Sustainable Development

Recent Definitions of Sustainable Development

In the 1970s, radical environmentalists in particular called on Western nations to abandon growth and to “de-develop,” so that Third World development could continue until a more equitable balance between the two types of economy was reached. Thereafter, development should observe limits to growth. In the past twenty years, however, this development perspective has been eclipsed by that of ecological modernization (EM). This view holds that economic growth and environmental protection are compatible and indeed mutually reinforcing, given careful management of both. It was in this climate that the Brundtland definition of SD gained broad acceptability.

The Brundtland definition implies that future generations should have as great a range of environmental resources and choices of how to use them as people now do. Hence development should not degrade ecosystems so much that the range of environmental resources and services they offer is narrowed for the future.

According to the Brundtland Report, to achieve SD, it was vital to do more than merely maintain the health of the environment. The social causes of environmental degradation, including poverty, would have to be addressed. Somewhat against the inclination of more radical environmentalists, Brundtland argued that economic growth through a free market was the main way to tackle world poverty, and that this could be achieved by merging economic and environmental planning, promoting technology, and introducing financial devices like pollution taxes to “green” growth (i.e., along lines compatible with what is now known as EM). Brundt-land envisaged that this approach would deliver development that was sustainable because it was environmentally sensitive and egalitarian and because it integrated social with economic goals. The requirements of this SD strategy were defined as a political system securing effective citizen participation in decision making; an economic system generating surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and self-sustained basis; a social system providing solutions to the tensions arising from disharmonious development; a production system preserving the ecological basis for development; a technological system searching continuously for new solutions to environmental problems; an international system fostering sustainable patterns of trade and finance; and a flexible administrative system with the capacity for self-correction.

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