Sustainable Development, Power and Distributional Effects:The Case of Acid Rain in The Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper the pitfalls and barriers will be investigated when authorities have the intention to operationalize sustainability. It will be demonstrated that even the concept itself is accompanied by many difficulties. First, it is not sure which level of pollution and which use of resources are possible to meet the sustainability goal. Secondly, confronted with environmental measures, polluting economic sectors become aware of the fact that carrying capacity of nature is limited and that they have to reduce their claims on nature and the environment. Given the limits on the use of ecosystems, problems arise over how the limited possibilities to use ecosystems must be distributed.