Sustainability: Reviewing Australia's progress, 1992-2002

In late 2002, nations will meet for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and review a decade of progress since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992. This anniversary also presents an opportunity to review domestic policy progress, such as that of Australia in the ten years since its 1992 National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD). This paper reviews the past decade of environmental policy and progress to ESD in Australia, noting some globally significant advances as well as under-achievement. The paper identifies two reasons for under-achievement: the unprecedented nature and difficulty of sustainability problems, and the lack of suitable policy processes and institutional arrangements to address these, and suggests policy and institutional reforms.