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UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2016

Claire Brighton
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Abstract

Poverty and environmental degradation are two of the gravest issues facing the planet today. The most obvious means of addressing each issue, however, appears ostensibly to undermine the other. While environmental and development strategies are largely associated with the concept of sustainable development that emerged in the 1990s, the debate between these two interests dates back to the 1940s. This article seeks to fill an apparent gap in environmental scholarship by presenting a history of the environmental protection/development relationship. It will argue that, rather than being the product of an organic development process, the concept of sustainable development and the principles underlying it were consciously shaped by a number of international actors with vested interests in their trajectory. Understanding why and how this was permitted is important not only for its capacity to throw light on the past, but also for its ability to assist in understanding and predicting the future.

Keywords

Brundtland ReportFounexgreen economyRio Conference on Environment and DevelopmentStockholm Conference on the Human Environmentsustainable development
Type
Articles
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 209 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2016 

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References

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6 For example, during the ECOSOC meeting where the Swedish proposal was considered, reference was made to reports of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization on ‘the environment’, and to an initiative by the Economic Commission for Europe to convene a meeting on ‘problems relating to the environment’: ECOSOC, ‘Activities of United Nations Organisation and Programmes Relevant to the Human Environment: Report of the Secretary General’ (1968) UN Doc E/4553 at [6].

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45 ‘Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment’ in Stockholm Report (n 30) [hereafter: ‘Stockholm Declaration’] Preamble para 6.

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66 GA Res 38/161 (1983) 38th Session (emphasis added).

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81 Brundtland Report (n 79) ch 2, para 9.

82 ibid, ch 2, para 4.

83 Borowy (n 74) 122–3.

84 MacNeill, ‘Brundtland Revisited’ (n 80).

85 Borowy (n 74) 123.

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95 ‘Rio Declaration on Environment and Development adopted by the UNGA on 22 December 1992’ GA Res 47/190, 47th Session (1992) [hereafter: ‘Rio Declaration’].

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98 Brundtland Report (n 79) report overview: ‘Our Common Future, From One Earth to One World’ at para 4.

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102 Rio Declaration (n 95) Principle 5.

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109 For example, taking the report as a whole and excluding references to conference or report titles, the term ‘environment’ appears only five times, two of which are references to commitments made at previous UN Conferences. ‘Biodiversity’ appears twice. By contrast, the term ‘development’ appears 16 times, including two references to previous commitments and excluding references within the phrase ‘sustainable development’: ‘Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development’, para 11, annexed to: ‘Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development’ (2002) UN Doc A/CONF.199/20 [hereafter: ‘Johannesburg Declaration’]. Word counting is a blunt instrument, however, in this context it is generally indicative of the relative weight placed on each of the two interests.

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116 This was expressly acknowledged in a UNEP follow-up publication Towards a Green Economy in 2011: UNEP, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication (2011) Foreword.

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122 GA Res 70/1, ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ (2015) 70th Session [hereafter: ‘2030 Agenda’].

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132 UNGA ‘Report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals Established Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 66/288’ GA68/309 (12 Sept 2014) UN Doc A/RES/68/309.

133 See United Nations Technical Support Team in support of the General Assembly Open Working Group ‘TST Issues Briefs’ at <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org>. The author understands that the papers titled ‘TST Issues Brief: Macroeconomic policy questions’ and ‘TST Issue Brief: Sustained and Inclusive Economic Growth, Infrastructure Development, and Industrialization’, which mention the green economy, were presented at the fifth session. The green economy is mentioned by other issues briefs included in the compilation, however, it is not clear from the information available at the time of publication at what sessions these were presented.

134 See ‘General Assembly Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals Fifth Session’ (27 November 2013) at 2–4; and ‘Draft Concluding Remarks of Co-Chairs: 5th Session of Open Working Group on SDGs’ (undated)—both available at <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org>.

135 Discussed above in section IVD ‘Rio: A Strategic Turning Point’.

136 Discussed above in section VC ‘Rio+20: A Difficult Sell’.