Jacques Delors and sustainable development: two founding speeches

Jacques Delors and sustainable development: two founding speeches

Jacques Delors and sustainable development: two founding speeches

With two speeches delivered respectively in Rio in June 1992 and in Brussels in November 1993, Jacques Delors laid the foundations of his vision of sustainable development for Europe. This vision would eventually blossom into what is to some extent his testament for Europe: the "White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment", subtitled "The Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century".

This White Paper, published in March 1994, contains a chapter entitled "Towards a new development model". The proposals in this chapter, already present in these two speeches, are ahead of their time. They include the rebalancing of taxation on labour (too high) and on natural resources (too low) in favour of employment and environmental protection. There is also the CO2 tax, which was never adopted by the Council due to lack of unanimity, but of which one can find traces in the ETS and, more recently, in the CBAM proposal.

At hand is the more fundamental concern of rethinking the notion of growth and its measurement: how can we accept that the increased time spent in traffic jams, despite the nuisance it causes, increases our GDP! We also see, long before it was adopted, the description of what a circular economy would look like, including how it would better conserve our natural resources. Much of what Jacques Delors called for in these speeches eventually came about, but long afterwards. In this respect, the Green Deal and the "Fit for 55" package are a crowning achievement. Finally, the European Union is taking stock of the challenges that Jacques Delors had outlined decades before and is now determined to face them. It is not too late to do so!

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies in accordance with our cookies policy. Learn more