SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Definition and
dimensions
SD

In 1987 the World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED)
defined
sustainable
development
as
“development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”.
SD: Market regulation
Bartelmus
(1994)
defines
the
sustainable development as a set of
development programs, without which
the problems with the conflict between
generations regarding the use of
natural recourses and those of social
inequality would not be solved.
SD
The CSD (UN Commission on Sustainable
Development) argues that the sustainable
development has four major dimensions:
A. Social
B. Economic
C. Environmental, and
D. Institutional
These dimensions are inter-related and
mutually supportive

SD

H. Bossel (1999) includes in this term nine
dimensions:
1) natural; 2) material; 3) ecological;
4) social; 5) economic; 6) legal;
7) cultural; 8) political, 9) psychological
SD
Types of Capital: Natural and Produced
I.
Natural :
a) renewable: water, timber, hydro energy,
wind energy, solar energy;
b/ nonrenewable : crude oil, coal, natural
gas, iron ore
SD

II. Produced capital: substitutes for the nonrenewable, technologies, equipment, infrastructure,
knowledge, etc.
**** in some cases “capital” can be both Natural or
Produced – timber, for example, can be delivered by
virgin forests or through forestation.
Types of Sustainabiulity
WEAK Sustainability – allowing unlimited substitution of
Natural capital with Produced capital
STRONG Sustainability – preservation of the non-renewable
resources
 Meadows (1974) before the Club of Rome.[i] This report
recommended zero economic growth as the only alternative in
the conditions of fast depletion of natural recourses.

*** D.H. Meadows, et al., 1974. The Limits to Growth: A Report for
the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind,
Pan Macmillan
Is forecasting always reliable?

In 1920 the Scientific American Magazine warns that with the growing
consumption, the oil reserves of USA will last for only 20 years. In 1932 the
US Federal Oil Conservation Board estimated that 10 billion barrels of oil
remain, while in January 2003 Oil & Gas Journal evaluated those reserves
to 22.677 billions barrels, and that after 70 years of dynamic growth of
consumption. The same competent magazine evaluates the world reserves
of conventional oil to 1,213.112 billion barrels, which is tenths of times
more than the evaluation from 1950 of the American Petroleum Institute of
a total reserve of only 100 billion barrels.

The “unconventional oil reserves” are two main kinds:
a) heavy oils, which are thicker and contain more sulphur and heavy metal
contamination, necessitating further refined, while
b) Tar Sands can be recovered via surface mining or in-situ collection
techniques. This additional reserves are estimated to total of 3 trillion
barrels, accessed
at: www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/oil/3unconventional.html
Energy and material intensity of production

The development of non-waste and highly
effective technologies involving a sharp
decrease of the energy intensity and material
intensity of a unit of physical product, is a
long-term process that goes with different
dynamics in different sectors and types of
production.
Hoe realistic is the concept of “strong
sustainability” ?

The
consumption
of
non-renewable
recourses cannot be stopped without causing
deep disproportion and collapse in the whole
system of public reproduction, respectively in
the living standard. Even not full, but sharp
curbing of such consumption will reflect in
much larger extent on the developing
countries
SD: new definition

Sustainable Development :
socially justified and environmentally
sound economic development
---------------------------------R. Gechev (2005). Sustainable Development: Economic
Aspects. Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Press,
USA
R. Gechev (2005). Sustainable Development: Economic
Aspects. Indianapolis: University of Indianapolis Press, USA
Principles of the environmentally
sound economic development
♦ Priority use of intensive factors of growth.
♦ Decreasing energy and material intensity per unit of
physical product.
♦ Outstripping increase of the share of the renewable
natural resources.
♦ Progressive replacement of non-renewable with
renewable recourses.
♦ Introduction of new, economically viable technologies
for mining of unconventional renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.
♦ Increase of the share of non-waste technologies
(closed production cycle.
♦ Increase of the share of recycled materials.
♦ Quality improvement of the durable goods and therefore longer
periods for their replacement.
♦ Changes in the patterns of consumption, and more specifically
limiting the so called consumerism.
♦ Increased investments and stronger stimuli for preservation and
restoration of the environment in regions with sharp
environmental imbalances.
♦ Optimization of the geographic location of production taking into
consideration the accompanying expenses of materials and
energy, as well as with the purpose of more even burdening of
the local ecosystems.
♦ Applying of diversified and effective system of stimuli for
businesses and households, that apply and help the realization
of the principles of environmentally friendly production and
consumption.
Socially justified development
♦ Full employment
♦ Eradication of poverty and justified distribution of the national
wealth
♦ Reliable social net for the low income households
♦ Improving purchasing power/Higher Income per capita
♦ Protected consumer’s rights
♦ Access to appropriate healthcare
♦ Access to education
♦ Access to information/transparency
♦ Well-maintained national security
♦ Highly respected human rights
♦ Preservation and restoration of the cultural heritage
SD: Market regulation

Bartelmus (1994) completely grounded
opinion
presents
the
sustainable
development as a set of development
programs, without which the problems with
the conflict between generations regarding
the use of natural recourses and those of
social inequality would not be solved.