Sustainable Development in the 21st Century: Conditions, Principles and Issues

摘要

Sustainable development has become an inescapable reality at all levels of economic integration. The support of most governments for the concept of sustainable development makes strong action in environmental matters all the more necessary and legitimate. The prospect of the economic integration of the Americas raises sizeable challenges for sustainable management of the environment and natural resources. The implementation of sustainable development presupposes compliance with certain conditions (democracy, autonomy, fairness, interdependence, responsibility and accountability) and with certain fundamental principles (environmental and economic integration; maintenance of biological diversity and conservation of natural resources; precaution, prevention and evaluation; cooperation, partnership and participation and education, training and consciousness-raising). The governments of the Americas have developed a Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of the Americas, which is based to a large degree on these conditions and principles. The plan contains specific commitments in the form of detailed initiatives respecting most of the issues at the root of environmental problems. Parliamentarians, since they stand between the public and the decision-making powers, can play a premier role in implementing the sustainable development of the Americas. They are among those in the best position to become the true ambassadors of sustainable development and the principal intermediaries between local communities and decision makers so as to facilitate the flow of information, cooperation and mediation and to ensure first-hand that objective in this area are achieved.