Global Agenda Council on Measuring Sustainability 2012-2014

The global sustainability landscape has become increasingly complex, particularly as a greater dependency on resources for economic growth puts the planet under constant pressure. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, world leaders have signed about 500 internationally recognized agreements in the past 50 years, including 61 related to the atmosphere; 155 agreements on biodiversity; 179 related to chemicals, hazardous substances and waste; 46 land conventions; and 196 conventions broadly related to issues dealing with water. After trade, the environment is now the most common area of global rule-making. Awareness and understanding of global environmental and social problems and their trends and interrelations have increased. However, the complexity and level of uncertainty of these problems have also increased. This makes policy, investment and management decisions very difficult to develop in a rational and integrated way.