Sustainable Development: Caught between National Sovereignty and International Challenges

Abstract

The Brundtland Commission’s Report Our Common Future and the follow-up Agenda 21 place their main emphasis on defining the content of sustainable development. (The concept of sustainable development will not be discussed in this chapter. The main focus will be on how goals related to the environment and development may be achieved through international co-operation, independent of the concrete content of these goals.) How common objectives may be achieved in practice through international co-operation has been given lower priority. The main problem with the institutional reforms that are actually proposed is that they do not take seriously the principle of the right to national self-determination as a fundamental limitation in international environmental co-operation. This principle holds important implications for what is realistic to aim for in the international arena. Agenda 21 advocates more binding international co-operation. Ironically, it is not binding within the framework of international law. The main issue in this chapter is what limitations are set by the principle of national sovereignty on realising the international institutional reforms proposed in Agenda 21 and Our Common Future.¹