Confronting The ‘sustainable-growth’ Fallacy
Impeding The Realization Of Sustainable
Development And Sustainable Cities
Author(s)
G. Zovanyi
Abstract
The Brundtland Commission Report of 1987 laid out the case for ongoing
economic growth as an essential prerequisite for sustainable development. This
paper identifies reasoning utilized in that Report to support the idea of
‘sustainable economic growth’. The paper then argues that this economic progrowth
bias has continued to represent the dominant, mainstream viewpoint
within the sustainable-development movement. In a similar vein, the paper
suggests widespread support for the idea of ‘smart growth’ as a form of
‘sustainable urban growth’ capable of advancing the end of sustainable cities.
The purpose of the paper is to make the case for the intrinsically unsustainable
nature of economic and urban growth. Included among the results of the paper
are references to publications from the 1990s and the current decade revealing
mounting evidence of existent ecological limits to growth. As its central
conclusion the paper argues that continued allegiance to the idea of ‘sustainable
growth’ constitutes a major impediment to realizing the ends of sustainable
development and sustainable cities.
Keywords: ‘sustainable growth’, intrinsically unsustainable growth, ecological
limits to growth, sustainable development, sustainable cities.
1 Introduction
It has been noted that the concept of sustainable development achieved
worldwide recognition and credibility with publication of the Brundtland
Commission Report in 1987 [1]. Recently other observers have cited works to
support the claim that the Report set the standard and became the point of
Keywords
‘sustainable growth’, intrinsically unsustainable growth, ecological
limits to growth, sustainable development, sustainable cities.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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