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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is about developing an integrated approach to economic, social and environmental issues to improve the quality of life for everyone, now and in the future.
Devon County Council is fully committed to Sustainable Development and continues to work with a wide range of Devon’s organisations, communities and individuals.
The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, agreed a document called Agenda 21. This recognised that many of the actions needed to achieve sustainable development need to take place at the local level. A specific responsibility was given to local government around the world to work with their communities to prepare local action plans for sustainable development – or Local Agenda 21’s.
In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg. This focussed on the most urgent issues that need addressing – biodiversity, energy and climate, desertification, forests, globalisation, water and governance, and called for local authorities across the world to move from Local Agenda 21 to Local Action 21!
More history and background information
Devon County Council undertakes numerous actions to achieve sustainable development.
