Concept of sustainable development : The term sustainable development was first used in the Brundtland Commission Report. In fact, it is made of two words ‘lasting’ or ‘sustain’ and development. ‘Bruntaland defined sustainable development in his document ‘Our Joint Future’, while presiding over the World Commission on Environment and development. In this document, he says, “Sustainable development is such development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the opportunity of future generations to meet their own needs.” This development is based on the sense of co – operation, association, respect and reverence of mankind for nature.
This concept not only deals with environment, but also concentrates on conservation of resources. Sustainable development not only maintains the stable relationship between man and his environment, but it also focuses on such a dynamic activity that maintains the balance among present and future needs, resources, capital and technology.
Several synonyms are used for sustainable development, some of these aremaintainable development, viable development, stable development, intensification of economy, etc. Conferences of sustainable Development: Several conferences mere organised in the world for sustainable development, environment and ecological balance and safety, among which,
main conferences are as follows.
1. Earth summit or Rio Summit: In June 1992, the United Nations organised a conference on environment in Rio – De – Janeiro city of Brazil. This conference is known as First Earth Summit or Rio Summit/conference. In this summit, a profile of Agenda-21 was presented. In this, the governing principles for sustainable development were explained.
2. Second Earth Summit: It was organised in New York in June 1997. No absolute proposal was accepted for agreement in this summit.
3. Third Earth Summit: It was organised in Johannesburg in August 2002. Its main theme was sustainable development. That’s why, it is also known as the sustainable development world summit. In this conference, considering sustainable development, the developing countries urged the developed countries to change their lifestyle, but the developed countries were not ready for it. In this conference, the only agreement done was that a ten year program will be implemented to make the production and consumption sustainable.
