The Johannesburg Conference -- Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development -- Production, Consumption and the World Summit on Sustainable Development -- Water for Sustainable Development in Africa -- Energy and Sustainable Development at Global Environmental Summits: An Evolving Agenda -- Management of Chemicals for Sustainable Development -- Health: A Necessity for Sustainable Development -- Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States -- Sustainable Development -A New Challenge for the Countries in Central and Eastern Europe -- WSSD 2002, Latin America and Brazil: Biodiversity and Indigenous People -- Sustainable Development and the Role of the Financial World -- Education for Sustainable Development: The Johannesburg Summit and Beyond -- Science, Research, Knowledge and Capacity Building -- Governance for Sustainable Development and Civil Society Participation -- Partnerships -- Is Multilateralism the Future? Sustainable Development or Globalisation as ‘A Comprehensive Vision of the Future of Humanity’.The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was the fourth major conference on the environment and sustainable development in a period of thirty years.The conference came at a moment when most of the indicators of sustainable development in industrialised countries reached historical depths, in particular, biodiversity indicators and sustainable patterns of production and consumption. A credible and objective evaluation of globalisation’s costs and benefits is proving to be difficult. Poverty remains the world’s most serious problem in attaining sustainable development. This book provides an overview of the most important issues as they are dealt with in the WSSD’s Plan of Implementation. It addresses the science behind the discussions on poverty, production and consumption patterns, water, energy, Small Island Developing States, sustainability issues in Central/Eastern Europe and Latin America, and the role of the financial world in the sustainable development of education, science and research. The book offers a unique framework to follow up and evaluate the progressing international discussion on sustainable development. It is essential background reading for all those interested and involved in this discussion: policy-makers, researchers, students and experts.