Galizzi, Paolo; Herklotz, Alena --- "Environment and Development: Friends or Foes in the 21st Century?" [2010] ELECD 592; in Fitzmaurice, Malgosia; Ong, M. David; Merkouris, Panos (eds), "Research Handbook on International Environmental Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Environmental Law

Editor(s): Fitzmaurice, Malgosia; Ong, M. David; Merkouris, Panos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201249

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Environment and Development: Friends or Foes in the 21st Century?

Author(s): Galizzi, Paolo; Herklotz, Alena

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

4 Environment and development: friends or foes in the
21st century?
Paolo Galizzi and Alena Herklotz



Introduction
Indira Gandhi's address at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
in Stockholm, remains as valid today, if not more so:

We do not wish to impoverish the environment any further and yet we cannot forget the grim poverty
of large numbers of people. Are not poverty and need the greatest polluters? How can we speak to
those who live in villages and in slums about keeping the oceans, the rivers, and the air clean when
their own lives are contaminated at the source? The environment cannot be improved in conditions
of poverty. Nor can poverty be eradicated without the use of science and technology. (Ntambirweki,
1990­1: 905­6)1

This chapter will explore the complex and dynamic evolution of the relationship between
the environment and development in international law and policy. In the past 30 years, envi-
ronmental protection has received increasing attention in the international community, while
efforts to aid and facilitate the development of the poorer nations of the world have been
ongoing since the latter half of the twentieth century. The global nature of many environ-
mental problems sparked ever growing demands for international cooperation; however,
concerns are consistently voiced, particularly in the developing world, that interest in and
commitment to environmental issues detracts international focus and resources from the,
arguably more immediate, economic and social needs of the less developed countries. Some
have gone ...