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The World Ecological Forum is an independent and non-profit organization that is headquartered in Visby , Gotland , the biggest island in Sweden . The Forum's flagship event is an annual meeting that brings together selected business leaders, policy makers, academia and experts to discuss environmental issues of global concern.

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87-544: The organization also develops and implements collaborative projects for global sustainability. A recent example is the Green Marketplace initiative that was developed to facilitate green technology transfer in partnership with Tynax, the world's largest technology trading exchange. The World Ecological Forum is committed to creating environmental and economic balance in order to achieve sustainable growth , welfare and social justice for all. The World Ecological Forum 2010

174-417: A limits discourse is an economically reformist, yet politically conservative approach to sustainability. Fourth, radical sustainability is a transformative approach seeking to break with existing global economic and political structures. Sustainable development, like sustainability , is regarded to have three dimensions : the environment, economy and society . The idea is that a good balance between

261-411: A sustainable yield (the rate of harvest should not exceed the rate of regeneration); for non-renewable resources there should be equivalent development of renewable substitutes; waste generation should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment. In 2019, a summary for policymakers of the largest, most comprehensive study to date of biodiversity and ecosystem services was published by

348-541: A "lack of concrete understanding of what "sustainability policies" might entail in practice". A study concluded in 2007 that knowledge, manufactured and human capital (health and education) has not compensated for the degradation of natural capital in many parts of the world. It has been suggested that intergenerational equity can be incorporated into a sustainable development and decision making, as has become common in economic valuations of climate economics . The World Business Council for Sustainable Development published

435-543: A Vision 2050 document in 2021 to show "How business can lead the transformations the world needs". The vision states that "we envision a world in which 9+billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries , by 2050." This report was highlighted by The Guardian as "the largest concerted corporate sustainability action plan to date – include reversing the damage done to ecosystems, addressing rising greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring societies move to sustainable agriculture." There are many reasons why sustainability

522-533: A balance between economic development , environmental protection , and social well-being . However, scholars have pointed out that there are manifold understandings of sustainable development. Also there are incoherencies in the dominant market-based socio-economic-political organisation. Attempts towards universal sustainable development need to account for the extremely varied challenges, circumstances, and choices that shape prospects and prosperity for all, everywhere. The discourse of sustainable development

609-481: A carbon-copy manner with little success. This isomorphic mimicry –adopting organizational forms that have been successful elsewhere but that only hide institutional dysfunction without solving it on the home country –can contribute to getting countries stuck in 'capability traps' where the country does not advance in its development goals. An example of this can be seen through some of the criticisms of foreign aid and its success rate at helping countries develop. Beyond

696-512: A community or region". Daphne Greenwood and Richard Holt distinguish economic development from economic growth on the basis that economic development is a "broadly based and sustainable increase in the overall standard of living for individuals within a community", and measures of growth such as per capita income do not necessarily correlate with improvements in quality of life. The United Nations Development Programme in 1997 defined development as increasing people‟s choices. Choices depend on

783-405: A growth in the gross domestic product. This model of unlimited personal and GDP growth may be over. Sustainable development may involve improvements in the quality of life for many but may necessitate a decrease in resource consumption . "Growth" generally ignores the direct effect that the environment may have on social welfare, whereas "development" takes it into account. As early as the 1970s,

870-434: A healthy environment. No new ethic is required. This so-called weak version of sustainability is popular among governments, and businesses, but profoundly wrong and not even weak , as there is no alternative to preserving the earth's ecological integrity." Scholars have stated that sustainable development is open-ended, much critiqued as ambiguous, incoherent, and therefore easily appropriated. Sustainable development

957-675: A major contributor to development economics , asserted that economic development grew to concentrate on the poor regions of the world , primarily in Africa , Asia and Latin America yet on the outpouring of fundamental ideas and models. It has also been argued, notably by Asian and European proponents of infrastructure-based development , that systematic, long-term government investments in transportation , housing , education , and healthcare are necessary to ensure sustainable economic growth in emerging countries. During Robert McNamara's 13 years at

