Sustainable development should take place without damaging the environment and development in the present time should not comprom…

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): Sustainable development should take place without damaging the environment and development in the present time should not compromise with the needs of the future generations.

Reason (R): Agenda 21 was signed by world leaders in 1995.

Select the correct answer from the code given below:

1. A. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
2. B. (A) is false, but (R) is true
3. C. (A) is true, but (R) is false (Correct answer)
4. D. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)

Correct Answer

Option C — (A) is true, but (R) is false

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is (A) is true, but (R) is false.

Key Points

• Assertion is true. This is the classic Brundtland definition of sustainable development — "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
• Reason is false. Agenda 21 was adopted in 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro — not in 1995.
• (A) true and (R) false gives option (c).

Additional Information

• The definition comes from "Our Common Future" (1987), the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway — hence the Brundtland Report.
• The Rio Earth Summit, 1992 produced: Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration, the UNFCCC, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Statement of Forest Principles.
• Later milestones: Rio+10 at Johannesburg (2002), Rio+20 at Rio (2012, "The Future We Want"), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2015) with its 17 SDGs and 169 targets.