PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

68
A recent definition provided by the European Conference of Ministers of
Transport (ECMT 2000:7) 11
also stressed all three dimensions, but emphasized the
welfare aspect at the same time:
The Objective of sustainable development is to maximise welfare, and provide a sound
economic, social and environmental base for both present and future generations. ...
The development of sustainable transport policies implies reconciling environmental,
social and economic objectives and will require further improvement on a wide range
of forms for inland transport. (my emphasis)
Obviously, different stakeholder groups stress different dimensions of
sustainability depending on their own particular bias. For example, the Sustainable
Mobility Project of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD), 12 which is comprised of an illustrious grouping of major automobile and oil
multinationals, predictably focuses on mobility, rather than transport, and defines
sustainable mobility more as a fundamental human right subject to certain value
limitations or ‘sacrifices’ than as a responsibility requiring urgent human action. In its
voluminous Mobility 2001 report, the group defines sustainable mobility as “the ability to
meet the needs of society to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade, and establish
relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values today or in
the future” (WBCSD 2001:1.2).
A much more skeptical, political economy interpretation of sustainable transport
is presented by Baeten (2000:72):
11 The inside cover of the ECMT publication 'Sustainable Transport Policies' notes that "Ministers from
ECMT's 47 Member and Associate countries endorsed this approach, and this paper as a whole, at their
Council meeting in Prague 2000" (ECMT 2000:4). (All EU member and candidate countries are also full
ECMT Members.) The provided definition itself is a reiteration of definition provided in a OECD Policy
Brief from 1998 (No. 8).