Recovering Sustainable Development A Fashionable Notion - Essay Example

The essay "Recovering Sustainable Development A Fashionable Notion" analyzes the Notion of fashion. The report on sustainable development, Our Common Future, argued that protecting natural resources, ensuring justice and strengthening the economy are complementary goals. A healthy environment provides the necessary natural resources for the economy. Unfortunately, this theory of interconnection is now being distorted for personal gains, which was avoidable. This "slide" of sustainable development can be traced back to the UN where it was first proposed by then Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland. The UN is not the solely responsible but it represents the root of the problem. The Earth Summit in 1992 resulted in a decade of ineffectiveness where only two documents were produced; Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration, where these remained action plans and a list of principles, nothing more. This whole process also resulted in developing new institutions that mostly remained ineffective. For instance, The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) did not do much due to lack of concrete goals and coherent strategies between the UN system and the governments. The initiative by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was supported by the participants of the world Summit in 2002. Nevertheless, the outcome has not been encouraging as the governments have little authority in these matters. The main problem with the MDGs is that they have been largely affected by the diplomatic process.