Sustainable development as symbolic commitment: Declaratory politics and the seductive appeal of ecological modernisation in the European Union

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has declared itself to be committed to the goal of sustainable development. Ecological modernisation provides the framework within which it marries economic and environmental objectives. Yet, when judged against the authoritative Brundtland formulation of sustainable development, the strategy of ecological modernisation could be viewed as ‘merely symbolic’ politics. This contribution elaborates on the distinction between sustainable development and ecological modernisation and investigates why the EU continues to make declaratory commitment to the former, when it could make a more straightforward statement of allegiance to the latter. The analysis suggests that if ‘symbolism’ is understood as representation, the discourse on sustainable development can be seen as representing the EU in a particular way and thereby contributing to the construction of EU identity. Furthermore, it is argued that the EU's symbolic commitment to sustainable development is not simply an act of ecological deception, but bears important transformative potentials.