The United Nations General Assembly established the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1983 in response to growing concerns about both environmental degradation and the economic crisis. The Commission, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Norwegian prime minister, consulted widely for four years, soliciting reports from expert bodies and holding public meetings in several countries. In 1987 it produced its final report, Our Common Future, popularly known as the Brundtland Report (WCED 1987), which popularised the concept of sustainable development worldwide.

To understand the Commission's approach to sustainable development, it is important to be aware of the political context in which it operated. Since the 1972 Stockholm Conference there had been growing awareness of the severity of environmental problems, accentuated by new worries about the global problems of climate change, ozone depletion and biodiversity loss. However, the environmental agenda had been largely hijacked by the affluent North. Meanwhile, poorer countries in the South were experiencing major economic problems with the collapse in commodity prices, the debt crisis and economic stagnation all contributing to worsening poverty (and environmental degradation). Against this background the continuing East-West tensions associated with the Cold War raised serious security concerns.