Characterizing a Sustainability Transition: Goals, Targets, Trends, and Driving Forces

Sustainable development exhibits broad political appeal but has proven difficult to define in precise terms. Recent scholarship has focused on the nature of a sustainability transition, described by the National Research Council as meeting the needs of a stabilizing future world population while red...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 100; no. 14; pp. 8068 - 8073
Main Authors Parris, Thomas M., Kates, Robert W.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 08.07.2003
National Acad Sciences
SeriesScience and Technology for Sustainable Development Special Feature
Subjects
Adult literacy
Animals
Biological Sciences
Carbon dioxide emissions
Conservation of Natural Resources - statistics & numerical data
Conservation of Natural Resources - trends
Educational Status
Emissions reduction
Goals
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse gas emissions
Humans
Hunger
Income
Income distribution
Initiatives
International Cooperation
Literacy
Motivation
Pollutant emissions
Public Policy
Science
Science and Technology for Sustainable Development Special Feature
Social Change
Social Problems
Social Sciences
Sustainable development
Trends
Water Supply
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Summary:Sustainable development exhibits broad political appeal but has proven difficult to define in precise terms. Recent scholarship has focused on the nature of a sustainability transition, described by the National Research Council as meeting the needs of a stabilizing future world population while reducing hunger and poverty and maintaining the planet's life-support systems. We identify a small set of goals, quantitative targets, and associated indicators that further characterize a sustainability transition by drawing on the consensus embodied in internationally negotiated agreements and plans of action. To illustrate opportunities for accelerating progress, we then examine current scholarship on the processes that influence attainment of four such goals: reducing hunger, promoting literacy, stabilizing greenhouse-gas concentrations, and maintaining fresh-water availability. We find that such analysis can often reveal "levers of change," forces that both control the rate of positive change and are subject to policy intervention.
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Communicated by Susan Hanson, Clark University, Worcester, MA, March 7, 2003
Abbreviation: GDP, gross domestic product.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1231336100