The Brundtland Commission
In the 1980s the UN set up the Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, named after its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The outcome of the Brundtland Commission was a comprehensive document entitled “Our Common Future”, otherwise known as the Brundtland Report . This report framed much of what would become the 40 chapters of Agenda 21 and the 27 principles of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The report defined sustainable development as development which:
“meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“
