Sustainable development

Sustainable Development:
Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, in other words ensuring that today's growth does not jeopardize the growth possibilities of future generations.

Issues about environment, economics and politics are inter-related through the way humans interact with their surroundings and with each other. Biological diversity allows a variety of species to all work together to help maintain the environment without costly human intervention. We benefit because the environment sustains us with the variety of resources produced. However, there is often a mainstream belief that for poor countries to develop, environmental concerns have to be sacrificed, or is a luxury to address once poverty is alleviated. Therefore, the approaches to such issues require rethinking. The overloaded phrase “sustainable development” must recognize the interconnectedness between human beings and the environment if true environmental and social justice is to be obtained.
Developed nations have a responsibility to provide the people of developing nations with the tools they need to seize the opportunities of the global economy -- opportunities that come from international aid, foreign investment, domestic capital, and trade. To use those tools effectively, however, developing nations need to adopt political, legal, and economic policies that make development successful.

The world needs to come together in partnership with stakeholders and other governments in key sectors such as the following to help and maintain sustainable development:
· Health
· Energy
· Water
· Education
· Oceans and Coasts
· Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, and Rural Development
· Forests

How to achieve sustainable development?
· Educating people
· Eradicating poverty
· Using renewable source of energy
· Conserving energy
· Zero population growth
China is expected to see zero population growth, a leveling of the consumption of resources and energy, and the end to bio-environmental degeneration by the years 2030, 2040, and 2050, respectively, which are the strategic goals for the country's sustainable development, according to the CAS report.
· Create a system that is goal
o Performance, and information-driven
o Is attuned to natural ecological cycles
o Incorporates the values of community and place;
o is sensitive to variations in the business sector and changes in the economy, and increase outside participation in those decisions that affect the environment and neighboring communities.
o Continued refinement of traditional environmental management tools, while encouraging the development of new tools and collaborative strategies.
o Green infrastructure, land use and development, community revitalization and reinvestment, rural enterprise and community development, and materials reuse and resource efficiency.


Recommendations

There are certain recommendations that can be used to attain sustainable development:
· Climate Change analysis.
· Climate protection policy should be fundamentally linked to any national agenda for economic growth, environmental protection, and social justice
· Develop principles for an incentive-based and voluntary early action program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
· Encourage the rapid development and deployment of climate-friendly technologies over the next 10 to 15 years in the electric power, transportation, industry, buildings, agriculture, and forestry sectors, and Environmental Management System
· A broader understanding of the nature, source, and linkage of environmental problems and recasting of potential solutions.

References:
[http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/0402/ijge/ijge0402.htm]
[http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development/Intro.asp] [http://clinton2.nara.gov/PCSD/index.html]