Focus On . . .SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Problem: Earth's growing population is consuming resources faster than they can be replenished.
The Solution: Develop and grow using technologies that do not destroy the planet.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Websites
Recommended by the Editors of EcoISP.com
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This best known definition of sustainable development was published 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development in its report "Our Common Future."
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, who popularized the term sustainable development, with children in Soweto, South Africa (Photo courtesy World Health Organization)
Chaired by director general of the World Health Organization, physician Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was then Prime Minister of Norway, the Commission stated basic ideas such as that, "All human beings have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and well-being," and, "States shall conserve and use the environment and natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations."
The Brundtland Commission's recommendations led to the 1992 Earth Summit - the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 1992 Earth Summit also grew out of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. That meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, was the first major modern international gathering on human activities in relationship to the environment. The conference produced a set of principles, the Stockholm Declaration, and led to the founding of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP has regional offices around the world and administers treaties on hazardous wastes, ozone depletion, endangered species, migratory species, and biological diversity. For a complete set of links to these treaties and all UNEP activities visit: The Site Locator/
In June 1992, thousands of delegates and representatives of 178 governments gathered in Rio for the Earth Summit. To meet the challenges of environment and development, nations decided to establish a new global partnership. They agreed to a plan of action for the 21st century known as Agenda 21 the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests.
UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, shown here in Johannesburg, is a former German environment minister. (Photo courtesy IISD/ENB-Leila Mead)
Agenda 21 put sustainable development front and center as a priority item on the agenda of the international community. Developed countries, which had benefited from a wasteful and hazardous path of modernization, would help developing countries combat poverty and avoid that same polluting path. In adopting Agenda 21, rich and poor seemed to have agreed on common vision for growth, equity and conservation.
To see a broad selection of agreements and treaties the grew out of the Rio Earth Summit as well as plenty of other sustainable development initiatives log on to the Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
"Business as usual is no longer an option - for government, the private sector or individual citizens. Our soils, waters, forests and minerals are not inexhaustible. Farms, industries, homes and lifestyles must become more sustainable in every community on our planet. To be sustainable, development must improve economic efficiency, protect and restore ecological systems, and enhance the well-being of all peoples." -- International Institute for Sustainable Development
In the run-up to the Rio Earth Summit, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) was established in 1990 in Winnipeg, Manitoba with funding from the government of Canada.
IISD publishes "Linkages," a neutral, authoritative and technical record of ongoing multilateral negotiations on environment and sustainable development. Funded by governments, UN agencies and one private company, BP, Linkages offers news, information and analysis of high level talks leading to binding international treaties. Once the treaties are in place, "Linkages" covers the continuing talks to implement them.
IISD maintains an extensive sustainable development library and database, a gateway to basic understanding, and hosts networks such as Sustainable Development Communications Network, a group of civil society organizations.
Out of the Rio Earth Summit, grew the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of the summit, to monitor and report on implementation of the agreements at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Nitin Desai of India served as Secretary-General of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He is UN Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (Photo courtesy IISD/ENB-Leila Mead)
The Commission on Sustainable Development served as the central organizing body for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa August 26 through September 4, 2002.
Some 37,000 delegates and 103 heads of state and government attended the official summit and the parallel events convened by nongovernmental organizations and businesses. South Africa's Host Country website offers a detailed overview of the summit with pictures and videos, and includes some sustainable development success stories.
By hosting the summit, the City of Johannesburg has become more aware of sustainability and is working towards providing clean air and water, and sufficient energy for all. "Hosting the Summit has been a wonderful experience for us and we have learned valuable lessons in relation to operations, logistics and content issues around sustainable development."
-- Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo
The Global People's Forum at the summit was a wide ranging group of nongovernmental organizations who held workshops and debated issues of sustainable development in parallel events. The Global People's Forum published a Programme of Action, "A Sustainable World is Possible," calling for access to land for all landless peoples, promotion of organic farming, and a ban on genetically modified organisms. The Forum called for democratic participation of local communities, women and indigenous people in decision making over ecosystem management.
"Human rights, environmental security and justice should be the root of all political, economic and environmental agreements and interventions."
-- Global People's Forum Programme of Action
Water and Sanitation
Fact: One billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and an estimated 6,000 children die each day from the lack of clean drinking water and sanitation.
