The question of population - of population pressure, of population and human rights - and the
links between these related issues and poverty, environment, and development proved to be
one of the more difficult concerns with which we had to struggle. The differences of
perspective seemed at the outset to be unbridgeable, and they required a lot of thought and
willingness to communicate across the divides of cultures, religions, and regions.
Another such concern was the whole area of international economic relations. In these and in
a number of other important aspects of our analysis and recommendations, we were able to
develop broad agreement.
The fact that we all became wiser, learnt to look across cultural and historical barriers, was
essential. There were moments of deep concern and potential crisis, moments of gratitude and
achievement, moments of success in building a common analysis and perspective. The result is
clearly more global, more realistic, more forward looking than any one of us alone could have
created. We joined the Commission with different views and perspectives, different values and
beliefs, and very different experiences and insights. After these three years of working
together, travelling, listening, and discussing, we present a unanimous report.
I am deeply grateful to all the Commissioners for their dedication, their foresight and personal
commitment to our common endeavour. It has been a truly wonderful team. The spirit of
friendship and open communication, the meeting of minds and the process of learning and
sharing, have provided an experience of optimism, something of great value to all of us, and, I
believe, to the report and its message. We hope to share with others our learning process, and
all that we have experienced together. It is something that many others will have to experience
if global sustainable development is to be achieved.
The Commission has taken guidance from people in all walks of life. It is to these people - to all
the peoples of the world - that the Commission now addresses itself. In so doing we speak to
people directly as well as to the institutions that they have established.
The Commission is addressing governments, directly and through their various agencies and
ministries. The congregation of governments, gathered in the General Assembly of the United
Nations, will be the main recipients of this report.
The Commission is also addressing private enterprise, from the one-person business to the
great multinational company with a total economic turnover greater than that of many nations,
and with possibilities for bringing about far-reaching changes and improvements.
But first and foremost our message is directed towards people, whose well being is the
ultimate goal of all environment and development policies. In particular, the Commission is
addressing the young. The world's teachers will have a crucial role to play in bringing this
report to them.
If we do not succeed in putting our message of urgency through to today's parents and
decision makers, we risk undermining our children's fundamental right to a healthy,
life-enhancing environment. Unless we are able to translate our words into a language that can
reach the minds and hearts of people young and old, we shall not be able to undertake the
extensive social changes needed to correct the course of development.
The Commission has completed its work. We call for a common endeavour and for new norms
of behaviour at all levels and in the interests of all. The changes in attitudes, in social values,
and in aspirations that the report urges will depend on vast campaigns of education, debate
