Logo for Open Library Publishing Platform

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Introduction of Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

What is sustainability.

Sustainability is a well-known and frequently used term of the 21st century. How often do you see or hear the word? Have you ever stopped to really think about what exactly does sustainability mean and where did the term originate from?

A quick Google search for ‘what is sustainability’ yields over 1.9 billion results. Sustainability is widely defined as ‘the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level’. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability are concerns for the environment, social equity, and economic prosperity(1). Most definitions look to avoid the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance. Sustainability in the context of the environment looks at the activities required to balance social, economic, and environmental needs to maintain ecosystem services at a suitable level. It is generally accepted, the goals of sustainability are related to the need for the conservation of natural capital and ecosystem services, with a shift to a less resource-intensive future [1] .

While to most, the concept of sustainability is a relatively new idea, sustainability has a long history of use and meaning. The practice of sustainability has been utilized by various cultures for thousands of years, with the term sustainability first used in the 1700’s. Sustainability comes from the practice of  nachhaltigkeit , translated to mean ‘sustained yield’ in English, a term coined in 1713 by German foresters [2] .  Sustained yield refers to the practice of taking only enough trees to allow forests to naturally regenerate well into the future. The concept of sustained yield broadened to include the conservation of plants, animals, and other food necessities, eventually moving beyond the forestry discourse but still mainly confined to research and science.

It was not until the 1970’s that the concept of sustainability became more widely used. In January 1972, the journal the Ecologist published the  Blueprint for Survival , a series of science papers calling for better management of natural resources and modification of consumptive lifestyles of western civilizations. That same year, a global think-tank published the report  Limits to Growth , where a definition was given to the term sustainable. For the first time in the literature, sustainable was defined to mean without sudden and uncontrolled collapse and capable of satisfying the basic material requirements of all its people (2).  Then later that year the United Nations (UN) world conference on  human environment was held Stockholm, Sweden to address the global the growing environmental crisis. The term sustainable development was introduced into the discourse. As evidenced at the UN Conference, the environment was being neglected and not in balance with economic development.

Through the 1980’s, the concept of sustainability became more mainstream. In 1987, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, as chairwoman of what was then the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) released a Report, widely known as the Brundtland’s Commission,  Our Common Future .  The report emphasized the importance that development should consider social, environmental, and economic aspects to ensure the sustainability of all human societies. Her main concern was that development had to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [3] . This concept went on to become the most widely used definition of sustainability although in the context of sustainable development.

Although sustainability and sustainable development both consider the environment, society, and economies with a future timeframe, the two terms have very different meanings and should not be used interchangeably.  Sustainability looks at the activities required to protect the environment as our base for survival while balancing social, cultural, and economic needs. It is generally accepted that the goals of sustainability are related to the need to conserve our natural world with a shift away from the resource-intensive current way of living 1 .

What is Sustainable Development?

We learned that sustainability is the process of living within the limits of available physical, natural, and social resources in ways that allow all living things, not only humans to thrive well into the future.

Sustainable development is a process that creates growth and progress through the addition of physical, economic, environmental, and social components to improve quality of life without damaging the resources of the environment. Simply put, sustainable development is a way for people to use resources without the resources running out 3 .

As previously discussed, the concept of sustainable development arrived in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission “Our Common Future”, the document that defined sustainable development as an approach designed to meet the needs of the present [generation] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs 3 . This definition incorporated the understanding that economic growth is required to provide societies with the necessities of life such as clean water and food, while acknowledging the dilemma of environmental degradation that often coincides with economic development.

In 1992 the UN conference on the environment and development, informally known as the Earth Summit, or the Rio Conference took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference promoted the idea of ecological sustainable development and in order to achieve it you had to consider social development (communities). From the mid 1990’s, different strategies were developed to try to work out what sustainability means in practice, how do we get that middle area where the environment, economics, and social development are achieved at the same time. Governments alone can not achieve sustainable development. Governments can set regulations and determine infrastructure needs but they don’t tend to have long-term goals in mind, they tend to focus on election cycles which are typically about 4 to 8 years.  The market economies (goods and services) timeframe is usually only about 4 months to a year. Sustainability is about long-term solutions. The market economies and governments can not effectively do this.  If the community is not driving the will for a better more sustainable future, sustainable development will be difficult to achieve. As we previously discussed, the Brundtland Commission’s definition has become a widely used definition for sustainable development and sustainability and has therefore come with many challenges, including confusion over meaning, interpretations, and misinformation.

Recognizing some of the key challenges with the implementation of sustainable development and the quest for achieving a balance between the environment and economies, the role of people and societies were formally added into the equation for sustainable development in 2005 at the UN World Summit on Social Development. The three pillars of sustainability became widely known and currently used today:

(Click on the “?” icons below for more information):

This updated model for sustainable development recognizes that in order to meet the needs of current and future generations you have to consider the three pillars or the 3P’s (people, planet, prosperity), and they all need to be working together at the same. The key being all at the same time, or simultaneously.

Integrating the short-term and long-term needs with a focus on future generations, will require social development, environmental protection, and economic prosperity working in unison. Being able to incorporate sustainability into your day to day activities, this is what will create change.

The United Nations and the Path to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

History of the un.

Direct Source

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues and provide a forum for its 193 Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies and committees.

The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for peacekeeping, peace-building, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance, there are many other ways the United Nations and its System (specialized agencies, funds, and programmes) affect our lives and make the world a better place. The Organization works on a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, to promoting democracy, human rights, gender equality and the advancement of women, governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines, expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts for a safer world for this and future generations.

