Since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, the concept of sustainable development has been the focus of major international debates and reports on the environment and development.
In the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development was defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Across the globe, sustainable development has become a household word since the 1990’s, linked to concern for the quality of the environment. The term succinctly captures the current global dilemma of how growth may be advanced while safeguarding environmental resources.
Support for sustainable development has also occurred in developing countries, the latter including small island developing states, as exemplified at the 1994 Global Conference on Small Island Developing States and the follow up Caribbean Conference in 1997, both of which were convened in Barbados. |
