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The Denmark Declaration - a Danish agenda for sustainable development in the 21st century

Values and visions for the 21st century

One Planet Earth
We all inhabit this same Earth and are mutually dependent – on each other and on nature. We wish equality for all people to have a worthy existence with a high quality of life and an abundant nature. 

Globally, technology is tying man and nature ever more closely together into a complex fabric. Therefore it is in everyone’s best interest that all parts of our community are allowed to thrive. A sustainable lifestyle implies that we shoulder the responsibility for all cycles and interactions that we form part of – both environmentally and socially.

Man, our communities and nature must be made the centrepiece of social development. 
We desire a development 
-	that is based on the equal right of all humans to draw on the natural resources of this planet, today and in the future
-	that acknowledges that there are limits to our consumption of raw materials and our discharge of pollutants
-	that in terms of planning and management is based on democratic principles of influence and participation based on a long-term and global perspective
-	that cares for natural processes, plant- and wildlife
-	that respects the value of nature in its own right.

Today’s world is fraught with inequality, and fulfilling the basic needs of the world’s poor is of paramount importance. As one of the wealthiest countries worldwide, Denmark should take the lead in showing solidarity with those stricken with poverty and disaster. Conventional forms of economic aid have proved inadequate. New ways of providing help for self-help need to be developed, with particular focus on promoting fair conditions in trade. These would require us, in countries with large-scale consumption, to reduce our own use of natural resources to a globally sustainable level in order to allow for others to increase their welfare and utilisation of the earth’s natural resources.

The global ecosystems are vulnerable and irreplaceable. The extermination of species is merely the top of an iceberg comprising far-reaching deterioration of the living conditions of wild- and plant life in most regions on earth. Denmark is one of the countries in which the process is the most advanced. Most of the country has been built upon, or is being cultivated as fields or plantations. Just a few percent of the total area still holds undisturbed habitats with primordial plant- and wildlife. 

Nature is an asset in its own right, and experiencing nature and its use is of prime importance if the present and future generations are to comprehend the necessity of sustainable development. Hence, a concerted effort is particularly needed in this country, in order to protect plant- and wildlife and to draw on natural resources with greater care and respect. 

The good life
Development of a sustainable society must rely on insights into its inherent necessity, allied with visions for “the good life”. 

For a while money has been made the measure of all things, and an end in itself. Yet, to the vast majority of Danes material needs are no longer the most urgent necessity. In more than one way the process that first created our affluence has now reached a stage where ’more of the same’ will do more harm than good. In many ways what we wish for now runs counter to demands for increased productivity, an intensified pace and increasing risks in a society competing to maximise economic growth. Now is the time to give higher priority to other values, and to draw upon our social reserve in order to achieve such goals.

In the 21st century we need to develop social structures that will
-	advance an accommodating and tolerant society, with room for and need for all.
-	increase our chances of an active, fulfilling and non-attritional working life, with time for family and a private life
-	stimulate our resourcefulness and let us be creative beyond reason and necessity
-	give us more opportunities for showing intimacy and caring in personal relations 
-	promote a healthy and non-toxic environment, both indoors and outdoors, with clean air, uncontaminated drinking water and naturally wholesome foodstuffs, without artificial additives
-	let us experience a dynamic and untamed nature, instead of a managed and hamstringed one.

These demands embody an understanding of “the good life”, in which wealth and development are not measured by money and material consumption only. 

Our technology and democratic legacy hold a host of growth and development potentials within the immaterial realm: In knowledge, arts, quality, caring, education, health, experience, communication, and community spirit. Yet, in order to qualify our choices, we must learn to take a long view – both in political, commercial and personal terms – in which purely pecuniary considerations are not the decisive factors. 

The local environment is the starting point
Sustainable development is a social transformation process in which new goals and values must be developed as we go. There is no such thing as one sustainable society or one way of sustainable living. However a sustainable community is per se a cyclical one, based on renewable sources of energy. Therefore any sustainable lifestyle is necessarily deeply rooted in wherever you live. 

Globalisation has changed the extreme into the ordinary. It is cheaper and easier to buy imported foodstuffs and petrol from remote oil wells than subsisting on local foodstuffs and utilising renewable energy. The global interchange of knowledge and culture has become requisite to our wealth and quality of life; yet, when it comes to material resources, a sustainable society will have to focus much more narrowly on nearby and local sources. 

