Sustainable Development

Historical development

The concept was designed to reconcile two sides. Industrialised countries brought environmental concerns to the Stockholm Conference of 1972. Countries in the global South put development first and saw environmentalism as a threat to growth.

The IUCN’s World Conservation Strategy (1980) used the phrase, and the Brundtland Commission defined it. The Rio summit of 1992 produced the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, the conventions on climate and biodiversity, and the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. The Millennium Development Goals (2000) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015) turned it into a global programme with measured targets. Jeffrey Sachs’s The Age of Sustainable Development (2015) is a typical statement. Critics from degrowth, political ecology and the environmentalism of the poor have questioned it throughout.

Principal claims

• Economic development, social fairness and environmental protection depend on each other and have to be pursued together.
• Poverty is both a cause and a result of environmental damage, so development is part of the solution.
• Present and future generations both have claims, and policy must balance them.
• Rich and poor countries share responsibility for global environmental problems, but not in equal measure.
• Growth is needed, especially in poor countries, but what grows has to change toward efficient use of resources and greater fairness.

Policy implications

Sustainable development works through integrated national strategies, international treaties and finance, development aid tied to environmental goals, environmental impact assessment, participation of the groups affected, and the transfer of technology. The Sustainable Development Goals set targets on poverty, health, water, energy, cities, climate, oceans and land. Most official versions take green growth as their economic model.

Internal disagreements

Supporters disagree about “weak” and “strong” sustainability, which turns on whether capital made by people can stand in for natural capital. They weigh growth differently within the framework. They argue over whether the Goals hang together, given the tensions between growth and ecological targets, and over the balance between national sovereignty and international obligation.

Criticisms and controversies

Critics from degrowth and ecological economics argue that “sustainable development” contradicts itself and lets growth carry on under a green banner. Political ecologists say it takes the politics out of conflicts over resources. Advocates of the environmentalism of the poor say it was written by elites and for them. Deep ecologists say it is human-centred through and through.

Supporters note that it is the only framework almost every country has agreed to, and that it has driven measurable progress on poverty, water and health.

Relationships to other traditions

Sustainable development is the international, institutional form of green liberalism and green growth, and it takes in ecological modernisation. It borrows the language of climate justice in “common but differentiated responsibilities”. It defines itself against degrowth, post-development and deep ecology.