Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 9(2000): 295-323. doi: 10.3197/096327100129342074
This article makes two arguments. First, that social justice constitutes an inherent part of the conception of sustainable development that the World Commission on Environment and Development outlined in Our Common Future (1987). The primary goal of the Commission was to reconcile physical sustainability, need satisfaction and equal opportunities, within and between generations. Sustainable development is what defines this reconciliation. Second, it is argued that this conception of sustainable development is broadly compatible with liberal theories of justice. Sustainable development, however, goes beyond liberal theories of justice in many respects. It is based on three assumptions, which are for the most part ignored in liberal theories: an accelerating ecological interdependence, historical inequality in past resource use, and the 'growth of limits'. These assumptions create a conflict between intra- and intergenerational justice, which is ignored in liberal theories, but which sustainable development tries to solve. It does so by imposing duties on developed countries that goes beyond liberal demands, and by abandoning the focus 'solely on protection' that dominates non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental sustainability.
KEYWORDS: Biological diversity, climate change, global justice, sustainable development
REFERENCES to other articles in Environmental Values:
'Sustainable Development': Is it a Useful Concept? Wilfred Beckerman
How Would you Like your 'Sustainability', Sir? Weak or Strong? A Reply to my Critics. Wilfred Beckerman
M.S. Common, 'Beckerman and his Critics on Strong and Weak Sustainability: Confusing Concepts and Conditions,' Environmental Values 5(1996): 83-88
On Wilfred Beckerman's Critique of Sustainable Development. Herman Daly
Sustainable Development, Capital Substitution and Economic Humility: A Response to Beckerman. Michael Jacobs
Tradeable CO2 Emission Permits: Initial Distribution as a Justice Problem. Snorre Kverndok
S.E. Serafy, 'In Defence of Weak Sustainability: A Response to Beckerman', Environmental Values 5(1996): 75-81. In Defence of Sustainable Development. Henryk Skolimowski
CITATIONS in other Environmental Values articles:
Global and Ecological Justice: Prioritising Conflicting Demands. Marcel Wissenburg
Territorial Equity and Sustainable Development. Bertrand Zuindeau
Disagreement and Responses to Climate Change Graham Long
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