The norm should be for food, energy supply and raw materials supply for production to reflect local conditions and resources. In a sustainable society negotiating everyday activities and needs with a minimum of transport is not only feasible – it is also the easiest and cheapest way. In practical terms this would also imply that it should be easier to live and work in the rural districts, and in a similar way ”more ecology into the cities”, e.g. in the form of decentralized energy supply, public parks, gardens and hen pens. Stronger local roots will produce a wealth of variety, instead of global uniformity. Moreover proximity will make our environmental and social context far more visible. 

Enhance the conditions of the local community
Today the tasks within the social service sector, plus care of children, the elderly and the disabled are mainly overseen by the public sector. This has turned many social relations into professionalized ones that exist only because one party is paid a salary. Concurrently many private social networks have gradually deteriorated, which has contributed to a marginalization of population segments.

Every human being needs to be part of a community. Children especially need to experience a community with several grown-ups and a variety of activities. An upgrading of our welfare society should imply that we strengthen private, social relations and local communities, where everyone is needed. Strengthening the social and cultural fabric is important, not least if the aspiration is for our culture to develop in order to incorporate the ecological dimension.

New life to democracy
Technology development, cross-border environmental problems and global exchange of commodities and services all imply new interdependences and new solutions.
A stronger local mooring requires decision power to local administrations and citizens and holds obvious promise of revitalising participatory democracy. The national level will set out the framework for local management, considering the overall cohesion via solutions across the traditional borders of sectors and jurisdictions. If the civilian population and the business sectors are to be mobilised in favour of sustainable solutions and experimenting with new patterns of behaviour, the prerequisites are new forms of democratic dialogue and co-operation, between authorities, citizens, experts and companies. 

On the supranational level a political globalisation must be activated, in order to protect local communities and shared resources, and to counteract the adverse effects of commercial globalisation. There is a great need for reciprocal international co-operation, to take place in a wide range of civilian, legal, political and democratic bodies on international level. Therefore experiments in new forms of government and new decision fora must be carried out on all levels.

A new economic law of gravitation
In the economic context nature forms the basis of all production, including the capital generated by man. Our goal should be to preserve the potentials of a sustainable utilisation of our natural basis, thus enabling the fulfilment of future needs, yet to be defined. 
Therefore, in a sustainable society the economic system must clearly reflect the framework that our natural basis and common values chart for our production and consumption. In it, the economic rationale rewards consideration for the environment. The individual will not just exploit resources ruthlessly, without at least paying a surcharge for over-consumption or degradation of the natural basis. The sustainable solution should be the obvious choice, because it is easy, good, and cost-efficient. 
Also investment in sustainable production that does not burden society with additional expenditure should be made attractive. Sadly the opposite is often true today, since there is more profit to be gained on destruction, selfishness and shortsightedness. This shows that sustainable development will require the market mechanisms to be adjusted so they act upon the volume and character of production, consumption, and investment. 
Yet there are domains where the market mechanism is incapable of making production and consumption take a sustainable turn, and where political decisions are called for.

Technology needs to underpin humanity
Technology is capable of reinforcing man’s appropriation of nature; yet technology can also offer the methods and tools needed for a good life, without transgressing the framework set by sustainability. The purpose of technology should be to support mankind, enabling us to experience and draw upon the essence of being human.

Recent developments in biotech sciences and artificial intelligence have, in a fundamental way, challenged man’s role and the meaning of being human. They have shown us that we cannot let technology evolve detached from the values and goals of our social development. To us genetic engineering and interference with the most fundamental life processes do not make sense if the sole purpose is to obtain a short-term competitive advantage in the market. It is of prime importance that we manage to redirect the technological development. Otherwise we risk being left as strangers in a world enslaved by mechanisms of our own making. 

One important perspective of our technological development has to be a more efficient utilisation of scarce natural resources. Basically a sustainable society should base its technologies on non-toxic, biodegradable and reusable materials and renewable energy sources. 
These are the goals we have to bear in mind when evaluating and specifying demands for new technology. 

Conversion to a sustainable society
Today, at the start of the 21st century, society’s structural and organisational layout, legislation, and economic system remain cut out to support an industrialism based on continued growth in resource consumption. This presents a number of barriers to a sustainable course of action. These barriers must be identified, and our systems be changed to address the realities and goals of a new era. 

We need to organise a society that favours sustainable production and makes it obvious and easy to go for a sustainable lifestyle, both in the urban and rural environment. A sustainable lifestyle can also be a positive choice: a choice made because it is attractive, challenging, gratifying, meaningful, beautiful, and pleasing. 

