepted definition iscreatively ambiguous: “Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations

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to meet their own needs.”3 This malleability allows programs of environment or development; places from local to global; and institutions of government, civil society, business, and industry to each project their interests, hopes, and aspirationsonto the banner of sustainable development. A brief history of the concept, along with the interpretive differences and the common ground in definitions, goals, indicators, values, and practice follows. Taken together, these help explain what is meant by sustainable development.

Antecedents
In the last half of the twentieth century, four key themes emerged from the collective concerns andaspirations of the world’s peoples: peace, freedom, development, and environment.4 The peace that was thought to be secured in the postwar world of 1945 was immediately threatened by the nuclear arms race. Throughout the Cold War, peace was sustained globally but fought locally, often by proxies for the superpowers. While the number of wars has diminished over the last decade,5 peace is still sought,primarily in Africa and the Middle East. Freedom was sought early in the postwar world in the struggle to end imperialism; to halt totalitarian oppression; and later to extend democratic governance, human rights, and the rights of women, indigenous peoples, and minorities. The success of many former colonies in attaining national independence was followed by a focus on economic development toprovide basic necessities for the poorest two-thirds of the world and higher standards of living for the wealthy third. Finally, it is only in the past 40 years that the environment (local to global) became a key focus of national and international law and institutions. Although reinterpreted over time, peace, freedom, development, and the environment remain prominent issues and aspirations. In the1970s and 1980s, world commissions of notables6 were created to study such international concerns, producing major documents that

were often followed by global conferences. Characteristic of these international commissions was the effort to link together the aspirations of humankind—demonstrating how the pursuit of one great value required the others. Sustainable development, with its dualemphasis on the most recent concerns— development and environment—is typical of such efforts. The World Commission on Environment and Development was initiated by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1982, and its report, Our Common Future, was published in 1987.7 It was chaired by then–Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, thus earning the name the “Brundtland Commission.” The...