ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
recognise the instrumental advantages of better environmental protection.
It also provides an incentive for the state to transform itself by identifying
akeyrole for it in facilitating industrial change. The ‘discourse of reassur-
ance’ (Dryzek 2005 :172) offered by ecological modernisation is particularly
attractive to policymakers and residents of prosperous industrialised coun-
tries, who are confronted with fewer hard choices than are posed by stronger
versions of sustainable development. Yet, as one comparative study of eco-
logical modernisation concludes, ‘even environmental front-runners display
major shortcomings... [with regard to]... general resource consump-
tion, biodiversity, and inter and intragenerational equity’, and they retain
a continuing preference for ‘standard solutions based mainly on technical
progress’ (Weidner2002a:1364). In short, the jury is still out on whether
or not ecological modernisation offers a practical programme for achieving
sustainability.
One lesson to take from this chapter is that the widespread agreement
that sustainable development is a good thing belies deep conflict over its
meaning and, therefore, its implementation. The following chapters explore
how far there has been a shift from the traditional paradigm towards sus-
tainable development or ecological modernisation. One measure of change
will be evidence that the core principles identified here are shaping policy
practice. In thenext chapter,particular attention will be given to the signifi-
cance of equity, democracy and the precautionary principle in international
environmental politics.◗ Further reading
There is a huge literature on sustainable development. A good place to start
is the Brundtland Report itself (WCED 1987 ). For an academic analysis, see
Lafferty ( 1996 ), Meadowcroft ( 2000 ), Redclift ( 2005 )andBaker ( 2006 ). For a
critical perspective, see Luke ( 2005 ). Dryzek ( 2005 :chs. 7 & 8) presents a per-
ceptive comparison of the discourses of sustainable development and ecolog-
ical modernisation. Good surveys of the ecological modernisation literature
can be found in Christoff (1996b)andMol and Sonnenfeld ( 2000 ). Mol ( 2003 )
examines the relationship between ecological modernisation and globali-
sation. Weale ( 1992 )andHajer ( 1995 )provide excellent empirical studies
of ecological modernisation in a comparative context. The journalsEnviron-
mental PoliticsandSustainable Developmentcarry numerous articles on these
issues.NOTES
1 The Brundtland Report contains a few isolated non-anthropocentric observations
(Achterberg 1993 : 86), but the overall tone is anthropocentric.
2 Awiderdiscussion of sustainable consumption can be found in UNDP
(1998), Cohen and Murphy ( 2001 ), Jackson and Michaelis ( 2003 )andSeyfang ( 2005 ).
3 See http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/partnerships/partnerships.htm.