Former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was awarded the first Tang Prize in Sustainable Development yesterday for “concept, leadership and implementation of sustainable development for the benefit of humanity.”
Brundtland, the “godmother of sustainable development,” chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development from 1984 to 1987. The commission — also called the Brundtland Commission in recognition of her leadership — coined the term “sustainable development” in a landmark report in 1987 titled Our Common Future.
The 75-year-old is to receive a cash prize of NT$40 million (US$1.33 million) and a research grant of up to NT$10 million to be used within five years, as well as a medal and a certificate at an award ceremony in September.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Our Common Future laid the groundwork for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which produced a global action plan for sustainable development known as Agenda 21 and initiated the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, which led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The report defined the term “sustainable development” as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The concept supports economic and social development, while also highlighting the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources.
In the report’s foreword, Brundtland wrote that the challenge of finding sustainable development paths should be the motivation for “a renewed search for multilateral solutions and a restructured international economic system of cooperation.”
“These challenges cut across the divides of national sovereignty, of limited strategies for economic gain and of separated disciplines of science,” she wrote, calling for “higher expectations, for common goals pursued together, for an increased political will to address our common future.”
The report compiled the views of hundreds of experts, scientists, industrialists and government and NGO representatives, as well as members of the public, and it continues to have a major impact on UN conferences, including the UN Conference on Sustainable Development and Conference of the Parties.
Born in 1939 in Oslo, Brundtland graduated with a medical degree from the University of Oslo and a holds master’s degree in public health from Harvard University.
She was Norwegian minister of the environment from 1974 to 1979 before becoming the first female Norwegian prime minister — and the youngest ever — in 1981.
She later served as director-general of the WHO from 1998 to 2003, during which time she was credited for helping to prevent the spread of SARS and gained recognition for successfully negotiating an agreement on tobacco control.
Brundtland served as UN special envoy on climate change from 2007 to 2010 and was on the UN secretary-general’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability from 2010 to 2012.
She serves as deputy chair of The Elders, a group of world leaders brought together in 2007 by former South African president Nelson Mandela to work for peace and human rights.
The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) to honor leaders in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology and the rule of law.
The first prizes are being handed out this year.
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