On the one hand such a conversion process is about activating development, innovative thinking and experimentation: new organisational structures, new decision fora, new forms of production, new technologies, and new lifestyles. 

On the other hand it is about exposing and phasing out legislative, economic, organisational and cultural structures that support non-sustainable production modes and ways of life, and impede sustainable solutions. 

Such a conversion will call for everyone in a society to be involved, and on all levels. An effort is needed from our government and parliament to promote, assist and prepare the way for local and private contributions. An effort is also needed to ensure the comprehensive view and the global perspective, and to further international co-operation on sustainability. 

We believe that most people do wish to contribute to a sustainable Planet Earth, joining forces with others, with active contributions from their parliament, government and authorities, and with true influence on the development. 

Against that background we submit the following recommendations for a national sustainable development strategy in Denmark.

Recommendations for a national sustainable development strategy in Denmark

1.	The sustainability principle must be written into our constitution and translated into juridical practice.
2.	A new economic law of gravity must be introduced
3.	Cleaner technologies must be advanced
4.	A sustainable working life must be prioritised
5.	Better living conditions must be ensured for plant- and wildlife
6.	The public sector must take the lead both as a green consumer and a green enterprise 
7.	Local communities must be strengthened 
8.	Room must be made for public participation in and discourse on sustainable development
9.	Denmark must lead the way in efforts towards global solidarity
10.	An integrated set of sustainability indicators must be developed.

1.	The sustainability principle must be written into our constitution and translated into juridical practice 

Presently there are several legal barriers to a sustainable development, and a conversion to a sustainable judicial system is called for. This is prerequisite in order to truly safeguard the citizens’ opportunity to take part in the decision process, and to ensure comprehensive evaluations and the realisation of environmental considerations in all sectors. A major step towards conversion to a sustainable juridical practice is to constitutionalize a sustainability principle, implying both a right and an obligation to preserve our natural basis and a clean environment. This would promote a general conversion of the judicial reasoning and principles based on which rules are interpreted and discretion exercised. 

Today the notion of sustainability does not form part of the Danish constitution, which, more than anything, is coloured by individual civil rights, including those protecting the sacredness of private property. 
One way this is reflected in jurisprudence is that a plaintiff will normally have to be personally and directly affected in order to obtain a legal protection of the environment. A new paradigm in legal thinking is needed in order to guarantee that individuals, citizens’ groups and environmentalist NGOs can obtain a statutory protection of common resources, nature or the interests of future generations.

Most modern constitutions have had sustainability added among their fundamental values. For instance, in the 1990s, Norway and Finland had constitutional provisions concerning sustainable development incorporated. In both countries legal usage has thus helped promote a development characterised by the understanding that private interest is not necessarily given the first priority, when it comes to protection.

The Danish constitution should lay down both a material and a procedural right concerning the protection of common resources. Citizens must have a constitutional right to an environment that ensures their health, and to a nature with its productive capacity and diversity preserved. The constitution must also safeguard the rights of both individuals, citizens’ groups and environmentalist NGOs to environmental information – to share in the decision processes prior to the passing of regulations and rulings, to institute proceedings before administrative authorities, and to bring an action before the courts of justice. At the same time our constitution should lay down an obligation of both citizens and authorities to take a long-term and comprehensive perspective in utilising natural resources, in order to also guarantee such rights for future generations.

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to initiate a constitutional amendment in which a sustainability principle concerning the protection of our natural basis is included among the fundamental values of the Danish legal system, both as a material and procedural right, and as an obligation for both citizens and public authorities.

2.	A new economic law of gravity must be introduced

Manpower must be made affordable, and use of scarce natural resources and polluting productions and activities made costly
An ecological tax reform, to relieve tax on labour and instead providing revenue from resource consumption, combined with green taxes used solely to regulate behaviour, can change the economic rules of the game to promote sustainable development. 

Higher prices on resources and lower labour costs will alter the composition of the labour market and the form of technology invested on development. Thus we will be able to purchase more products and services that require major inputs of human effort, such as research, design, care, etc. Repairing will pay off, compared to discarding and buying new things. Once manpower is made more affordable, we can afford spending more time doing things properly. At the same time imports from far away countries and long-distance commuting for work will be made more expensive. That in turn will promote the use of local resources, and will also speed up the use of electronic communication to substitute physical transportation and travelling. 

