Six interdependent capacities are deemed to be necessary for the successful pursuit of sustainable development. During the MDG era (year 2000 to 2015), the key objective of sustainable development was poverty reduction to be reached through
economic growth and participation in the
global trade system. Important operational principles of sustainable development were published by
Herman Daly in 1990: renewable resources should provide 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 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 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. (2007) As global population and affluence have increased, so has 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 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 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.
Improving on economic and social aspects 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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." == Barriers ==