The discussion around sustainable development has been very intense and the efforts considerable, but the progress is still relatively modest.
Policies tend to favor non-sustainable forms of development that degrade natural resources.
The institutional capacity for promoting sustainable development is weak and sustainable technologies tend to be difficult to adopt. The actual globalisation and free market trends might not only increase some of the negative development impacts on the environment and on the natural resources, but also have adverse impacts on the marginalized sectors of the world population especially in the developing countries. In the dominant economic framework, development decisions benefit many, but have also huge social, environmental and cultural costs. Many other world meetings are organized around such essential subjects as food, poverty and gender. In addition, the recently created UN World Commission on Sustainable Development has started to work.