Modern Interpretations of Sustainable Development
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2009.00455.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Author | Andrea Ross |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 36, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2009
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 32±54
Modern Interpretations of Sustainable Development
Andrea Ross*
Early interpretations of sustainable development based on weak
sustainability address neither the limits to the earth's resilience nor
our failure to curb consumption. Given the challenges facing the earth
today, especially climate change, a much more meaningful instrument
is required and a new ethic based on the ecological carrying capacity
of the Earth. The article examines the impact of those early inter-
pretations before exploring the importance of ecological sustainability
as the moral and (potentially fundamental) legal principle under-
pinning the concept of sustainable development. It examines the
influence of the climate change agenda before examining the mech-
anisms available to make this ethic operational. Sustainable develop-
ment has the capacity to set meaningful objectives, duties and rules,
and provide boundaries for decision making, as reflected in recent
legislation. Enhancing ecological sustainability through improving
supply and impact is relatively easy for governments, businesses, and
individuals; reducing consumption is much harder, and will require
strong leadership.
INTRODUCTION
Just as reckless spending is causing recession, so reckless consumption is
depleting the world's natural capital to a point where we are endangering our
future prosperity.
Living Planet Report 2008.
1
The theme of this volume is economic globalization and ecological
localization and the relationship between local and global ecosystems,
32
ß2009 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2009 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
*School of Law, University of Dundee, Scrymgeour Building, Dundee DD1
4HN, Scotland
a.p.ross@dundee.ac.uk
1 WWF, Living Planet Report 2008 (2008) 2. Available at
downloads/living_planet_report_2008.pdf>.
economies, and social networks. Many of the decisions made in relation to
the various dimensions of this theme are taken in the name of sustainable
development. Indeed sustainable development has been widely adopted as a
policy objective by institutions, governments, businesses, voluntary bodies
and others. `Ensuring environmental sustainability' is one of the UN's Eight
Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015.
2
Article 2 of the EC
Treaty (Nice consolidated version) provides that:
The Community shall have as its task . . . to promote throughout the
Community a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic
activities . . .
Article 6 provides that:
Environmental protection requirements must be integrated into the definition
and implementation of the Community policies and activities referred to in
Article 3, in particular with a view to promoting sustainable development.
3
Within the private sector, the websites and environmental reports for
Walmart, Honda, and countless other multi-national companies all herald
their commitment to sustainable development.
4
The purpose of this article is to examine the value of sustainable
development as a policy tool in the twenty-first century. It argues that, given
the challenges facing the earth today, especially climate change, the early
interpretations of sustainable development as a vague, malleable policy tool
based on weak sustainability fail to address either the fact that there are
limits to the earth's resilience or our cultural and moral failure to curb our
consumption. Instead, the demands of the twenty-first century require a
much more meaningful instrument for framing decisions. This article
examines more recent interpretations of sustainable development and the
influences behind these interpretations to assess whether sustainable
development can provide a useful mechanism for delivering truly
`sustainable' development.
The article begins with an examination of the impact to date of early
interpretations of sustainable development based on `weak sustainability'
before exploring the importance and more recent emergence of `ecological
sustainability' as the moral and (potentially fundamental) legal principle
underpinning the concept of sustainable development. The discussion then
moves on to explore the influence of the climate change agenda on this shift
towards ecological sustainability and considers the mechanisms available to
33
2
3The Lisbon Treaty makes this commitment stronger. The new Article 3 provides that
`Union shall . . . work for the sustainable development of Europe . . .', see the con-
solidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union, OJ C 115 of 9 May 2008.
4 For Walmart see . For
Honda see:
ß2009 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2009 Cardiff University Law School
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