"Quality of life" includes in particular employment, which in the developed countries, however, can only be achieved by appropriate restructuring of their sustainable economy and not by its expansion. To avoid misinterpretations of the meaning of such development, the Rio Declaration was supplemented by Agenda "21, the magnum opus of the Conference. Agenda "21, in other words "What must be done.
in the 21st century", is the systemic programme for mankind's sustainable development, the strategy for the new, qualitative development. Thus, after Rio insistence on unilateral economic growth is not just an outdated policy but one that is both illegal and unethical. .
The dogma of sustainable development inaugurates a period of great cultural change. As happens in similar historic circumstances, there were not a few who did not grasp the profundity of the change. Many people still underestimate it, even today when it has started becoming established. No-one, however, has dared question it openly, because it is safeguarded by world-wide assent. But it has also had a firm basis as the product of systemic science. Agenda '21 has gone beyond the analytical reasoning of the past and has united Development Law with Environmental Law. This has eliminated the disunity and contradiction in man's activities which were, at bottom, a conflict between Man and Gaia. .
According to systemic models, the planning of sustained development goes hand in hand with planned implementation, and since then this has been set in motion. The European Union, which took part in the Conference, has already adapted its founding Treaty with the Maastricht provisions and the 5th Action Programme, and participates in the implementing mechanisms. The Sustainable Development Committee of the United Nations is working on issues arising from Agenda "21, which are roughly estimated to number some 2 500! Both that Committee and the new science of Sustainable Development are now working to define the indicators of sustainability.