So long as transportation is unrealistically low-priced better electronic communication would rather provide new incentives for travelling, to see the people and places we have communicated with via the Internet. Tax on transportation is therefore of paramount importance in order to prevent that IT advances produce an ever more resource-intensive lifestyle. Also the boom in world trade foreseen in the wake of the WTO free trade agreements must be countered. If world trade is not based on a roughly ”realistic” pricing of raw materials and costs of transport, then the WTO agreements will have detrimental effects and further accelerate an entirely unbalanced economic development, in terms of the environment. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to proceed with a green fiscal policy that lets scarce natural resources carry tax, while reducing tax levied on labour, and which lets polluting productions and activities carry taxes, thus giving environmentally friendly alternatives more competitive edge. 

Introduce consumption-based payment combined with ”non-consumption rewards”
Behavioural adjustment via green taxes and economic incentives can be put together using more or less efficient and equitable means. For a number of fields direct consumption-based payments should be introduced, and thus a reward on ”non-consumption” and environmentally correct behaviour. 
The applied principle should be double edged, meaning that ”resource-consumers” and “environment-stressers” will pay, whilst ”non-consumers” are rewarded economically. For instance the cost of private motoring should be redistributed, so weight-related tax on motor vehicles (possibly insurance premiums, too) is made cheaper, the less you drive – perhaps combined with a pro rata tax levied per kilometre travelled. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to introduce the principle of “consumption-based payment”, combined with a “non-consumption reward” in the area of environment and resources. 

Sustainability investments to be promoted
Promoting investment in sustainable technology and projects based on sustainability principles is of major importance. Such projects typically cover a long time horizon, or otherwise fall short of the demands on optimisation of economic returns. The pension funds have ample investment resources at their disposal, bonded for a number of years. Our society supports superannuation schemes via tax allowances, and would thus reasonably be entitled to make demands on the investment of such funds. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to demand that pension funds and other institutional investors invest in sustainable development. In this a major step is to ensure that such investors can also invest in SMEs and long-term projects without coming up against legal and formal requirements regarding maximal return in the short term.

3.	Cleaner technologies must be advanced

Less resource consumption and waste generation
Based on a calculation of the ecological-environmental scope of action, it is certain that the affluent western societies will have to cut raw material consumption and pollution emissions by 90 per cent, a so-called factor 10. 
A Nordic Ministers Council study on factor 4 and factor 10 concluded that given the known technologies it is now possible to reduce resource consumption by a factor 4 by the year 2030 and a factor 10 by the year 2050. It is also seen from the conclusions that this cannot be achieved without radical changes of values, both individually and in society as such, and law amendments. Researchers and environmentalist NGOs have presented similar conclusions elsewhere in Europe.

A factor 10 reduction would require technical and material initiatives in the following areas: 
-	Development and use of more durable products (longer product life)
-	Development and use of de-materialised products (i.e. products providing the same service or performance with min. 10 times less raw material input)
-	Increased reuse and recycling, also in the form of industrial symbioses (in which waste from one industry is used as input to another)
-	An overall stagnation or an outright fall in consumption (services and products per capita)

•	We expect our government and parliament to live up to the 1995 parliamentary decision – that future environmental plans of action will be based on the notion of ‘ecological scope of action’. For the preparation of a national action plan for sustainable development we call upon our government and parliament, to take their point of departure in the notion of the ecological scope of action and the level of ambition derived hereof: to reduce society’s aggregate raw material consumption and waste generation by a factor 10 within the year 2050.

As for CO_2 the Danish government has voted to reduce emissions by 20 per cent compared to 1988 within the year 2005. The 1996 Energy Plan, “Energy 21”, has targeted a 50 per cent reduction of CO_2 emissions by the year 2030 compared to 1990. 
However, if Denmark is to fulfil her share of a global commitment to stabilise global warming (and reduce it on the long term), then a reduction in the magnitude of 50 per cent will be needed already in 2010, relative to 1990! Considerable reductions in CO_2 are feasible – both in practical and technological terms – without necessarily causing a decline in welfare. According to the Danish Ministry for Environment and Energy we could halve the total national power consumption by consistently replacing electrical equipment by the most energy efficient available.

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to promote the exploitation of considerable potential energy savings in all sectors and encourage conversion to renewable energy in order, as a minimum, to achieve the Danish government’s CO_2-goals for 2005 and its target for a 50 per cent reduction of CO_2 emissions. One instrument to be used is raising the price of energy, to let it far better reflect its society-related cost.

Phase-out of hazardous substances
At present some 20,000 hazardous substances are in use in Denmark only part of which has been examined in terms of their health or environmental impacts. Among these substances the Danish environmental agency has listed about 1,400 that cause concern because of their health and environmental impacts. These substances are still in use in Denmark, and are carcinogenous, repro- and genotoxic, allergenic, endanger the environment or are extremely toxic otherwise.

