U.S. Adherence to its Agenda 21 Commitments: A Five-Year Review

Abstract

This article evaluates U.S. activities related to sustainability in the five-year period immediately following the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth/summit). The article evaluates 17 different areas of activity, including agriculture, forestry, community sustainability, and official development assistance. In this period, the Earth Summit had little discernible effect on U.S. law and policy. The article recommends that the country adopt an overall sustainable development strategy, educate the public about the importance of sustainable development and the choices the nation faces, and intensify its efforts to move toward sustainable development. This article is the first of four such evaluations of U.S. sustainability efforts. The other three are books: Stumbling Toward Sustainabilty (2002), Agenda for a Sustainable America (2009), and Acting as if Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability (2012).

Keywords: sustainable development, sustainable development-United States, Agenda 21, official development assistance, natural resources, environmental law, national strategy, President’s Council on Sustainable Development, consumption, climate change, education, governance

JEL Classification: O10, O20, O51, Q00, Q10, Q20, Q30, Q40, Q01