The United Nations Environment Programme was first established in 1972, after the United Nation’s Conference on the Human Environment. UNEP’s mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
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- BBC Special: Planet under pressure
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“The ‘environment’ is where we live; and
development is what we all do in attempting
to improve our lot within that abode.
The two are inseparable.”
Our Common Future
Chapter 1: Environment for Development
Main messages
It is 20 years since the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), Our Common Future, emphasized the need for a sustainable way of life which not only addresses current environmental challenges but also ensures a secure society well into the future. This chapter analyses the evolution of such ideas as well as global trends in relation to environment and socioeconomic development. The following are its main messages:
The world has changed radically since 1987 – socially, economically and environmentally. Global population has grown by more than 1.7 billion, from about 5 billion people. The global economy has expanded and is now characterized by increasing globalization. Worldwide, GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) has increased from US$5 927 in 1987 to US$8 162 in 2004. However, growth has been distributed unequally betweenregions. Global trade has increased during the past 20 years, fuelled by globalization, better communication, and low transportation costs. Technology has also changed. Communications have been revolutionized with the growth of telecommunications and the Internet. Worldwide, mobile phone subscribers increased from 2 people per 1 000 in 1990 to 220 per 1 000 in 2003. Internet use increased from 1 person per 1 000 in 1990 to 114 per 1 000 in 2003. Finally, political changes have also been extensive. Human population and economic growth has increased demand on resources.
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) recognized 20 years ago that the environment, economic and social issues are interlinked. It recommended that the three be integrated into development decision making. In defining sustainable development, the Commission acknowledged the need for both intra- and intergenerational equity – development that meets not only today’s human needs but also those of more people in the future.
Changing drivers, such as population growth, economic activities and consumption patterns, have placed increasing pressure on the environment. Serious and persistent barriers to sustainable development remain. In the past 20 years, there has been limited integration of environment into development decision making.
Environmental degradation is therefore undermining development and threatens future development progress. Development is a process that enables people to better their well-being. Long-term development can only be achieved through sustainable management of various assets: financial, material, human, social and natural. Natural assets, including water, soils, plants and animals, underpin people’s livelihoods.
Environmental degradation also threatens all aspects of human wellbeing. Environmental degradation has been demonstrably linked to human health problems, including some types of cancers, vector-borne diseases, emerging animal to human disease transfer, nutritional deficits and respiratory illnesses. The environment provides essential material assets and an economic base for human endeavour. Almost half the jobs worldwide depend on fisheries, forests or agriculture. Non-sustainable use of natural resources, including land, water, forests and fisheries, can threaten individual livelihoods as well as local, national and international economies. The environment can play a significant role in contributing to development and human well-being, but can also increase human vulnerability, causing human migration and insecurity, such as in the case of storms, droughts or environmental mismanagement. Environmental scarcity can foster cooperation, but also contribute to tensions or conflicts.
Environmental sustainability, Millennium Development Goal 7, is critical to the attainment of the other MDG goals. Natural resources are the basis of subsistence in many poor communities. In fact, natural capital accounts for 26 per cent of the wealth of low-income countries. Up to 20 per cent of the total burden of disease in developing countries is associated with environmental risks. Poor women are particularly vulnerable to respiratory infections related to exposure to indoor air pollution. Acute respiratory infections are the leading cause of death in children, with pneumonia killing more children under the age of five than any other illness. A combination of unsafe water and poor sanitation is the world’s second biggest killer of children. About 1.8 million children die annually and about 443 million school days are missed due to diarrhoea. Clean water and air are powerful preventative medicines. Sustainable management of natural resources contributes to poverty alleviation, helps reduce diseases and child mortality, improves maternal health, and can contribute to gender equity and universal education.
Some progress towards sustainable development has been made since 1987 when the WCED report, Our Common Future, was launched. The number of meetings and summits related to the environment and development has increased (for example, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development), and there has been a rapid growth in multilateral environmental agreements (for example, the Kyoto Protocol and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants). Sustainable development strategies have been implemented at local, national, regional and international levels. An increasing number of scientific assessments (for example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have contributed to a greater understanding of environmental challenges. In addition, proven and workable solutions have been identified for environmental problems that are limited in scale, highly visible and acute, (for example, industrial air and water pollution, local soil erosion and vehicle exhaust emission).
