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Monitoring The UN > The UN and Sustainable Development Sustainable Development: A Definition A precise definition of the sustainable development of states can be difficult to obtain. Most commonly cited is that provided by the 1987 Brundtland Commission Report: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."19 The Brundtland Report also describes sustainable development as development that meets the basic needs of the world's poor and approaches economics with a view to the impact of human activity on the surrounding environment. This is an interpretation closely paralleled in Principle 3 of the 1992 UNCED Rio Declaration: "The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations."20 &Sustainable Development, at its simplest, is development based on patterns of production and consumption that can be pursued into the distant future without degrading the human or natural environment.21 It requires, within each nation's technological and social capabilities, the wise management of resources and the equitable sharing of the benefits of economic activity on both the societal and international level. This is economic growth of a different and more self-conscious variety, one whose purpose is the enhancement of human well-being and the release of human potential, both of which require care for the natural environment.22 The 1992 UNCED agreements recognized that we would be required to make a sea-change in our attitudes to business practices, social policy, foreign aid, trade and finance, so that all of these activities not only reflect an environmental consciousness, but promote sustainability and recognize the social and economic roots of global environmental damage. 19WCED Report, Our Common Future,
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