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Thirty years ago, a number of
high-ranking political and economic decision-makers set up a small,
informal group which they decided to call the Club of Rome.
Headed by Sicco Mansholt, who had just completed a notable term
of office as European Agriculture Commissioner, the newly formed
Club published a report, the title of which sparked immediate
controversy: An end to growth. The message was certainly
Utopian, in many ways impractical and was severely criticised by
its many opponents at the time. Over the intervening years as the
global economy has developed at breakneck speed this somewhat naive
slogan has become a thing of the past.
Yet the furore over this Mansholt Report proved
to be extremely useful. For the first time, threats to the global
environment become a matter of public debate. Policy-makers and
public opinion started to become aware of the problem, giving rise
to an increasing research effort by the scientific community as
a whole.
In 1987, on the instructions of the United Nations, the World Commission
on Environment and Development, headed by Norwegian Prime Minister
Gro Bruntland, developed a political concept which would quickly
be adopted as an absolute priority: sustainable development.
Bruntland’s genius lies in the simplicity and realism of the
stated goal: to meet the needs of present generations without
compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their
own.
The concept soon met with worldwide approval and,
in 1992, formed the basis of one of the most important international
summits in history. More than 120 heads of state and government
and thousands of delegates from all over the world met in Rio de
Janiero to give shape to sustainable development, in particular
by adopting Agenda 21. Rio also marked the start of negotiations
which led to the Convention on Biological Diversity and, most significantly,
the Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as the Kyoto Protocol.
A new world summit will be held in Johannesburg
(South Africa) at the end of the summer. Some 60 000 delegates,
representing governments, NGOs, companies, associations and young
people from all over the world are expected to attend. Ten years
after Rio (the summit will also be known as Rio + 10), it is time
to take stock of progress made and to recognise that the past decade
has been marked more by statements of principle than by action programmes.
At the same time, environmental sciences and technologies
have progressed considerably, making it possible to confirm the
all too real nature of the assault on the environment, to strengthen
the foundations - social as well as scientific - for implementing
sustainable development, and to propose an integrated approach to
the operational measures which are needed. The European Union is
playing a very major role in permitting the advance of knowledge
and practice in this field, in particular through the support of
its RTD framework programmes and the coordination of the European
Research Area. Equipped with this essential competence, will it
be able to relaunch - as it did in Rio and subsequently in laboriously
implementing the Kyoto undertakings - a global dynamic for sustainable
development?
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