History of Sustainable Development

1962 - Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring". This book brought together research on toxicology, ecology and epidemology to suggest that agricultural pesticides were building to catastrophic levels. This was linked to damage to animal species and to human health. It shattered the assumption that the environment had an infinite capacity to absorb pollutants. 1968 - The Club of Rome, is established by 36 European economists and scientists. Its goal is to pursue a holistic understanding of the 'world problematique'. It commissions a study on global proportions to model and analyse the dynamic interactions between industrial production, population, environmental damage, food consumption and natural resource usage. 1969 - Friends of the Earth forms as a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the planet from environmental degradation; preserving biological, cultural, and ethnic diversity; and empowering citizens to have an influential voice in decisions affecting the quality of their environment -- and their lives.

1971 - Greenpeace starts up in Canada and launches an aggressive agenda to stop environmental damage through civil protests and non-violent interference.
Loughborough University, 2004

History of Sustainable Development

1971 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is established in Britain with a mandate to seek ways to make economic progress without destroying the environmental resource base. 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm. Only one Earth led to the development of The United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) 1972 Club of Rome publishes "Limits to Growth" (Meadows et.al) report Best seller in several languages. It described the use of a computer model World 3 - to study the implications of continuing exponential growth in five interconnected trends of global concern: industrialisation, population, growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of non-renewable resources and ecological damage. The report adopts a pessimistic view of development, warning of severe resource shortages if development were to maintain its current momentum. Extremely controversial - Northern countries criticising it for not including technological solutions and Southern countries criticising it because because it advocates abandonment of economic development.

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History of Sustainable Development

1974 Rowland and Molina release seminal work on CFCs in Nature magazine. They calculated that if human use of CFC gases was to continue at an unaltered rate the ozone layer would be depleted by many percent after some decades. 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development forms. The commission works for 3 years to weave together a report on social, economic, cultural, and environmental issues. 1984 Worldwatch Institute publishes its first State of the World Report. The report monitors changes in the global resource base, focusing particularly on how changes there affect the economy. It concludes that "we are living beyond our means, largely by borrowing against the future." 1985 Antarctic ozone hole discovered by British and American scientists.

1987 World Commission on Environment and Development publish - Our Common Future (The Bruntland Report) in response to the request from the UN general assembly to propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000.

Loughborough University, 2004

History of Sustainable Development

1987 Montreal Protocol focused on the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and eliminating substances that cause this (HCFCs). Has since been strengthened twice - London and Copenhagen. Production of CFCs in North stopped by 1996, countries in the South (China and India) to end production by 2006.

1988 Inter-Governmental panel on Climate Change Resulted in the framework convention on climate change signed by 153 countries + the then EU, dealing with the threat of global warming Thought lacked firm agreements on targets, did aim to stabilise 1990 levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases
1992 Meadows, D. B., Meadows, D. L. and Randers, J., Beyond the Limits, London: Earthscan. Using a computer model to map patterns of growth, the report concluded that environmental collapse was inevitable. 'If the present growth trends on world population, industrialisation, pollution, food production and resource depletion remain unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached some time within the next 100 years'.

Loughborough University, 2004

History of Sustainable Development

1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The Earth Summit. 179 countries participated in this conference working towards reconciling the impact of human socio-economic activities on the environment. Outcomes: Convention on biological diversity Framework convention on climatic change Principles of forest management Agenda 21 The Rio declaration on environment and development

1994 Law of the Sea national sovereignty of off-shore waters and the national responsibility for the ecosystems within these waters (re. dumping waste, & fish stocks etc.)
1997 Kyoto Protocol Worlds Governments met in Japan to negotiate a treaty to start dealing seriously with climate change to reduce emissions of serious greenhouse gases CO2, CH4, NO, + 3 types of fluorinated gases.

Loughborough University, 2004

History of Sustainable Development

1997 - Earth Summit+5 - A five year review of Earth Summit progress was made by the United Nations General Assembly. The final document adopted by delegates from over 165 countries -- while taking small steps forward on a number of issues, including preventing climate change, forest loss and freshwater scarcity - disappointed many in that it contained few new concrete commitments on action needed. 2001 Climate Summit, Bonn 178 countries developed a framework of how to implement the 1997 Kyoto Protocol 2002 - Earth Summit 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa. Rio+10 - World Summit on Sustainable Development -people, planet, prosperity,

Loughborough University, 2004