The pursuit of shared objective in an age of division
Reflections on a lecture given by Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland on the Grantham Institute, Imperial Faculty, London, 29 October 2025.
Gary Kass, Visiting Professor of Sustainability Science, Coverage and Apply, Imperial Faculty; Honorary Professor of Geography, College of Nottingham; Vice-President of IES and Chair of IES Exterior Coverage Advisory Group; Member of the Workplace of Environmental Safety Faculty of Consultants
After I began my profession in environmental science within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, there was no such factor as sustainable improvement, not to mention sustainability or sustainability science. However in 1987, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the then Prime Minister of Norway (and later Director Basic of the World Well being Organisation and a member of the ‘Elders’ based by Nelson Mandela) revealed the ground-breaking, paradigm-shifting report of the World Fee on Setting and Growth, titled Our Widespread Future – however broadly generally known as the Brundtland Report. It was this report that introduced the phrase ‘sustainable improvement’ to the world, defining this as “improvement that meets the wants of the current with out compromising the power of future generations to satisfy their very own wants”.
So, I used to be delighted to attend a lecture given by Dr Brundtland at Imperial Faculty on 29th October, and excited by the prospect of what she was going to say about Reclaiming Our Widespread Future. I received there early to seize a great seat and when Dr Brundtland arrived, I’ve to say I used to be little star-struck. Right here was the one that set the course of my profession and set me on quest in the direction of shaping a extra sustainable future.
Dr Brundtland’s lecture was subtitled “The pursuit of shared objective in an age of division”. She started by reasserting the notion of shared humanity, quoting the African notion of Ubuntu translated as “I’m as a result of we’re”. She made clear that this resonates strongly with the ideas of sustainable improvement set out in her report in 1987, and people ideas stay solely applicable in 2025 – though in a totally modified international context; one, she described as going through considerably larger complexity and extra entrenched conflicts; but additionally the place the problems of local weather change, biodiversity loss, inequalities and unregulated progress of AI at the moment are now not what may occur, as they’re taking place now.
Dr Brundtland targeted on how the difficulty of local weather change is intersecting with well being, with armed battle and geopolitical tensions, and with know-how, noting that asking ChatGPT a query makes use of ten instances extra vitality than a easy web search! Whereas acknowledging the large advantages of the ‘progress’ we’ve seen, Dr Brundtland underlined the large inequities in how each he prices and advantages of such progress have been shared; with nationalist, populist, short-term and slim self-interest concentrating the advantages inside a slim vary of vested pursuits.
The difficulty of the inexperienced backlash shaped a key facet of her lecture, citing the current scuppering (pun meant) of the emissions discount treaty on the Worldwide Maritime Organisation. She outlined how the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change was underneath assault; with fastidiously focussed arguments towards the very thought of science-informed coverage.
However her lecture was not only a polemic – Dr Brundtland bravely said {that a} “daring response” was wanted to “get up” to such an assault. Waiting for the forthcoming Local weather COP in Belem in November, She made clear that this was a possibility to show the ability of collaboration, and to not fall into squabbles pushed by slim nationalist competitors. Dr Brundtland’s made a spirited defence of the thought of ‘multilateralism’, arguing that civil society is required inside this to assist drive governments and others to behave. She warned that there’s “no excuse for fatalism or buck-passing” and it’s crucial that we have now an inclusive strategy, selling dialogue with civil society”.
Referring to the emergence of the UN Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs) and the Paris Settlement in 2015, Dr Brundtland made clear that, a decade on, we stay dangerously off-track on the vast majority of the Targets, and that we’re going through critical tipping factors within the earth system. However once more, to keep away from local weather doomism overwhelming us, she celebrated that it was the ability of multilateralism that has introduced down the estimates of worldwide imply temperature rise by 2100 from 5 levels to three levels. This may occasionally not sound a lot, however a 5-degree world can be a massively extra harmful place than a 3-degree world (though 3-degress isn’t a stroll within the park, so we are able to’t relaxation there). So multilateralism is essential, however it additionally occurs past the convention rooms at COPs, making clear that all of us have a job to play; by way of particular person motion, activism, youth management and what she described as a “new ear of authorized energy” following the current judgement by the Worldwide Court docket of Justice that individuals can sue governments for not appearing to scale back greenhouse fuel emissions. This, Dr Brundtland declared that this judgement has “put governments on discover!”
Nonetheless, She admitted its exhausting work to promote the thought of shared objective, given the state of public funds and the rise of populist anti-science, disinformation and conspiracy theories, and the way these undermine the belief in science. She described current bulletins (and even denouncements) by the US Administration as “irresponsible” and inspired us to “uphold scientific integrity and promote fact, not succumb to simplistic populist rhetoric.
In closing, and returning to the title of her lecture, Dr Brundtland made clear that to reclaim Our Widespread Future, and to advance sustainability, we have to promote gender equality, which is in fact an ethical and financial crucial. Whereas admitting that the depth of opposition to concepts of shared objective was not foreseen when Our Widespread Future was revealed in 1987, she argued strongly that “ladies’s management is crucial to attain sustainable improvement”. Dr Brundtland ended her lecture by saying that we’re in an “age of division” and so we should show what may be achieved by working collectively. We can not look ahead to the division to finish, and that if some isolate themselves from multilateralism, others should step in.”
The lecture was met with lengthy and rapturous applause, advert was adopted by a brief Q&A, after which a panel dialogue.
So, it was a barnstorming session, producing a vigorous and noisy dialogue on the drinks reception afterwards! Lots of the viewers got here away heartened by Dr Brundtland’s messages and her pleas to not succumb to “fatalism and buck-passing”. I, for one, really feel re-energised to proceed the hunt for sustainable improvement. Like all international change actions, it gained’t be simple, and it gained’t be fast, however we should always hold going and recognise that sustainable improvement is a journey not a vacation spot.