Some 40 percent of the world's population faces water shortages, and access to fresh water was a major issue at the Johannesburg summit. In Johannesburg, The WaterDome, organized by the African Water Task Force, was the focus of action for fresh water initiatives. Filled with exhibits, workshops and discussion groups, the WaterDome was opened on August 28 with a speech by former South African President Nelson Mandela who called himself a "totally committed "water person."
On the closing day, September 3, Professor Albert Wright, chair of the African Water Task Force, counted US$200 million in new pledges for water initiatives such as The African Water Facility, a funding organization launched by the African Water Task Force, and the West Africa Water Initiative of the United States.
Money is the tool that can bring fresh water and sanitation to the hundreds of millions who need them. The Water in African Cities initiative was launched by UN-HABITAT at the WaterDome, and a letter of intent was signed in Johannesburg August 31 between UN-HABITAT and the Asian Development Bank that commits the bank to providing $5 million in grant and $500 million in fast track credit to UN-HABITAT's Water for Asian Cities Programme.
River Brathay, Cumbria, UK (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy Freefoto)
Water shortages affect the developed countries as well as the developing world. The conservation organization WWF warns that Europe's largest water reservoir is at risk. Climate change is contributing to the drastic reduction of Alpine glaciers, which in turn is leading to more water draining from the water reservoir of the Alps. Find out more at the WWF's Living Waters Programme - Europe
Fact: Global water use has increased six-fold over the last century, twice the rate of population growth, and agriculture represents 70 percent of this consumption.
Next year, 2003, is the United Nations Year of Freshwater. The Year will be used to promote existing activities and spearhead new initiatives in water resources at the international, regional and national levels. The International Year of Freshwater is expected to follow up on agreements reached at the Johannesburg Summit.
The efforts of the World Health Organization to improve the health of the world's 6.2 billion people are linked directly to clean water and sanitation issues. The WHO Water and Sanitation website offers a wealth of information about drinking water quality, arsenic in drinking water, healthcare waste, among other issues.
In Johannesburg, WHO Director General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland introduced a new initiative to address environmental problems affected the health of children.
Fact: Almost one-third of the global burden of disease can be attributed to environmental risk factors. Over 40 percent of this burden falls on children under five years of age, even though they make up only about 10 percent of the world's population.
Sustainable Consumption
"It's not just about us being a bit more generous to the developing world, it's about us realizing that we have a pattern of life that uses up far more than our fair share of the world's natural resources. One of the NGOs was recently calculating that if the developing world does reach the quality of life that we have in America or Europe, the amount of natural resources that would be needed for that is about twice what the Earth has."
-- UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher
Criticized for inaction at the Johannesburg Summit, partly because President George W. Bush did not attend, the United States government says it is active in promoting sustainable development. Read the remarks of Secretary of State Colin Powell in Johannesburg. At the request of the White House, USAID conducted the first-ever comprehensive survey of sustainable development activities by U.S. agencies and departments. Findings revealed that over 20 agencies are involved in development assistance efforts. More that 400 initiatives were identified and entered into a searchable database and a comprehensive compendium. These findings were summarized in the USAID report "Working for a Sustainable World: U.S. Government Initiatives to Promote Sustainable Development." See the U.S. Global Change Research Information Office for selected key documents and reports generated or sponsored by the U.S. federal agencies.
The World Resources Institute is a Washington, DC based environmental research organization that publishes useful books and reports such as "A Guide to World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth: Balance, voice, and power." This guide, published in cooperation with UN agencies and the World Bank, summarizes the findings and key messages of a report due in February 2003. Covering the importance of good environmental governance, it explores how citizens, government managers, and business owners can foster better environmental decisions that meet the needs of both ecosystems and people with equity and balance.
Statistics on the number of tons of oil spilled each year from incidents at sea are available from the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation.
An oil tanker aground on Australia's Great Barrier Reef off Cape York. (Photo courtesy Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority)
The Earth Policy Institute is a Washington, DC based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a vision of what makes up an ednvironmentally sustainable economy. Its new "Earth Policy Reader" is due out October 7.
Sustainable Production and Consumption links can be found at the University of Colorado's Communications for a Sustainable Future website.
