Back to Our Common Future Sustainable Development in the 21st century (SD21) project Summary for policymakers About SD21 agriculture. The analysis of sustainable development scenarios was a collaborative effort of 49 global This is a summary of the main findings Sustainable“ modellers and scenario analysts. The studies on energy Development in the 21st Century” (SD21) project. It systems, land use and cities were based on inputs from draws on a series of studies that were prepared under large and diverse groups of experts. a United Nations project, co-funded by the European Commission. The project also intended to prepare a SD21 has also encouraged a range of studies substantive contribution to the debate at the United undertaken outside of the project by leading Nation Conference on Sustainable Development researchers, analysts, think-tanks, and other international (UNCSD or “Rio+20”) in 2012, which takes stock of organizations, in support of UNCSD. Those studies the changes having occurred since the Earth Summit provide particular perspectives and specialized in 1992, and provides a clear vision and way forward information on a wide range of important issues. The for the international community, national governments, present summary will help policy makers, analysts partnerships and other stakeholders in implementing and the interested public alike to better understand the sustainable development agenda in an integrated the context of these other reports, including the ways manner. in which their recommendations can or cannot be combined for informed decision-making. This summary takes a step back from the many initiatives of the past 20 years in terms of sectoral assessments, This summary does not seek to be normative or scenario exercises, strategies and reports linked prescriptive. Instead, it brings together salient scientific with sustainable development, green economy and and political facts and illustrates important issues green growth, in order to analyze them under the twin that would need to be addressed going forward. In imperatives of long-term sustainability and development other words, it provides a frame of analysis against imperatives. Throughout, it provides an entry point to which other, more normative or prescriptive reports more detailed analysis and findings contained in the can be read. This will hopefully help forge a better technical reports produced under the project. Those understanding and help overcoming the current gridlock reports are available from the UN website.1 on most divisive issues. The approach to SD21 is based on the idea that for This summary also illustrates how identifying sustainable development to progress, its political commonalities and differences and working on ways to nature has to be recognized. Decisions and courses of address them may not only be a necessary condition for actions that are chosen every day by governments and progress in some cases, but also a promising way for international institutions are ultimately the outcomes concerted action. of confrontations of different “world views” – reflecting different visions and interpretations of principles such as economic efficiency, equity, solidarity, empowerment, and justice, different views regarding how sustainable This summary presents selected findings from the development should be pursued, and different views SD21 study reports. on the means through which specific issues (e.g. Food and agriculture: the challenge of sustainability food security, climate change mitigation) should be Assessment of implementation of Agenda 21 addressed. Often, agreed courses of actions reflect a “mix” of different world views, sometimes resulting in Assessment of implementation of the Rio Principles inconsistencies and incoherence. Difficult issues are Challenges and ways forward in the urban sector typically left “under the rug” for the benefit of reaching politically palatable consensus, resulting in watered- Building a sustainable and desirable Economy-in- down blueprints that do not address systemic issues. Society-in-Nature Perspectives on sustainable energy systems for the In order to reflect a broad range of views on sustainable 21st century development issues, the SD21 project instituted an expert process to support informed policy discussions. Lessons learned from sustainable development The working tracks created under the project mobilized scenarios individual experts and institutions from a broad range of Sustainable land management for the 21st century perspectives and backgrounds. More than 70 leading All the reports are accessible at http://www.un.org/ experts participated in the discussion on food and esa/dsd/dsd_sd21st/21_reports.shtml 1 http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/dsd_sd21st/21_reports.shtml iii Back to Our Common Future In summary: We need a renewed today’s world. In the last two decades, the world has changed. New economic powers have emerged, political deal while the interdependence of national economies has grown. We have become increasingly dependent on Humanity has not progressed on the road to growing energy consumption and international trade. sustainability as far as hoped in 1992. We can celebrate The importance of the private sector in influencing some notable successes, in particular the fact that sustainability outcomes globally has grown. We hundreds of millions of people have been lifted from have largely failed in adjusting international rules and poverty during the last two decades. Yet, many of the institutional structures to these old but mounting global problems we are facing today are more acute or challenges and to this new situation. larger in scale than they were in 1992. Opinions may differ on whether our current Science and scenario modelling make it clear that if we framework for action was never fully put to the do not change course, the next 40 to 80 years promise test due to lack of political will or whether it was a future that may be deeply unpalatable for most of insufficient to succeed. The fact is that we have not us. Even if we succeeded in pushing our technological succeeded. capabilities to the utmost, without doing something else, in a few decades we are likely to end up in a world that For these reasons, a new political deal is needed, would offer reduced opportunities for our children and which provides a clear vision and way forward for the grandchildren to flourish. international community, national governments, the private sector, civil society and other stakeholders for Many of the outcomes that matter for sustainability advancing the sustainable development agenda in an – from poverty to access to education to carbon integrated manner. emissions to air pollution – happen at the national and local levels and are influenced by rules, processes, A renewed political deal would need to address at least happening at those levels. However, increasingly more the following critical elements: of these outcomes are determined by the rules that • What critical thresholds must not be passed in terms govern the global economic engine, from investment of capital to trade to financial markets; by the mechanisms of poverty, global inequalities, global environmental of international assistance among countries and the limits, and global stocks of common-use renewable resources related to them; and by the way our global resources? commons are managed. • What do we need to develop and what do we need to sustain? Many resources on which we depend for survival and • What necessarily needs to be done in common, and flourishing – oceans, atmosphere, climate regulation what is best left for countries and lower levels of systems – are, whether we like it or not, common governments to decide? resources. We all lose when they are degraded or • How do we adjust institutions, decision-making disappear. All our individual actions and national actions processes, and the mechanisms of management of add up to determine what happens to our common planet. our global commons to more fairly reflect the new economic and geopolitical order? Hence, as foreseen by the Brundtland report 25 years • What common goals do we set for accomplishment ago, many of our problems are common: no party can by the global community? What solidarity mechanisms solve them in independence from the others. Therefore, must be put in place to achieve those common goals? common action is needed. • How to coordinate and enforce actions and commitments at all levels so that they not only “add The political deal that emerged from the Earth up” to keep humanity on a safe track, but also ensure Summit in 1992 has, for various reasons, never the renewed deal can be trusted by all more than the been fulfilled. Neither the expected outcomes – original Rio deal? elimination of poverty, reduction in disparities in standard of living, patterns of consumption and production that When a deal that is commensurate with the problems are compatible with the carrying capacity of ecosystems, we face today and those even greater that we will face sustainable management of renewable resources – nor tomorrow will materialize is unclear. What is certain is the agreed means to achieve them, have materialized. that a deal will be needed at some point in the future. In the long term, the alternative is conflict over scarce To many, the deal from 1992 does not adequately resources in an impoverished world – one none of us reflect the changed geo-political realities of should want to see materialize. Back to Our Common Future iii Where are we today? (whatever definition is used) has remained more or less stable since 1990, with marked regional differences. Basic food insecurity concerns as many people, about 1 billion, as it did in 1970. Income inequality is growing, both across At the highest level, a yardstick by which to judge the and within countries. Close to 43 million people worldwide success of sustainable development since Rio is a are displaced because of conflict or persecution. Overall, broad examination of the main trends having affected the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of goals environment and development at the global level that the international community set for itself in 2000, are since 1992.