The Brundtland Commission was convened by the United Nations in 1983 and charged with the mission of studying the effect of anthropogenic activity on the global environment. The Brundtland Commission Report, issued in 1987, called for greater international cooperation to improve global environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The report stressed that environmental problems were closely tied to problems of economic and social inequality. It offered up an often-quoted definition of the term “sustainable development,” stating that, “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."