Sustainable development, twenty-five years after its environmental and social commitments

Abstract

<p>The proposal for sustainable development has been preceded by concerns about environmental devastation and pollution, as well as about the conditions of social development. This proposal was born in 1987 based on three global duties: environmental protection, intergenerational justice, and intra-generational equity. This research aims to analyze the status of these commitments, twentyfive years after the emergence of this initiative, and following a number of agreements, policies, and specific projects. The inquiry is approached from two perspectives: by examining in details Ecological Footprint results in order to evaluate the commitment to environmental protection, as well as by retaking data from the Human Development Index as a proxy indicator to describe the progress towards intra- and intergenerational social commitment. The article concludes that sustainable human development is regionally uneven, with partial effects on the commitments assumed since the 1980s and with humanity itself.</p>