•	We, the citizens, cannot accept that considerations for specific economic interests are given higher priority than concerns for the well-being and health of ourselves and our offspring, and we call upon our government and parliament to ban the use of hazardous substances without awaiting the foot-dragging international efforts in the field.

Research and development 
A conversion to sustainable social structures and patterns of behaviour should be underpinned by new clean technologies to reduce material and energy consumption, material waste, use of harmful substances etc.

•	We call upon our government and parliament to adopt R&D policies giving priority to the development of cleaner technologies. These fields also hold considerable promise for Denmark in terms of export and employment.

A few potential focus areas: 
-	Environmental perspectives of IT and digitalisation 
-	Fuel cells
-	Bio-materials to replace plastics
-	Robotic/sensor technology for waste separation
-	Ecological crop and husbandry management systems 
-	Substitution of substances injurious to the environment
-	Eco-construction and urban ecology 

4.	A sustainable working life must be prioritised

A sustainable working life implies that everyone can work for full lifetime without falling ill and being worn out by work. This means that a healthy working environment – both physically and mentally – must be created at all workplaces. Industrial injuries must be prevented, and marginalization from the labour market be stopped. This would benefit both the individual and society as such. 

The development of a sustainable working life also needs a starting point in comprehensive thinking. That implies that industrial health issues will also have to be related to organisational and technological development, and that the interplay between working and private life resp. must also be made a focus of attention.

•	We call upon our government and parliament to incorporate a preventative work environment effort into any political initiative concerning the labour market. Apart from labour market policy this goes in particular for environmental, social, health, commerce and education policies.

Company staff must participate actively in corporate environmental efforts, and their professional insight and experience must be made useful in endeavours towards achieving environmental improvements. This implies that co-workers need to be trained in preventative environmental functions in order to acquire the skills needed for appropriate action. Developing environmental competence will require a focus on learning processes, and on in-company knowledge and competence.

•	We call upon our government and parliament to introduce instruments suited to support the creation of comprehensive environmental competences in all companies, with the co-workers as agents of change.

5.	Better living conditions must be ensured for plant- and wildlife

Many years of retrogression for plant- and wildlife in Denmark must be averted, and more leeway should be given to the dynamics of nature. Nature’s stability and ability to regain balance must be strengthened, and nature must be brought in closer to the every Dane of today and tomorrow. 

We therefore call upon our government and parliament to
•	make a concerted effort in order to secure habitats in larger continuous natural areas – and integrated into the agricultural landscape
•	allocate funds for increased rehabilitation of nature
•	launch initiatives to promote green and unkempt “oases” for both people, plant- and wildlife in urban zones, including less management and “aesthetization” of public areas, combined with the phase-out of pesticide use on such areas
•	adjust regulation on access to nature under the Nature Protection Act, with a view to improving public access e.g. to the open countryside. This should be done based on a carefully reasoned balance between considerations of accessibility against regards for vulnerable areas of nature and sensitive crop production.
•	investigate the potentials of “multiple land use”, both as an administrative principle and as an agricultural management principle
•	draw up concrete national objectives regarding nature and the environment, to form part of a “sustainability budget”
•	advance demands to local councils and county authorities on local nature and environment objectives

Outside the urban zones Denmark consists mainly of agro-landscapes, and therefore it is of paramount importance for plant- and wildlife that farming practices integrate considerations of nature. 

We call upon our government and parliament to 
•	make demands on the phase-out of pesticide use in agriculture 
•	launch initiatives to promote extensive practices in agriculture and forestry, also by linking agricultural support systems up with nature and environmental demands, and by increasing subsidies for conversion to ecological and quasi-natural management systems.

At the same time citizens must be given more influence on nature polices, and be made co-players in the management of nature and environment. Which forms of nature we want in this country, and where, must be decided in an interplay between citizens, landowners, local authorities and the national political and administrative authorities. 

•	We call upon our government and parliament to let nature management be a trial ground for participation and new decision fora within the limits set by the protection of our natural basis.

6.	The public sector must take the lead as a green consumer and a green enterprise 

The public sector has an obligation to take a lead and demonstrate that its actions honour the very demands imposed on enterprises and citizens. A consistently environment-minded purchase of commodities and services, and a consistent environmentally friendly running of institutions, buildings and spaces would generate considerable improvements in terms of environment.