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1044-421: A panel dataset for each 50 states with unemployment, labor force participation by race, and annual labor market statistics. In addition, for contractionary monetary policy, they utilize the federal funds rate, the short-term interest rates charged to banks. Seguino and Heintz Seguino concludes that the impact of a one percentage point increase in the federal funds rate relative to white and black women's unemployment

1131-587: A professional industry of highly specialized practitioners. The practitioners have two key roles: one is to provide leadership in policy-making , and the other is to administer policy, programs, and projects. Economic development practitioners generally work in public offices on the state, regional, or municipal level, or in public-private partnerships organizations that may be partially funded by local, regional, state, or federal tax money. These economic development organizations function as individual entities and in some cases as departments of local governments. Their role

1218-486: A significant amount of revenue from this source are less accountable to their citizens (they are more autonomous) as they have less pressure to legitimately use those resources. Just as it has been documented for countries with an abundant supply of natural resources such as oil, countries whose government budget consists largely of foreign aid donations and not regular taxes are less likely to have incentives to develop effective public institutions. This in turn can undermine

1305-546: A significant indicator of a country's economic advancement: this perspective is illustrated notably through the Basic Rail Transportation Infrastructure Index (known as BRTI Index) and related models such as the (Modified) Rail Transportation Infrastructure Index (RTI). In an effort to create an indicator that would help measure gender equality , the United Nations has created two measures:

1392-465: Is 0.015 and 0.043, respectively One growing understanding in economic development is the promotion of regional clusters and a thriving metropolitan economy . In today's global landscape, location is vitally important and becomes a key in competitive advantage . International trade and exchange rates are key issues in economic development. Currencies are often either under-valued or over-valued , resulting in trade surpluses or deficits. Furthermore,

1479-487: Is a conservative approach on both economic and political terms. Second, progressive sustainability is an economically conservative, yet politically reformist approach. Under this framing, sustainable development is still centered on economic growth, which is deemed compatible with environmental sustainability. However, human well-being and development can only be achieved through a redistribution of power to even out inequalities between developed and developing countries. Third,

1566-527: Is a structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies. This inhibits necessary societal change. Furthermore, there are several barriers related to the difficulties of implementing sustainability policies. There are trade-offs between the goals of environmental policies and economic development. Environmental goals include nature conservation. Development may focus on poverty reduction. There are also trade-offs between short-term profit and long-term viability. Political pressures generally favor

1653-604: Is administered by the World Ecological Forum and awarded for outstanding achievements in sustainable development. Awarded once yearly (in July), the nominations are announced in the spring. The World Ecological Forum was founded by Alec and Sari Arho Havrén in January 2008. Alec Arho Havrén, born in 1965, is a social entrepreneur that is known for building and running Gotland Ring , the world's first ecological race and test track. He

1740-585: Is also an expert on eco-driving. Sari Arho Havrén, born in 1966, has a Ph.D. from Helsinki University and international experience of working with green technologies and environmental projects. The Executive Steering Committee consists of Alec Arho Havrén, Sari Arho Havrén, Anna Hrdlicka, Bishop Lennart Koskinen, Alfred Kwok, Tomas Otterström, Marianne Samuelsson, Jenny Harler, Professor Derek Shearer , Professor Kai Wartiainen , Professor Dr Po Chi Wu, Pasi Rutanen, Carola Wictorsson, Doris Kwan, and Charles Gloor. Sustainable growth Sustainable development

1827-457: 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. The aim is to have a society where living conditions and resources meet human needs without undermining planetary integrity . Sustainable development aims to balance the needs of the economy , environment , and social well-being . The Brundtland Report in 1987 helped to make

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1914-690: Is highly influential in global and national governance frameworks , though its meaning and operationalization are context-dependent and have evolved over time. The evolution of this discourse can for example be seen in the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, years 2000 to 2015) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, years 2015 to 2030). Sustainable development has its roots in ideas regarding sustainable forest management , which were developed in Europe during

