‘Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’

Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development 1987, United Nations.

‘The Rio Conference or Earth Summit, was a major success in raising public awareness on the need to integrate environment and development

The Rio Declaration, in Principle 7, stated that ‘States shall cooperate in a spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth's ecosystem. In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit to sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command’

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992.

‘Poverty eradication, changing consumption and production patterns, and protecting and managing the natural resource base for economic and social development are over arching objectives of, and essential requirements for sustainable development’

The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development – Political Declaration, World Summit for Sustainable Development, 2002

‘The conceptual framework … emphasises the challenge of understanding and exploring avenues for human development within Earth system boundaries. This fundamental, holistic, understanding is the basis for developing transformative pathways and solutions for global sustainability’.

Future Earth (2013) Future Earth Initial Design: Report of the Transition Team. Paris: International Council for Science (ICSU).

‘A new global social contract, political will and mutual trust will be needed to achieve the shared vision of a sustainable future.’

Report of the Secretary General to the General Assembly, 69th session, Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, A/6/ August, 2014.

‘Sustainable development calls for robust economic development and a long term convergence in living standards between rich and poor countries in ways that are socially equitable and respect planetary boundaries’

Sustainable Development Network, United Nations, at the launch of ‘The World in 2050: Pathways towards a sustainable future’, March 2015.