On an annual basis the Danish state, counties and local councils purchase and consume commodities and services at about 100 billion DKK (~ 13.5 billion EUR). By making consistent environmental demands on commodities and services, and hence on manufacturers and suppliers, the public sector could help to speed up the environmental certification of Danish companies. At present merely about 650 out of this country’s approx. 300.000 enterprises hold an environmental certificate. Moreover this would help to increase the number of eco-labelled products available on the market.

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to speed up the transition to a consistent green procurement policy in the public sector, and to make demands on the public sector concerning a consistent environmentally friendly running of its own institutions, buildings and spaces, e.g. via environmental management. 

Progressive companies do not only acknowledge their pecuniary liability vis-à-vis their shareholders. They also recognize a more far-reaching environmental and social responsibility. Their balance sheets are characterized by a ”triple bottom-line”. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to support the use of “the triple bottom line” by introducing environmental and social provisions further to public calls for tender. 

Altogether these initiatives would imply that any company undertaking to voluntarily take a lead for a better environment and a more accommodating labour market would reap a well-earned competitive advantage. 

7.	More power to local communities 

Over the last decades rural districts have found themselves in a vicious circle, with declining employment and earning potential, combined with a deteriorating tax base and public service. Local shops have by and large disappeared, leaving a shrinking local population, who often have to commute long-distance to work in or near major cities. Today the rural population use their cars mainly to move between the different ”satellites” of their everyday lives (work, childcare facilities, schools, shopping, etc.), and the money spent on individual transport in private cars does not reflect the cost for society as such.

We wish that sustainable local communities be developed also in rural districts, with employment opportunities and functional service facilities. Incentives should be created in order to attract new green enterprises and institutions, including jobs for the highly educated and well-paid population segment. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to launch studies on how to create a business and housing structure in rural districts that will also contribute to reducing individual transport by private cars.

Moreover there is a need for a renewed evaluation of which activities and functions to allow in the rural zones of the rural districts. Objectives concerning more access to nature, multiple land use and opportunities for experiments in ecological living meet with obstacles, more specifically due to The Nature Protection Act and the zoning provisions of The Planning Act, as enacted by the county authorities. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to launch a comprehensive investigation with a view to amending laws and their administration pertinent to this area, including an evaluation of benefits and disadvantages from a sustainability perspective. Basically the zoning provisions of the planning act should not obstruct a sustainable development in rural districts.

However care should be taken that a more lenient practice with small-scale ecological projects does not carry relaxations when it comes to locating major settlements and industries in rural zones.

8.	Room must be made for public participation in and discourse on sustainable development

Sustainable development is very much a matter of transforming fundamental attitudes and patterns of behaviour. As we know such a transformation cannot be brought about by prescription, but only by a dialogue on and testing of new patterns. So there is a need to create a wider space, in which a dialogue on and experiments in sustainable solutions can take place.

We call upon the Danish government and parliament to
•	institute an ecological ombudsman authority, invested with powers of discretion concerning rules pertaining to ecologically and socially reasonable projects, from a sustainability perspective. 
•	introduce experimental zones, in which citizens are able to experiment with new sustainable solutions, with more latitude for exemptions from laws etc.
•	provide incentives in order to increase the percentage of Agenda 21 active local councils from currently 70 per cent to 100 per cent by UN’s Rio+10 session in 2002.

Calls for a comprehensive understanding and a broad inclusion of different stakeholders are not supported by traditional Danish administration culture, and evidently the authorities are hesitant as to how they are to cope with such challenges. 

•	In order to provide a wider base of experience we call upon the Danish government and parliament to launch studies and experiments in “sector integration” and new democratic forms of dialogue and co-operation involving different types of stakeholders. 

In recent years The Green Guides, The Green Fund and The Green Job Pool have been major driving forces in local sustainability initiatives.

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to continue and strengthen The Green Secretariat (The Green Fund and The Green Job Pool) and The Green Guides.

Learning sustainability principles and practice must be made an integral part of all forms of education and creation of skills, especially in the upbringing and education of children and young people. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to include “Principles and practice of sustainability” as a curricular topic in mainstream education.

9.	Denmark must lead the way in efforts towards global solidarity

Over the 20th century we gradually became used to showing our solidarity with the least prosperous amongst us via the fiscal system. 