2001-400: Is important to not expect that particular economic development programs be able to fix many problems at once as that would be establishing unsurmountable goals for them that are highly unlikely they can achieved. Any development policy should set limited goals and a gradual approach to avoid falling victim to something Prittchet, Woolcock and Andrews call 'premature load bearing'. Many times

2088-532: Is possible that we can find ways to replace some natural resources, it is much less likely that they will ever be able to replace ecosystem services , such as the protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate stabilizing function of the Amazonian forest. The concept of sustainable development has been criticized from different angles. While some see it as paradoxical (or an oxymoron ) and regard development as inherently unsustainable, others are disappointed in

2175-458: Is so difficult to achieve. These reasons have the name sustainability barriers . Before addressing these barriers it is important to analyze and understand them. Some barriers arise from nature and its complexity ("everything is related"). Others arise from the human condition. One example is the value-action gap . This reflects the fact that people often do not act according to their convictions. Experts describe these barriers as intrinsic to

2262-540: Is the foundational concept of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Policies to achieve the SDGs are meant to cohere around this concept. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , adopted by all United Nations (UN) members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of these global goals is " peace and prosperity for people and the planet" – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests. The SDGs highlight

2349-609: Is to be guided and judged. Since the Brundtland Report , the concept of sustainable development has developed beyond the initial intergenerational framework to focus more on the goal of "socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth ". In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development published the Earth Charter , which outlines the building of a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in

2436-547: Is to seek out new economic opportunities and retain their existing business wealth. There are numerous other organizations whose primary function is not economic development that work in partnership with economic developers. They include the news media, foundations, utilities, schools, health care providers, faith-based organizations, and colleges, universities, and other education or research institutions. There are various types of macroeconomic and sociocultural indicators or "metrics" used by economists and geographers to assess

2523-429: Is typically associated with improvements in a variety of areas or indicators (such as literacy rates , life expectancy , and poverty rates) , that may be causes of economic development rather than consequences of specific economic development programs. For example, health and education improvements have been closely related to economic growth, but the causality with economic development may not be obvious. In any case, it

2610-515: Is used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. The concept of sustainable development is intertwined with the concept of carrying capacity . Theoretically, the long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life. Important operational principles of sustainable development were published by Herman Daly in 1990: renewable resources should provide

2697-645: The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). These indicators were first introduced in the 1995 UNDP Human Development Report. Other factors include the inflation rate, investment level and national debt , birth and death rates, life expectancy , morbidity , education levels (measured through literacy and numeracy rates), housing , social services like hospitals , health facilities , clean and safe drinking water , schools (measured by

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2784-603: The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services . It recommended that human civilization will need a transformative change, including sustainable agriculture , reductions in consumption and waste, fishing quotas and collaborative water management. Environmental problems associated with industrial agriculture and agribusiness are now being addressed through approaches such as sustainable agriculture , organic farming and more sustainable business practices . At

2871-527: The post-war period of reconstruction initiated by the United States. In 1949, during his inaugural speech, President Harry Truman identified the development of undeveloped areas as a priority for the West: There have been several major phases of development theory since 1945. Alexander Gerschenkron argued that the less developed the country is at the outset of economic development (relative to others),

2958-653: The public sector , economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives. The term has been used frequently in the 20th and 21st centuries, but the concept has existed in the West for far longer. " Modernization ", " Westernization ", and especially " industrialization " are other terms often used while discussing economic development. Historically, economic development policies focused on industrialization and infrastructure ; since

3045-457: The 17th and 18th centuries. In response to a growing awareness of the depletion of timber resources in England, John Evelyn argued, in his 1662 essay Sylva , that "sowing and planting of trees had to be regarded as a national duty of every landowner, in order to stop the destructive over- exploitation of natural resources ." In 1713, Hans Carl von Carlowitz , a senior mining administrator in

