Sustainable development

Sustainable development is an organizing principle that aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans.^[2] The desired result is a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining the planetary integrity and stability of the natural system.^[3]^[4] Sustainable development tries to find a balance between economic development, environmental protection, and social well-being. The Brundtland Report in 1987 defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".^[5]^[6] The concept of sustainable development nowadays has a focus on economic development, social development and environmental protection for future generations.

Sustainable development was first institutionalized with the Rio Process initiated at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (2015 to 2030) and explained how the goals are integrated and indivisible to achieve sustainable development at the global level.^[7] The UNGA's 17 goals address the global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice.

Sustainable development is interlinked with the normative concept of sustainability. 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."^[8] The concept of sustainable development has been criticized in various ways. While some see it as paradoxical (or as an oxymoron) and regard development as inherently unsustainable, others are disappointed in the lack of progress that has been achieved so far.^[9]^[10] Part of the problem is that "development" itself is not consistently defined.^[11]^: 16

^ Clark, William; Harley, Alicia (2020). "Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 45 (1): 331–86. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012420-043621. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
^ Johnson, Justin Andrew; Baldos, Uris Lantz; Corong, Erwin; Hertel, Thomas; Polasky, Stephen; Cervigni, Raffaello; Roxburgh, Toby; Ruta, Giovanni; Salemi, Colette; Thakrar, Sumil (2023). "Investing in nature can improve equity and economic returns". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (27): e2220401120. Bibcode:2023PNAS..12020401J. doi:10.1073/pnas.2220401120. PMC 10318957. PMID 37364118.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ United Nations General Assembly (1987) .Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future Archived 31 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment.
^ 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.
^ 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
^ "Sustainable Development". UNESCO. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
^ Cite error: The named reference :13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference :15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Berg, Christian (2020). Sustainable action: overcoming the barriers. Abingdon, Oxon. ISBN 978-0-429-57873-1. OCLC 1124780147.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[:7-1] Clark, William; Harley, Alicia (2020). "Sustainability Science: Toward a Synthesis". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 45 (1): 331–86. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012420-043621. This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

[2] Johnson, Justin Andrew; Baldos, Uris Lantz; Corong, Erwin; Hertel, Thomas; Polasky, Stephen; Cervigni, Raffaello; Roxburgh, Toby; Ruta, Giovanni; Salemi, Colette; Thakrar, Sumil (2023). "Investing in nature can improve equity and economic returns". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (27): e2220401120. Bibcode:2023PNAS..12020401J. doi:10.1073/pnas.2220401120. PMC 10318957. PMID 37364118.

[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.

[:1-5] United Nations General Assembly (1987) .Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future Archived 31 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 – Development and International Co-operation: Environment.

[:72-6] 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.

[Purvis-7] 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

[:4-8] "Sustainable Development". UNESCO. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2022.

[:13-9] Cite error: The named reference :13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:15-10] Cite error: The named reference :15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:10-11] Berg, Christian (2020). Sustainable action: overcoming the barriers. Abingdon, Oxon. ISBN 978-0-429-57873-1. OCLC 1124780147.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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