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Sustainable development

Definition

Sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs", a quotation from Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegian Prime Minister (1987). In 1992, the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, held under the aegis of the United Nations, made official the notion of sustainable development and that of the three pillars (economy/ecology/social): economically efficient, socially fair and ecologically sustainable development.