3132-493: The 1960s, it has increasingly focused on poverty reduction . Whereas economic development is a policy intervention aiming to improve the well-being of people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and increases in GDP ; economist Amartya Sen describes economic growth as but "one aspect of the process of economic development". The precise definition of economic development has been contested: while economists in

3219-539: The 1980s pushing an agenda of free trade and removal of import substitution industrialization policies. In economics, the study of economic development was born out of an extension to traditional economics that focused entirely on the national product , or the aggregate output of goods and services. Economic development was concerned with the expansion of people's entitlements and their corresponding capabilities, such as morbidity , nourishment , literacy , education , and other socio-economic indicators. Borne out of

3306-600: 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). 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

3393-413: The 20th century viewed development primarily in terms of economic growth , sociologists instead emphasized broader processes of change and modernization . Development and urban studies scholar Karl Seidman summarizes economic development as "a process of creating and utilizing physical, human, financial, and social assets to generate improved and broadly shared economic well-being and quality of life for

3480-410: The 21st century. The action plan Agenda 21 for sustainable development identified information, integration, and participation as key building blocks to help countries achieve development that recognizes these interdependent pillars. Furthermore, Agenda 21 emphasizes that broad public participation in decision-making is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. The Rio Protocol

3567-564: The Agenda 21 document was declared, the 'Future we want' document was proclaimed in the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, stating that "We resolve to promote education for sustainable development and to integrate sustainable development more actively into education beyond the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development." Economic development In the economics study of

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3654-718: The Future" for the US Congress , the first hearings ever held on sustainable development. In 1980, the International Union for Conservation of Nature published a world conservation strategy that included one of the first references to sustainable development as a global priority and introduced the term "sustainable development". Two years later, the United Nations World Charter for Nature raised five principles of conservation by which human conduct affecting nature

3741-641: The Millennium Declaration from the year 2000 with its eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the first comprehensive global governance framework for the achievement of sustainable development. The SDGs have concrete targets (unlike the results from the Rio Process) but no methods for sanctions. They contain goals, targets and indicators for example in the areas of poverty reduction, environmental protection , human prosperity and peace . Sustainability means different things to different people, and

3828-462: The World Bank under McNamara's tenure "sold" states poverty reduction "through a mixture of persuasion and coercion." The development of a country has been associated with different concepts but generally encompasses economic growth through higher productivity, political systems that represent as accurately as possible the preferences of its citizens, The extension of rights to all social groups and

3915-528: The World Bank, he introduced key changes, most notably, shifting the Bank's economic development policies toward targeted poverty reduction. Before his tenure at the World Bank, poverty did not receive substantial attention as part of international and national economic development; the focus of development had been on industrialization and infrastructure. Poverty also came to be redefined as a condition faced by people rather than countries. According to Martha Finnemore,

4002-434: The attainment of a standard of living equivalent to that of industrialized countries . Economic development can also be considered as a static theory that documents the state of an economy at a certain place. According to Schumpeter and Backhaus (2003), the changes in this equilibrium state documented in economic theory can only be caused by intervening factors coming from the outside. Economic development originated in

4089-480: The backdrop of Keynesian economics (advocating government intervention), and neoclassical economics (stressing reduced intervention), with the rise of high-growth countries ( Singapore , South Korea , Hong Kong ) and planned governments ( Argentina , Chile , Sudan , Uganda ), economic development and more generally development economics emerged amidst these mid-20th century theoretical interpretations of how economies prosper. Also, economist Albert O. Hirschman ,

4176-464: The capacities to measure progress towards sustainable development; promote equity within and between generations; adapt to shocks and surprises; transform the system onto more sustainable development pathways; link knowledge with action for sustainability; and to devise governance arrangements that allow people to work together. During the MDG era (year 2000 to 2015), the key objective of sustainable development

4263-407: The concept of sustainability was used to describe an economy "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems". Scientists in many fields have highlighted The Limits to Growth , and economists have presented alternatives, for example a ' steady-state economy ', to address concerns over the impacts of expanding human development on the planet. In 1987, the economist Edward Barbier published