In Johannesburg, nongovernmental organizations took part in a parallel event, the World Sustainability Hearing, a project of the San Francisco based NGO Earth Island Institute. The Hearing took testimony from over 100 grassroots witnesses and expert panelists from over 40 countries. Their Draft Findings released September 9, states, "The UN process on sustainable development since Rio 1992 has been overwhelmed by the influence of large corporations, and the free trade agenda of the WTO, IMF and World Bank. These institutions have implemented detailed, enforceable means of expanding free trade and large investment projects that favor transnationals rather than local people. The UN urgently needs to implement enforceable agreements assuring human rights, environmental and resource protection, and corporate accountability."
The UK's International Institute for Environment and Development is an independent, nonprofit organization promoting sustainable patterns of world development through collaborative research, policy studies, and networking. See IIED's Sustainable Markets Group which addresses globalization and sustainable development, corporate responsibility and the impact of business on environment and development.
"Over the past 12 months, the average sustainability performance of companies has improved signficantly. The integration of economic, environmental and social issues is moving up the business agenda in all sectors."
Dow Jones Sustainability Index, September 4, 2002
Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the first global indexes tracking the financial performance of "sustainability-driven companies."
The World Business Council on Sustainable Development and Greenpeace put aside their differences at the Johannesburg Summit to declare that business and the environmental community are united in demanding that governments to come together around one global framework to deal with the risks of climate change. Both organizations jointly stated their support for the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change which limits the emissions of six greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Business Action for Sustainable Development organized numerous events in Johannesburg to ensure that the global business community made a productive contribution to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
"One of the successes of this summit is in demonstrating the power of partnerships. In business we see the development of global partnerships with others to define standards in different sectors of industry - such as the Global Mining Initiative, Responsible Care in the chemical industry, the Sustainable Forest Initiative, sustainable fisheries, partnerships on agriculture and health or on biodiversity. Such partnerships, together with initiative such as the Global Reporting Initiative, create the standards against which international business will be judged."
-- Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of Business Action for Sustainable Development
The Global Reporting Initiative, an international sustainability reporting institution, was formally inaugurated at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on April 4, 2002. The GRI was convened in 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme. Companies using the voluntary Global Reporting Initiative guidelines are listed here.
"As a priority the United States and European Union must ensure that growth is socially and environmentally sustainable."
-- AFL-CIO president John Sweeney
President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki presided over the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Photo courtesy IISD/ENB)
The Global Leaders for Tomorrow Environment Task Force of the World Economic Forum has developed The Environmental Sustainability Index. Created in January 2002, it is a measure of overall progress towards environmental sustainability, developed for 142 countries based on a set of 20 core indicators.
The Earth Council based in San Jose, Costa Rica was created at the Rio Earth Summit and has developed an Earth Charter: A Declaration of Interdependence, which recognizes that "humanity's environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical and spiritual aspirations are all interconnected." See the National Councils for Sustainable Development on the Earth Council website. See satellite linked Earth Charter Community Summits planned for September 28 in 20 U.S. cities.
See Sustainable Business for information on socially responsible investing, green jobs, and green purchasing.
The GreenBiz website offers resource tools for businesses that are interested in sustainability, renewable energy, climate change, and it offers an extensive list of companies that are making efforts towards sustainability.
The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment and enhance the quality of life.
GreenPeople lists more than 3,000 sources for organic food, pet supplies, baby products, beauty products, home improvement, hemp, organic cotton, health products, and recycled products.
Across Europe 134 member organizations in 25 countries are linked in a nonprofit coalition, the European Environmental Bureau.
Population
The human family now numbers more than 6.25 billion people, and it is growing every second. Watch the numbers mount at the World Game Institute which also clocks energy production and lightning strikes.
A six billion population exhibit from the Musée de l'Homme Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France features a World Population Clock which shows how the population increases. Every second five people are born and two people die, a net gain of three people.
The Minnesota State UniversityEMuseum offers current population statistics on a country-by-country basis.
The carrying capacity of the planet Earth determines how many people can live sustainably with enough of life's necessities to supply their needs without destroying the lives of others - human, animal and plant. Brain Food has a wide variety of information sources on Earth's carrying capacity. Read an article by Professor William Rees at the University of British Columbia, "Revisiting Carrying Capacity: Area-Based Indicators of Sustainability," and examine the Ecological Footprints of Nations which compares the ecological impact of 52 large nations, inhabited by 80 percent of the world population.