In the 21st century the vision is for our solidarity to be extended to the worldwide population.
That will require a fundamental rethinking of the rich nations’ development aid, plagued as it is with numerous shortcomings and lack of efficiency. Aid must be internationalized more than previously (multilateral aid) and be funded via direct international sources of revenue, e.g. a tax on speculative foreign exchange transactions. Concurrently aid must be converted from the existing “alms principle” into statutory revenue sharing and equalization grants – similar to the system used between wealthy and poor local counties in this country, and the beginnings of which are also emerging in the EU, via the Cohesion Funds. Finally provisions should be made for grant aid to be made conditional on democratic government and sustainable development in the recipient country, and they must be subject to independent international auditing and evaluation in order to prevent fraud and guarantee efficient use of equalization grants.

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to work for a conversion of aid to developing countries according to the above criteria, in the EU, UN and other relevant fora. 

However redistribution by development aid will not suffice. Such aid must be complemented with new principles concerning solidarity; more than anything ”fair trade” that lets poor countries access our markets without tariff barriers. 

Moreover knowledge transfer through education, training and aid for restructuring will enable farmers, fishermen and other occupations in the third world to earn a better living, thus enabling sustainable farming and use of natural resources. 

•	We call upon the Danish government and parliament to include such principles on global solidarity in our national sustainable development plan, and to work for their mediation among western industrialized countries.

10.	 An integrated set of sustainability indicators must be developed

Up until now any evaluation of whether social development trends are the manifestations of progress or retrogression has relied closely on recorded economic indices, especially the gross national product (GDP). As an index of economic activity for a given period, basically computed in market prices, GDP is neither designed for nor suitable for saying anything definite about sustainability. Moreover GDP as a developmental target is based on a competitive concept, thus prompting international comparisons with particular focus on material growth and cultural uniformity. 

Making for sustainable development calls for developing new and more comprehensive tools. So if we need a comprehensive picture of development we have to abandon the notion of a single development index and exchange it for a set of sustainability indicators. Such a tool will consist of several quantitative and qualitative indicators, each of which will gauge the condition, state of stress, or effort within a key area essential to sustainable development. In unison such an indicator system will integrate all aspects of a sustainable development and demonstrate the interdependence between sectors. It must be able to say something about where our development is heading on the short and the long term. 

Sustainability indicators must be used both as a tool for prioritization when preparing strategies and as a follow-up tool. Indicators must be selected to reflect areas of concern and objectives once they have been placed on the agenda as being essential to a sustainable development. Furthermore such indicators must undergo current evaluation and development, as problems and focus areas change. 

•	We recommend that the Danish government and parliament prepare a comprehensive system of sustainability indicators comprising, as a minimum, the following general categories of indicators: 

- Indicators of the physical volume of production/consumption and nature impoundment: quantitative and qualitative indicators of material consumption, energy consumption and land use

- Economy and technology indicators: indicators of preventive environmental intervention, including indicators of green investments, indicators of R&D in and development/use of green technologies

- Social indicators: objective and subjective welfare indicators, including health and quality-of-life indicators, democracy indicators and education indicators

- Environment indicators: environmental impact indicators, including indicators of CO2 emissions, pesticide use, hazardous substances use, and waste generation. Environmental status indicators, including quantitative and qualitative indicators of air, water and soil condition 

- Nature indicators: status indicators of plant- and wildlife, living conditions and biodiversity; indicators of ecosystem stability and regenerative capacity. 

•	It is considered prerequisite for the indicator mechanism to be linked up with targets and action plans via a “sustainability budget”, or with targets on what such indicators should show on the medium and long term, e.g. in 5, 10 and 20 years respectively.

The selection of indicators for the said five general categories will depend on the values and goals to be promoted by the social development. Thus the selection of indicators cannot be made the subject of purely factual decision. 

•	We therefore call upon the Danish government and parliament to make the selection of sustainability indicators a key issue of the general societal dialogue upon which a National Agenda 21 has to rest, and a vehicle for actively involving citizens in defining and leaving their mark on a sustainable development. 

The background and emergence of the Denmark Declaration

With a view to requesting professional, voluntary and popular organizations to countersign the Denmark Declaration we would like to provide the following information concerning the initiative and the its progress towards the final wording of the declaration.

Background of the Denmark Declaration
At the 1997 UN General Assembly on environment and development (UNGASS), marking the 5 year anniversary of the 1992 UN conference on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro, the member nations were called upon to prepare their individual national sustainable development strategies no later than 2002 – strategies to be presented at the UN environmental conference in South Africa that year. 

This task, which complements Local Agenda 21 by addressing national structures of essence to sustainable development, was announced in the Danish government’s 1999 Nature and Environmental Policy Statement.

According to the government the task provides an opportunity to focus on one of the most important topics of our era, and to co-operate with large parts of the Danish society.