4350-450: The concept of sustainability. Other barriers are extrinsic to the concept of sustainability. This means it is possible to overcome them. One way would be to put a price tag on the consumption of public goods. Some extrinsic barriers relate to the nature of dominant institutional frameworks. Examples would be where market mechanisms fail for public goods . Existing societies, economies, and cultures encourage increased consumption. There

4437-443: The concept of sustainable development better known. Sustainable development overlaps with the idea of sustainability which is a normative concept . 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." The Rio Process that began at

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4524-428: The concept of sustainable development has led to a diversity of discourses that legitimize competing sociopolitical projects. Global environmental governance scholars have identified a comprehensive set of discourses within the public space that mostly convey four sustainability frames: mainstream sustainability, progressive sustainability, a limits discourse, and radical sustainability. First, mainstream sustainability

4611-550: 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. Scholars have stated that sustainable development is open-ended, much critiqued as ambiguous, incoherent, and therefore easily appropriated. In 1987, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development released

4698-828: The connections between the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. Sustainability is at the center of the SDGs, as the term sustainable development implies. The short titles of the 17 SDGs are: No poverty ( SDG 1 ), Zero hunger ( SDG 2 ), Good health and well-being ( SDG 3 ), Quality education ( SDG 4 ), Gender equality ( SDG 5 ), Clean water and sanitation ( SDG 6 ), Affordable and clean energy ( SDG 7 ), Decent work and economic growth ( SDG 8 ), Industry, innovation and infrastructure ( SDG 9 ), Reduced inequalities ( SDG 10 ), Sustainable cities and communities ( SDG 11 ), Responsible consumption and production ( SDG 12 ), Climate action ( SDG 13 ), Life below water ( SDG 14 ), Life on land ( SDG 15 ), Peace, justice, and strong institutions ( SDG 16 ), and Partnerships for

4785-416: The country's efforts to develop. In its broadest sense, policies of economic development encompass three major areas: Contractionary monetary policy is a tool used by central banks to slow down a country's economic growth. An example would be raising interest rates to decrease lending. In the United States, the use of contractionary monetary policy has increased women's unemployment. Seguino and Heintz uses

4872-470: The desirable "state of global equilibrium", the authors wrote: "We are searching for a model output that represents a world system that is sustainable without sudden and uncontrolled collapse and capable of satisfying the basic material requirements of all of its people." The year 1972 also saw the publication of the influential book, A Blueprint for Survival . In 1975, an MIT research group prepared ten days of hearings on "Growth and Its Implication for

4959-493: The developing environmental movement drew attention to the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation . Kenneth E. Boulding , in his influential 1966 essay The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth , identified the need for the economic system to fit itself to the ecological system with its limited pools of resources. Another milestone was the 1968 article by Garrett Hardin that popularized

5046-624: The distance learners must travel to reach them), ability to use hard infrastructure (railways, roads, ports, airports, harbours, etc.), and telecommunications and other soft infrastructure like the Internet . The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) focuses on aggregating various indicators that focus on capturing the economic, political, and professional gains made by women. The GEM is composed of just three variables: income earning power, share in professional and managerial jobs, and share of parliamentary seats. The Gender Development Index (GDI) measures

5133-659: The economic development goals of specific countries cannot be reached because they lack the State's capabilities to do so. For example, if a nation has little capacity to carry out basic functions like security and policing or core service delivery it is unlikely that a program that wants to foster a free-trade zone (special economic zones) or distribute vaccinations to vulnerable populations can accomplish their goals. This has been something overlooked by multiple international organizations, aid programs and even participating governments who attempt to carry out 'best practices' from other places in

5220-500: The exhaustion of earth's finite stock; this perspective renders the Industrial Revolution as a whole unsustainable. The sustainable development debate is based on the assumption that societies need to manage three types of capital (economic, social, and natural), which may be non-substitutable and whose consumption might be irreversible. Natural capital can not necessarily be substituted by economic capital. While it

