Justifying, Characterizing And Indicating Sustainability

In 1987 the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) introduced the concept of sustainable development into the political agenda. The notion of sustainability and the need to understand its full implications have sparked much interest and considerable research in various disciplines, including economics.

This volume brings together 18 articles published during the last 20 years, devoted to understanding the concept of sustainable development.

These articles provide economic analysis of this notion from three different perspectives:

• Justifying Sustainability (why care about whether development is sustainable)
• Characterizing Sustainability (what does sustainable development look like)
• Indicating Sustainability (how to tell whether development is sustainable)

The first part (Justifying Sustainability) analyzes from a normative point of view why it is desirable for our generation to contribute to the implementation of sustainable development.

The second part (Characterizing Sustainability) describes how manmade capital (both real and human) must be accumulated in order to make up for decreased availability of natural capital.

The third part (Indicating Sustainability) examines rules and methods for attaining sustainable development for current and future generations.

Each part begins with an article which functions as a survey. An up to date introduction serves to tie the three parts of the volume together.