Sustainable development

Sustainable development is an approach to growth and human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.[1][2] The aim is to have a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining planetary integrity.[3][4] Sustainable development aims to balance the needs of the economy, environment, and social well-being. The Brundtland Report in 1987 helped to make the concept of sustainable development better known.

Sustainable development overlaps with the idea of sustainability which is a normative concept.[5] UNESCO formulated a distinction between the two concepts as follows: "Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it."[6]

The Rio Process that began at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro has placed the concept of sustainable development on the international agenda. Sustainable development is the foundational concept of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).[7] These global goals for the year 2030 were adopted in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). They address the global challenges, including for example poverty, climate change, biodiversity loss, and peace.

There are some problems with the concept of sustainable development. Some scholars say it is an oxymoron because according to them, development is inherently unsustainable. Other commentators are disappointed in the lack of progress that has been achieved so far.[8][9] Scholars have stated that sustainable development is open-ended, much critiqued as ambiguous, incoherent, and therefore easily appropriated.[7]

  1. ^ United Nations General Assembly (1987) .Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future March 2022 Archived 2022-03-31 at the Wayback Machine. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment.
  2. ^ United Nations General Assembly (20 March 1987). "Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future; Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment; Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development; Paragraph 1". United Nations General Assembly. Retrieved 1 March 2010.
  3. ^ Robert, Kates W.; Parris, Thomas M.; Leiserowitz, Anthony A. (2005). "What is Sustainable Development? Goals, Indicators, Values, and Practice". Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. 47 (3): 8–21. Bibcode:2005ESPSD..47c...8R. doi:10.1080/00139157.2005.10524444. S2CID 154882898.
  4. ^ Mensah, Justice (2019). "Sustainable development: Meaning, history, principles, pillars, and implications for human action: Literature review". Cogent Social Sciences. 5 (1): 1653531. doi:10.1080/23311886.2019.1653531.
  5. ^ Purvis, Ben; Mao, Yong; Robinson, Darren (2019). "Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins". Sustainability Science. 14 (3): 681–695. Bibcode:2019SuSc...14..681P. doi:10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
  6. ^ "Sustainable Development". UNESCO. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Brown, James H. (2015). "The Oxymoron of Sustainable Development". BioScience. 65 (10): 1027–1029. doi:10.1093/biosci/biv117.
  9. ^ Williams, Colin C; Millington, Andrew C (2004). "The diverse and contested meanings of sustainable development". The Geographical Journal. 170 (2): 99–104. Bibcode:2004GeogJ.170...99W. doi:10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.00111.x. S2CID 143181802.