The term sustainable development experiences widespread use with regards to environmental and economic policy, yet the meaning of the term is still under some debate. One of the most widely quoted definitions of the term comes from the 1987 Brundtland commission report Our Common future which defined sustainable development as
“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
The driving concept behind this and similar definitions of sustainability is the idea of intergenerational equity; our current production methods and consumption habits are limiting the economic development (and environmental quality) of future generations. The meaning of varies with context, Toman (1992) points out that ecologists use the term with regards to the preservation of ecosystems; economists on the other hand tend to use it to focus on the maintenance or improvement of human living standards as measured by growth indicators such as GDP. An example of what would constitute unsustainable behaviour could be our current dependency on fossil fuels such as coal and gas to achieve economic growth, the future climatic change attributed (by many) to this behaviour will have negative impacts on the environment that may reduce the potential output and growth of future generations.
The lack of a clear, universally accepted definition for the term is one of the key reasons that it is considered by some as a meaningless concept. The criticism over this lack of meaning has come from a variety of sources even including some environmental groups and also The President’s Council on Sustainable Development, who called the above Bruntland definition “inexact” (Hayward et al 2000). This lack of consensus on what the term actually entails undoubtedly causes problems for policy makers as they will experience difficulty both assessing current levels of sustainability and setting targets/making projections for the future. Redclift (2002) makes the point that ‘needs’ change with time and vary with culture and region, this further complicates the process of classifying what does and doesn’t constitute sustainability. There are also those who disagree with the precautionary nature which policy based on such a term would have to take; we would be inhibiting current economic growth to mitigate potential future crises which humanity may have the technology to overcome by the time they occur. The process of limiting current economic growth could be particularly damaging in less developed countries where growth is seen by many governments as means of reducing poverty. The North-South division in terms of wealth and poverty is likely to act as a formidable barrier to the process of achieving global consensus regarding environmental targets in the future.
