It has been said for a long time that the current pace of world economic growth, due to the wasteful ways in which we use raw materials and energy, cannot be sustained any longer without harming our natural environment. Development is a must, as the ever-growing population of the Earth needs enough food and drinking water of the appropriate quality, and a continuous improvement of people's living conditions is also required.

The demand for conscious efforts against the degradation of nature emerged in the second half of the last century - Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States on 22 April 1970. Since that time a series of action plans has been devised involving numerous nations to coordinate environmental protection both at local and global level, and to monitor the interactions between our civilisation and the environment. It has also become clear that environmental problems should not be addressed separately, but in combination with economic activities, that is, environmental and economic policies should be integrated at both local and international level. Such a coupling of the concepts of environment and development marks the beginning of a new conception, referred to as sustainable development.

The concept of sustainable development became widely known in the 1980s, after the World Commission on Environment and Development was established under the auspices of the UN. The commission set the objective of outlining the trends to be expected around the millennium and in the following period in respect of population growth, agriculture, energetics, the exploitation of natural resources and environmental protection, and to work out a strategy to meet the new challenges. The commission summarised its findings in a report entitled Our Common Future, which was translated into 27 languages and published in millions of copies around the world. The core message of the report was to highlight the need for sustainable development.

The commission defined the concept of sustainable development as follows: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This statement was in part a political message to the poor, claiming that all people should have at least as much as is required to satisfy basic human needs. On the other hand, it also addressed the rich, asking them to reform their lifestyles and consumption habits and lead a more modest and economical life.

It is a fact that in terms of environmental load we are almost out of time, and a favourable change may occur only if policy makers can represent global interests at local level even against local objectives and short-term economic interests.