In 2001, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a nongovernmental research organization located in Austria, together with the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and the United Nations University started a joint initiative to prepare a comprehensive scientific assessment of the role of population in sustainable development strategies, the Global Science Panel on Population & Environment. View the report the panel released at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Population, poverty and pollution are linked in a complex web of interactions, says The United Nations Population Fund. The agency, which is working towards universal access to comprehensive reproductive health services for all by 2015, produced a series of Fact Sheets for the summit on subjects such as the role of women, health, poverty, energy, water, and food.
Family planning for sustainability is the focus of www.PLANetWIRE.org a source of information about reproductive health rights and services, maternal and child health, equality in education, women's empowerment, youth participation and a healthy environment. Their list of briefing papers and fact sheets on population is available here.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the country's current population and offers projection figures.
The Population Connection offers 239 Good Ideas from 239 Cities to make urban areas friendlier for children.
Food and Agriculture
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has an extensive sustainable development section of its large website which features capacity building resources, curriculum development, and covers biological diversity of crops and domestic animals and biotechnology in food and agricultre.
Woman in Hyderabad, India sifting rice (Photo G. Bizzari courtesy FAO)
Created in 1971, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is an association of public and private members supporting a system of 16 Future Harvest Centers that work in more than 100 countries to mobilize cutting edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. CGIAR supports the genetic modification of food crops, and at the same time sees its work as contributing to sustainable development.
In the UK, London Organic Food offers information to shop for organic food, whole foods and health foods. It is the only site on the web that lists all the organic suppliers in London recommended by the Soil Association.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a U.S. nonprofit organization that devotes a portion of its website to organic foods, Eating What Comes Naturally.
The purpose of organic certification is to ensure that the agreed upon conventions of organic agricultural systems are being practiced not only by growers, but also by all the people who handle and process organic food on its journey to the final consumer. Oregon Tilth is a non-profit research and education organization certifying organic farmers, processors, retailers and handlers throughout Oregon, the United States, and internationally.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates organic food standards. The rules are published on the USDA Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. Those who grow or market organic products must comply with the rule by October 21, 2002. Sustainable Fisheries
See the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union - CAW Sustainable Fisheries website for the viewpoint of the Canadian fish workers union on sustainability.
The Sustainable Fisheries Foundation is a U.S./Canada grassroots organization that seeks to build consensus recommendations to support the conservation and recovery of Pacific salmon and steelhead populations.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a website on building sustainable fisheries.
Forests
TheForest Stewardship Council based in Oxaca, Mexico offers an international labeling scheme for forest products. It aims to provide a credible guarantee that the product comes from a well-managed forest. All forest products carrying the FSC logo have been independently certified as coming from forests that meet the internationally recognized FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. The council is a diverse group of representatives from environmental and social groups, the timber trade and the forestry profession, indigenous people's organizations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organizations from around the world.
"Industrial plantations are a threat to forest biodiversity, to the livelihoods of indigenous and other peoples who depend on forests. They are no substitute for the ecosystem services of real forests."
-- World Sustainability Hearing
A voluntary private sector initiative, The Pan European Forest Certification Council was launched in Paris in June 1999. It provides assurance to the customers of woodland owners that the products they buy come from independently certified forests managed according to the Pan European Criteria as defined by the resolutions of the Helsinki and Lisbon Ministerial Conferences of 1993 and 1998 on the Protection of Forests in Europe.
Sustainable Energy
Two billion of the world's poorest people have no access to electricity. Still, fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - are not considered to be sustainable fuels because it has taken millions of years for them to be formed deep inside the Earth, and when they are burned, they are gone.
Electric power plants that burn fossil fuels emit several pollutants linked to the environmental problems of acid rain, urban ozone, and the possibility of global climate change.
A 50-kW photovoltaic solar array, a large battery bank, and an electronic controller and power processor have been added to the diesel station in the village of Campinas, state of Amazonas, Brazil. (Photo by Roger Taylor courtesy NREL)
Renewable sources of energy are those that are not used up by the generation of that energy and do not pollute or contribute to global warming - wind power, solar power and geothermal power are some examples of renewable energy.
The American Wind Energy Association is a national trade association that represents wind power plant developers, wind turbine manufacturers, utilities, consultants, insurers, financiers, researchers, and others involved in the wind industry - one of the world's fastest growing energy industries. In addition, AWEA represents hundreds of wind energy advocates from around the world.