5307-552: The goals ( SDG 17 ). Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a term officially used by the United Nations . It is defined as education practices that encourage changes in knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to enable a more sustainable and just society for humanity. ESD aims to empower and equip current and future generations to meet their needs using a balanced and integrated approach to sustainable development's economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Agenda 21

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5394-543: The growth of globalization has linked economic development with trends on international trade and participation in global value chains (GVCs) and international financial markets. The last financial crisis had a huge effect on economies in developing countries. Economist Jayati Ghosh states that it is necessary to make financial markets in developing countries more resilient by providing a variety of financial institutions . This could also add to financial security for small-scale producers. Economic development has evolved into

5481-448: The incentive compatibility problems that can happen to foreign aid donations –that foreign aid granting countries continue to give it to countries with little results of economic growth but with corrupt leaders that are aligned with the granting countries' geopolitical interests and agenda –there are problems of fiscal fragility associated to receiving an important amount of government revenues through foreign aid. Governments that can raise

5568-497: The lack of progress that has been achieved so far. Part of the problem is that "development" itself is not consistently defined. The vagueness of the Brundtland definition of sustainable development has been criticized as follows: The definition has "opened up the possibility of downplaying sustainability. Hence, governments spread the message that we can have it all at the same time, i.e. economic growth, prospering societies and

5655-400: The linear path of materials (extraction, use, disposal in landfill) to a circular material flow that reuses materials as much as possible, much like the cycling and reuse of waste in nature. This way of thinking is expressed in the concept of circular economy , which employs reuse , sharing , repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a closed-loop system, minimizing

5742-452: The local level there are various movements working towards sustainable food systems which may include less meat consumption, local food production, slow food , sustainable gardening , and organic gardening . The environmental effects of different dietary patterns depend on many factors, including the proportion of animal and plant foods consumed and the method of food production. As global population and affluence have increased, so has

5829-428: The more likely certain conditions are to occur. Hence, all countries do not progress similarly. From the 1940s to the 1960s the state played a large role in promoting industrialization in developing countries, following the idea of modernization theory . This period was followed by a brief period of basic needs development focusing on human capital development and redistribution in the 1970s. Neoliberalism emerged in

5916-448: The opportunities to get them and the proper functionality of institutions and organizations that can attend more technically and logistically complex tasks (i.e. raise taxes and deliver public services). These processes describe the State's capabilities to manage its economy, polity, society and public administration. Generally, economic development policies attempt to solve issues in these topics. With this in mind, economic development

6003-461: The people in question and their nation. The UNDP indicates four chief factors in development, especially human development, which are empowerment, equity, productivity, and sustainability. Mansell and Wehn state that economic development has been understood by non-practitioners since the World War II to involve economic growth, namely the increases in per capita income , and (if currently absent)

6090-453: The relative economic advancement of a given region or nation. The World Bank 's "World Development Indicators" are compiled annually from officially recognized international sources and include national, regional and global estimates. GDP per capita is gross domestic product divided by mid-year population. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidizes not included in

6177-407: The report Our Common Future , commonly called the Brundtland Report . The report included a definition of "sustainable development" which is now widely used: Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains two key concepts within it: Sustainable development thus tries to find

6264-437: The same thing in this context. The three dimensions paradigm has few theoretical foundations. Countries could develop systems for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achieving sustainable development by adopting indicators that measure changes across economic, social and environmental dimensions. Six interdependent capacities are deemed to be necessary for the successful pursuit of sustainable development. These are

6351-465: The science of forestry. This, in turn, influenced people like Gifford Pinchot , the first head of the US Forest Service , whose approach to forest management was driven by the idea of wise use of resources, and Aldo Leopold whose land ethic was influential in the development of the environmental movement in the 1960s. Following the publication of Rachel Carson 's Silent Spring in 1962,

6438-410: The service of Elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony published Sylvicultura economics , a 400-page work on forestry. Building upon the ideas of Evelyn and French minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert , von Carlowitz developed the concept of managing forests for sustained yield . His work influenced others, including Alexander von Humboldt and Georg Ludwig Hartig , eventually leading to the development of

