Sustainable Development: a New Vision of the Future?

Abstract

In the present period numerous crises mean that coming up with new pathways for the development of humanity, and forming new models of the economy, represent increasingly urgent tasks. An important cause of the present crisis situation has been the keeping of the economic mainstream within the framework of the traditional paradigm of economic growth, together with a lack of attention to environmental and social factors. In this context, the idea of sustainable development can act as a shared platform for a great deal of practical and theoretical research. According to resolutions of the United Nations, this concept provides a consensus paradigm for the development of humanity in the twenty-first century. A fundamentally important element in the evolution of sustainable development has been its transformation from a broad humanitarian concept in the 1990s to a structurally formed strategy in the 2010s, a strategy with its own clearly defined social, environmental and economic goals, tasks and indicators. This article examines the main pathways for a transition to sustainable development, along with the related environmental and economic priorities. Special attention is devoted to quantifying sustainability, and in particular, to the goals of sustainable development, as well as to a critique of the traditional development indicators that support unsustainable tracks of development. Along with analysis of the ineffectiveness of state mechanisms and the market, emphasis is placed on the problem of externalities (outside effects), whose uncertain character multiplies the difficulties of carrying through the transition to sustainability. Among the social problems singled out for discussion is inequality, as an important obstacle to this transition. There is an obvious need to include the concept of sustainable development, in one form or another, in strategic documents for the development of Russia.