The aim of the Denmark Declaration
The Denmark Declaration is a draft presentation to the Danish government and parliament on what fundamental values and issues their work with the national strategy should take as its points of departure. Moreover the Denmark Declaration provides a number of recommendations for government initiatives. The declaration is not preoccupied with issues of nature and environment; it collates environmental with economic and social issues, in concordance with the sustainability concept.

Furthermore the Denmark Declaration is a request to the Danish government to open co-operation with the signatories to the declaration on the preparation of a national sustainable development strategy in Denmark. Such broad dialogue between government, institutions and private citizens was an explicit assumption in the Agenda 21 document from the Rio session.

Target groups of the declaration
The Denmark Declaration will be sent to 70 national professional, voluntary and popular organizations, which are herewith called upon, by their signature, to accede to the declaration before it is handed over to the Danish government and parliament in early 2001. Annex 1 lists the 70 organizations.

Apart from these organizations, which will be asked directly to accede to the Denmark Declaration, other interested organizations and local councils and counties are also able to accede to the declaration on application to Network for Ecological Education and Practice (Eco-net). 

The declaration’s final target group is the Danish government and parliament. In practical terms, however, seeing the preparation of a national strategy through will be the task of the Danish government, whom we therefore request to involve the signatory organizations in cooperation. 

Originator of the Denmark Declaration
The Denmark Declaration was first initiated by the Eco-net which has been granted funds from the Green Fund under the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy and The Danish Millennium Fund set up by the government to conduct a broader social dialogue regarding demands on a sustainable development. 

Eco-net is an association working towards general education on ecology, nature and environment. The association has a board of directors, chaired by Bo Bramming, cand.paed.bio.

Organization
In the spring of 2000 Eco-net set up an Agenda 21 council of 41 members from organizations, local councils/counties, universities and sector research institutions, the corporate sector and more. The purpose was to create a broad co-operation on the formulation of the Denmark Declaration, and the Agenda 21 Council was charged with the task of articulating the first drafts of the declaration. During their work council members were present as private individuals. Annex 2 lists those among the council members, who were actively involved, and who back up the declaration’s themes as being essential to a debate on the substance of a national strategy.

The Agenda 21 Council set up an editorial group that was given authority to prepare a first draft of the declaration and subsequently, upon circulation, to work comments and more into the declaration. 

The process behind the Denmark Declaration
Based on an exhaustive debate on an e-mail list, with nearly 100 contributions by members of the Agenda 21 Council, a first draft for the Denmark Declaration was written. 

In June, at an environmental exhibition in Copenhagen (“The Green Track”), an open forum discussed the draft. Based on that discussion (among other things) the Agenda 21 Council prepared a revised draft that was circulated to the 70 national organizations and to local councils/counties in July.

The discourse on the Denmark Declaration peaked at “ØkoTræf 2000”, a popular event taking place 17-20 August 2000 at the Roskilde Show Ground, with an attendance of 5-600, during which the final presentation and hearing of the Denmark Declaration took place. 

After the expiration of the hearing period, 1st September, the Agenda 21 Council – based on hearing responses received and inputs from ØkoTræf 2000 – prepared the final declaration. 

Based on that popular mobilization the Denmark Declaration will now be dispatched to professional, voluntary and popular organizations, with a request to accede by their signature. 

Accession by signature

“We – professional, voluntary and popular organizations in Denmark – herein, by our signature to the Denmark Declaration, present a number of issues, values and recommendations to our government and parliament, as a blueprint for a co-operation on the preparation of a national sustainable development plan in Denmark in the 21st century – a National Agenda 21. 

We support the declaration’s themes as being essential to a debate on sustainable development in Denmark. A national Agenda 21 has to be of a comprehensive nature, which is reflected in the generality of the declaration’s themes. However that implies that taken individually we are not equally committed to all of its issues; nor do we necessarily agree with its every statement.

We do, however, expect our government and parliament to relate to the issues, values and recommendations brought up for debate in this declaration. As our own part of co-operation with the Danish government we will pledge ourselves – within our own scopes of activity – to creating dialogue on sustainability and to integrating the principles hereof into our own work. Such an effort will extend the debate on sustainable development and reinforce sustainable behaviour in wide circles and contexts. This our effort will make a major supplement to the endeavours of our government and parliament, and will underpin work towards a national plan on sustainable development in Denmark.”

Organizations acceding the Denmark Declaration to be found at www.DanmarksAgenda21.dk/DD