Whether you are old enough to remember The Stockholm Declaration circa 1972, or just a diligent reader of lecture notes, you'll soon learn it was heady stuff for the day. When the UN got involved in 1983 and commissioned The Brundtland Report which was released in 1987, the world began its slippery slide into considering more than just economics but also environmental protection and social equity. Roll on 1992 and the Rio Declaration - suddenly the international community were agreeing on 27 principles to guide sustainable development. Back at the Earth Summit that same year, the newly released Agenda 21 provided a 500 page action plan (because apparently in saving the world, trees will be collateral damage) with the objective to alleviate poverty, hunger, sickness and illiteracy worldwide and, no less, halt the deterioration of ecosystems which sustain life, all at the same time. As a matter of interest, Australia signed up to Agenda 21 so we now report annually on our progress to the UN Commission for Sustainable Development.
Drilling down into the detail, ESD can be summarised as being guided by the following key principles;
- including short and long term environmental, social and economic considerations in decisions
- the precautionary principle
- conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity
- intergenerational equity (the people of the future will be no worse off)
- intragenerational equity (no group in current society will be worse off)
- development of mechanisms which better reflect true costs including the polluter pays principle and the user pays system
- broad based community involvement (consultation of the masses).
So why is this little summary of history important? Well while you actively debate the merits of the proposed Carbon Tax around your dinner table, it is worth considering that it is an example of the principle 16 of Agenda 21 - the user pays. There is actually some method in the current government's garbled message..
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