Sustainable Development. Opportunity for the hawks or Challenge for the doves?

Sustainable Development or SD in shortform, became a popular term over 30 years ago when Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian Prime Minister, presented to the UN the result of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Her report as Commission Chair was entitled 'Our Common Future' but shall probably be remembered in time as the Brundtland Report. The document provided a common definition for the term sustainable development; development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. 

Looking back at what has transpired since 1987 we see that SD gained traction, possibly because it provides the commonest of bases for the planet's diverse peoples and nations. Yet looking foward - even as we thank the people whose work enabled the Summit of Rio de Janeiro (1992), Rio +20 (2012) and more recently the Paris Agreement (2015), we find the talk has essentially been done yet work that will impact directly is largely absent. True, as of February 2018 one hundred and ninety sovereign states have agreed to take steps towards measures that may (or may not) mitigate global warming, the calamity forced on humankind before its time, and largely due to unsustainable development practices. 

Speaking positively though, Paris 2015 had another big outcome. Beyond the pledges made by the participating countries, Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs is now a part of the universal lexicon. Arguably too, the SDGs also pose another basketful of issues. Realistically and despite the optimism that went with 'Paris' only the most naive of souls will see SD as a virtual flower, a construct that shan't need watering - or care. 

Consider the following. Sustainable Development (or more specifically the 17 new SDGs) at its apex of promise require political will and focus for adoption, beyond what has ever been seen in that sector. It also goes beyond the single government platform; in that many of the measures that need to be taken (think common shore agreements), involve regional and in some case global accords. It gets even murkier. Balancing economic, social and environmental costs and proving the benefits of development against these even at the national level, is a most herculean task to say the least. And it probably doesn't help when one considers also, mundane little matters like who shall apply and implement SDG principles. They overlap. The simple solution may well turn out to be a global supreme environmental authority (a green court?). 

These are the big questions obviously and more than likely will spawn - if this is not already fact, a plethora of programmes that will attempt to measure, analyze and thus eventually legitimise people groups or cadres who will wield the big stick. Dame Brundtland may be proud that she was at the forefront of the SDGs, they do hold promise. But what Sustainable Development holds out also is opportunity. As history shows, the people who grasp same aren't always as altruistic as they first make out. Let's hope the early birds in this instance are the doves not the hawks.