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.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,