However, some international negotiations have stalled over questions of equity and responsibility sharing. Interlinkages between drivers and pressures on the global environment make solutions complex. As a result, action has been limited on some issues, for example, climate change, persistent organic pollutants, fisheries management, invasive alien species and species extinction.
Effective policy responses are needed at all levels of governance. While proven solutions continue to be used, action should also be taken to address both the drivers of change and environmental problems themselves. A variety of tools that have emerged over the past 20 years may be strategic. Economic instruments, such as property rights, market creation, bonds and deposits, can help correct market failures and internalize costs of protecting the environment. Valuation techniques can be used to understand the value of ecosystem services. Scenarios can provide insights on the future impacts of policy decisions. Capacity building and education are critical to generate knowledge and inform the decision making process.
Society has the capacity to make a difference in the way the environment is used to underpin development and human well-being. The following chapters highlight many of the challenges society faces today and provides signposts towards sustainable development.
Introduction
Imagine a world in which environmental change threatens people’s health, physical security, material needs and social cohesion. This is a world beset by increasingly intense and frequent storms, and by rising sea levels. Some people experience extensive flooding, while others endure intense droughts. Species extinction occurs at rates never before witnessed. Safe water is increasingly limited, hindering economic activity. Land degradation endangers the lives of millions of people.
Gro Harlem Brundtland introduces to the General Assembly, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, which she chaired. The work of the Brundtland Commission challenged policy-makers to consider the interrelationships among environment, economic and social issues in efforts to solve global problems. (Credit: UN Photo/Milton Grant)
This is the world today. Yet, as the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) concluded 20 years ago “humanity has the ability to make development sustainable.” The fourth Global Environment Outlook highlights imperative steps needed to achieve this vision.
The fourth GEO assesses the current state of the world’s atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity, providing a description of the state of environment, and demonstrating that the environment is essential for improving and sustaining human well-being. It also shows that environmental degradation is diminishing the potential for sustainable development. Policies for action are highlighted to facilitate alternative development paths.
This chapter examines developments since the landmark 1987 Brundtland Commission report – Our Common Future – placed sustainable development much higher on the international policy agenda. It examines institutional developments and changes in thought since the mid-1980s, and explores the relationships involving environment, development and human well-being, reviews major environmental, social and economic trends, and their impacts on environment and human well-being, and provides options to help achieve sustainable development.
Subsequent chapters will analyse of environmental changes in the atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity, both at global and regional levels, and will highlight human vulnerability and strategic policy interlinkages for effective responses. Positive developments since 1987 are described. These include progress towards meeting the goals of the Montreal Protocol, and the reduction in emissions of chemicals that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer. Yet, the chapters also highlight current environmental trends that threaten human well-being:
- In some cases, climate change is having severe effects on human health, food production, security and resource availability.
- Extreme weather conditions are having an increasingly large impact on vulnerable human communities, particularly the world’s poor.
- Both indoor and outdoor pollution is still causing many premature deaths.
- Land degradation is decreasing agricultural productivity, resulting in lower incomes and reduced food security.
- Decreasing supplies of safe water are jeopardizing human health and economic activity.
- Drastic reductions of fish stocks are creating both economic losses and a loss of food supply.
- Accelerating species extinction rates are threatening the loss of unique genetic pools, possible sources for future medical and agricultural advances.
Choices made today will determine how these threats will unfold in the future. Reversing such adverse environmental trends will be an immense challenge. Ecosystem services collapse is a distinct possibility if action is not taken. Finding solutions to these problems today is therefore urgent.
This chapter provides a message for action today: The Earth is our only home. Its well-being, and our own, is imperilled. To ensure long-term wellbeing, we must take an alternative approach to development, one that acknowledges the importance of environment.