Years on from the 1987 Brundtland Report, it has become clear that formidable challenges confront policy makers who have publicly stated their commitment to the goal of sustainable development. This text provides an account of the progress made in fleshing out these issues

This paper is about excessive overuse of resources and about serious environmental impacts, and the need for a global ecological turnaround. Ideas about a social contract for sustainability are being discussed, and examples given of resource decoupling and impact decoupling. Global environmental...