The installed wind energy capacity in Europe has increased by about 40 percent per year in the past six years according to the European Wind Energy Association. Today wind energy projects across Europe produce enough electricity to meet the domestic needs of five million people. The wind energy industry has set a goal for 60,000 MW of wind energy capacity to be installed by 2010, which would provide electricity of about 75 million people.
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab is developing new energy technologies to benefit both the environment and the economy. According to data collected by NREL, in the past 25 years the cost of wind energy has declined from 40¢ per kilowatt-hour to less than 5¢. The cost of electricity from photovoltaics has dropped from more than $1/kilowatt-hour in 1980 to nearly 20¢/kilowatt-hour today. And ethanol costs have plummeted from $4 per gallon in the early 1980s to $1.20 today.
Explore sustainable energy options on the U.S. Energy Department's Smart Communities Network.
The American Solar Energy Society is a national organization that advances the use of solar energy for the benefit of U.S. citizens and the global environment. The nonprofit organization sponsors the annual National Tour of Solar Buildings which this year takes place on October 5.
Natural Disasters
"Through improved data collection and management of our oceans and atmosphere we have been able to make significant strides in improving seasonal forecasts of the impacts of climatic events such as El Niño. The products resulting from these observations will provide key data on climate related events that can lead to drought or flooding. Such information is essential to sustainable development throughout the world for both developed and developing countries." -- Retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., U.S. undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the Johannesburg Summit.
Satellite image of Tropical Storm Iselle off the coast of Mexico. September 16, 2002. (Image courtesy NOAA)
NOAA's operational environmental satellite system is composed of geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) for short range warning and "nowcasting," and polar orbiting environmental satellites (POES) for longer term forecasting.
Within the United Nations, the Geneva based World Meteorological Organization provides the authoritative scientific voice on the state and behavior of the Earth's atmosphere and climate. There are 185 members, comprising 179 Member States and six Member Territories, all of which maintain their own meteorological and hydrological services.
For a wealth of information on natural hazards, resources, the environment visit the U.S. Geological Survey which employs 10,000 scientists, technicians and support staff in every state and in several foreign countries and utilizes a budget of more than $1 billion dollars a year to provide the science needed to reduce the loss of life and property natural disasters can cause.
Biological Diversity
"Biological diversity - or biodiversity - is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend." -- Secretariat, Convention on Biological Diversity
So far, about 1.75 million species have been identified, mostly small creatures such as insects. Scientists reckon that there are actually about 13 million species, though estimates range from three to 100 million, according to the Secretariat of an international treaty known as the Convention on Biological Diversity, one of the key agreements adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Secretariat showcased the newly protected Panama Atlantic Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. This project covers three million hectares of terrestrial and marine areas corresponding to 39.7 percent of the national territory in the Atlantic slopes of the Isthmus of Panama.
Jaguar in French Guyana (Photo by Roger LeGuen courtesy Ramsar)
Human development usually means habitat destruction for other species. One in four mammal species and one in eight bird species face a high risk of extinction in the near future, most due to human activities. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species names a total of 11,046 species of plants and animals that face extinction. This searchable database, compiled by thousands of scientists around the world, is published every four years by IUCN-World Conservation Union.
Thousands of nongovernmental organizations in all countries of the world work towards conserving the biodiversity of species. A Washington, DC based environmental organization Conservation International has taken on the mission to "conserve the Earth's living natural heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature."
The largest U.S. environmental group is the National Wildlife Federation which works to preserve endangered species and also to combat "the growing menace of climate change, which threatens wildlife and people everywhere."
People can talk to environmental groups across the wide spectrum of involvement by joining an online discussion group. Find out more at: Usenet Environmental News Groups. This is part of the Environmental Information Resources website provided by The George Washington University Institute for the Environment conducted in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The village of Uma Bawang, Malaysia has been chosen from a pool of 420 communities worldwide to receive the 2002 Equator Prize at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Uma Bawang, an indigenous village located on the island of Borneo, is one of seven communities to win the 2002 Equator Prize for outstanding efforts to reduce poverty and sustainably manage biodiversity. The Equator Initiative, launched on January 30, 2002, focuses on the region between 23.5 degrees north and south of the Equator, an area that contains both the world's greatest concentrations of human poverty and biological wealth. The Equator Prize finalists are profiled here.
Curious about the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development? Read the outcome documents - the Plan of Implementation and the Political Declaration - courtesy of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin's summit portal.
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