For all the apparent willingness to commit to sustainable development, there aren't enough tangible results, according to Hungary's senior environmental advisor
By Istvan Pomazi
It makes an interesting play on words — "Europe for Environment" or "Environment for Europe" — but they are both important processes. (The former means that Europe should bear greater political responsibility for its own and the world's environment, while the latter is a UN-led, pan-European process or forum. The solution of environmental problems will remain on the agenda throughout Europe for a long time to come. At the same time, Europe can also do more in the future to tackle global environmental threats such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
If we take the March 2007 meeting of the European Council as a yardstick, the political will seems strong, but nothing tangible has yet been accomplished, and it seems that tangible results will only be achieved in the distant future. In the meantime, the European Union should guard against losing its credibility as far as combating climate change and halting biodiversity loss are concerned.
Climate change and sustainable development are being discussed now more openly than ever, and there finally seems to be some genuine political will to make long-term commitments to solving environmental problems. That's the good news: the bad is that, for all this apparent willingness, there isn't much to speak of in terms of tangible results that Europe can be proud of.
Twenty years after the publication of 'Our Common Future' (the so-called Brundtland Report) the world is marking a number of other dates that are significant in the past four decades of environmental policy. Thirty-five years ago more than 100 country representatives gathered in Stockholm for a UN conference, but with only one minister for environment among them. It was at this 1972 Conference on Human Environment that participants laid down many key environmental policy principles that are still cited today. It was after this event that environment policy became institutionalised at both national and international levels; e.g. the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was founded, environment ministries and agencies were established, and the most important laws related to environment were drafted.
The next notable milestone, after four years of deliberation, was the 1987 publication of the Brundtland Report by the World Commission on Environment and Development. The report dug deeper than the narrowly interpreted environment policy of before, and argued that environment protection, reduction of global inequalities, and poverty alleviation could actually lead to greater global sustainability. Also, the term 'sustainable development' was first formulated in this report, and the phrase is now used regularly by environmental actors and detractors alike.