Introduction

Abstract

Since the early days of a European environmental policy, there has been a tension between the goal of protecting the environment and society's claim to growth and prosperity. This tension was already clearly expressed in the definition of sustainable development by the so-called Brundtland Report (Oxford University Press 1987) in 1987, before the second World Environment Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (UNCED 1992). The report describes sustainable development as a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This tension is addressed by two key terms. There is the idea of satisfying the needs of the present in connection with the need to preserve the ability of the environment to satisfy future needs too.