6525-437: The short term over the long term. So they form a barrier to actions oriented toward improving sustainability. The concept of sustainable development has been and still is, subject to criticism, including the question of what is to be sustained in sustainable development. It has been argued that there is no such thing as sustainable use of a non-renewable resource , since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to

6612-400: The study The Concept of Sustainable Economic Development , where he recognized that goals of environmental conservation and economic development are not conflicting and can be reinforcing each other. A World Bank study from 1999 concluded that based on the theory of genuine savings (defined as "traditional net savings less the value of resource depletion and environmental degradation plus

6699-479: The term " tragedy of the commons ". The direct linking of sustainability and development in a contemporary sense can be traced to the early 1970s. "Strategy of Progress", a 1972 book (in German) by Ernst Basler, explained how the long-acknowledged sustainability concept of preserving forests for future wood production can be directly transferred to the broader importance of preserving environmental resources to sustain

6786-438: The three dimensions should be achieved. Instead of calling them dimensions , other terms commonly used are pillars , domains , aspects , spheres . Scholars usually distinguish three different areas of sustainability. These are the environmental, the social, and the economic. Several terms are in use for this concept. Authors may speak of three pillars, dimensions, components, aspects, perspectives, factors, or goals. All mean

6873-521: The use of resource inputs and the creation of waste , pollution and carbon emissions. The European Commission has adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan in 2020, which aims at making sustainable products the norm in the EU. It has been suggested that because of the rural poverty and overexploitation , environmental resources should be treated as important economic assets, called natural capital . Economic development has traditionally required

6960-417: The use of various materials increased in volume, diversity, and distance transported. By 2050, humanity could consume an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year (three times its current amount) unless the economic growth rate is decoupled from the rate of natural resource consumption . Sustainable use of materials has targeted the idea of dematerialization , converting

7047-432: The value of investment in human capital "), policymakers have many possible interventions to increase sustainability, in macroeconomics or purely environmental. Several studies have noted that efficient policies for renewable energy and pollution are compatible with increasing human welfare, eventually reaching a golden-rule steady state. A meta review in 2002 looked at environmental and economic valuations and found

7134-415: The value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Median income is related to real gross national income per capita and income distribution . European development economists have argued that the existence of modern transportation networks- such as high-speed rail infrastructure constitutes

7221-511: The world for future generations. That same year, the interrelationship of environment and development was formally demonstrated in a systems dynamic simulation model reported in the classic report on Limits to Growth . This was commissioned by the Club of Rome and written by a group of scientists led by Dennis and Donella Meadows of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Describing

7308-406: Was a huge leap forward: for the first time, the world agreed on a sustainability agenda. In fact, a global consensus was facilitated by neglecting concrete goals and operational details. The most comprehensive global governance framework for sustainable development is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This agenda was a follow-up to

7395-417: Was held at Wisby Strand Congress & Event on 1–2 July 2010. The Summit focused on fighting climate change and boosting green technology. The World Ecological Forum Innovation Race is a competition that aims to find and promote green innovations. The competition is open to entrepreneurs, employees and students who may participate as individuals or in groups. The World Ecological Forum Global Impact Award

7482-584: Was poverty reduction to be reached through economic growth and participation in the global trade system. The SDGs take a much more comprehensive approach to sustainable development than the MDGs did. They offer a more people-centred development agenda. Out of the 17 SDGs , for example, 11 goals contain targets related to equity, equality or inclusion, and SDG 10 is solely devoted to addressing inequality within and among countries. An unsustainable situation occurs when natural capital (the total of nature's resources)

7569-520: Was the first international document that identified education as an essential tool for achieving sustainable development and highlighted areas of action for education. ESD is a component of measurement in an indicator for Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG) for "responsible consumption and production". SDG 12 has 11 targets, and target 12.8 is "By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature." 20 years after

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