The UN has 4 main purposes:

  • To keep peace throughout the world;
  • To develop friendly relations among nations;
  • To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease, and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;
  • To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals

Pathway to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by 193 United Nations (UN) Member States. The 2030 Agenda is centered on the 17 SDGs which are underpinned by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  The MDGs were developed in 2000 to end poverty and hunger, fight inequality and injustice, advance climate change action, create sustainable consumption and production, and promote peace and prosperity for all.  One major change between the MDGs versus the SDGs is that for the SDGs, all countries are now involved. The MDGs only applied to developing countries. Another difference is that each country has set their own goals and priorities for achieving the SDGs.  International collaboration to advance the SDG Agenda remains a critical component. The 17 SD goals, with their 169 targets, and over 230 indicators work together at the local and international level to help promote a shared global framework to achieve a fair, equitable, and sustainable future for all. Currently, all countries and international organizations are working on the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda serving as the basis for better economic development that is environmentally low impact, socially just, and economically efficient and fair.

Pathway to the SDGs

Comprehension Questions

Recommended reading.

  • Sustainable Development Solutions Network. (2021). Sustainable Development Report 2021: The Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals .

Additional Readings

  • Brundtland G, Khalid M. 1987. UN Brundtland commission report.  Our Common Future .  41-59.
  • Kidd C. V. 1992.  The evolution of sustainability .  Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics , 5(1), 1-26.
  • Baker, J., Dupont, D., & Vasseur, L. (2021). Exploring Canadian Ramsar Sites Ecosystem Governance and Sustainability. Wetlands, 41(1), 1-11. ↵
  • Grober, U. (2007). Deep roots-a conceptual history of sustainable development (Nachhaltigkeit) . ↵
  • United Nations. (2021). 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future (page 41) . ↵

Introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Copyright © by Jocelyn Baker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

  • Why local action is key in the fight against climate change
  • Climate change: How wildfires are causing tree species to relocate

Following the declaration, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said: “Bold action is now required to ensure this resolution on the right to a healthy environment serves as a springboard to push for transformative economic, social and environmental policies that will protect people and nature.”

We asked leading civil society voices what they think is needed from government, business and civil society to take action and mobilize efforts around ensuring and protecting a clean environment for all. Here’s what they said:

We need to reframe our relationship to nature

Gopal Patel, Co-Founder & Director, Bhumi Global

A reframing of our relationship with the natural world is needed in order to ensure we can provide everyone with a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. For too long we have artificially separated ourselves from nature. We’ve placed an artificial divide between ourselves and the natural world. Our politics, economic models and modern lifestyles reflect this.

This is not natural, and as we are seeing, not healthy or sustainable for the planet or for humanity. The human species is inextricably interconnected with nature. Throughout history, and in all parts of the world, nature is a common denominator. It is the basis of our civilizations, cultures and ways of life. A return to this way of thinking needs to be the basis of any meaningful action to restore the environment, address the climate crisis, and put nature on the path to recovery.

A social dialogue is needed

Kitso Phiri, Executive Secretary, Botswana Mine Workers Union

Realization of the right to a clean and hazardous free environment requires commitment to social dialogue by tripartite partners in reconciling economic and social interests. Although the laws generally make it mandatory for businesses to remedy environmental impacts caused by their economic activities, weak government regulatory mechanism makes enforcement an onerous exercise. These challenges are even more pronounced in the case of multinational enterprises. An equally weak civil society is disabled from monitoring the level of compliance with environmental obligations and provide meaningful contributions to environmental policy formulation and management.

Therefore, states should strengthen their environmental management policies and regulations; they should build capacities of civil society and government entities; provide additional funding for training and education of social partners; establish a tripartite social dialogue forums on environmental protection, inclusive of civil society.

A game-changer for people and the planet

Monica Iyer, Human Rights Officer, Environment and Climate Change Team, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Human Rights Council’s recognition that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right can be a game-changer for people and the planet.

But there is much more needed to make this right a reality for all. States must advance efforts to implement the right working hand-in-hand with civil society, businesses and other stakeholders. They must take urgent environmental action, backed by adequate finance, and support a just transition to a sustainable, human rights-based economy. Businesses should integrate environmental considerations in human rights due diligence processes, fully accounting for how the environmental effects of their activities can also affect human rights.

Those with power and access in fora where environmental policy is being developed, like COP26, should elevate the voices and leadership of affected individuals and communities, who are frequently excluded despite often having the most at stake and the best understanding of effective solutions. They should also promote and accept accountability for the harms caused by environmental damage.

The lives of women and vulnerable communities depend on clean air and clean water for all

Kahea Pacheco, Co-Director, Women’s Earth Alliance

An estimated 240 acres of natural habitat is destroyed every hour. Women and girls bear the brunt of this environmental degradation. While ~30% of humanity does not have access to safe drinking water, UNICEF acknowledges the 200 million hours that women and girls spend collecting water daily as a “colossal waste of their valuable time.” Evidence shows women's participation and decision making in management of local forests significantly improves forest conditions and conservation. And, leadership by Indigenous women, who have sustainably stewarded our natural world for generations, is crucial to preserving life without perpetuating the undue burden on already vulnerable communities.

Economic recovery and environmental action can go hand in hand

Jennifer Morris, Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy

The connection between human wellbeing and nature is indisputable. Governments, businesses and civil society must collaborate on every level to protect the ‘best’ of what is left on Earth and at sea, and improve areas of food production, energy siting, fishing and infrastructure planning. There is a clear path to funding this transformation by reducing ineffective subsidies and supply chain practices, producing new sources of funding and investing in a manner that pays dividends for nature.

In fact, we can close nearly half the biodiversity funding gap with no new funding, by reducing the flow of capital to harmful behaviors and shifting it toward activities that benefit nature. If done thoughtfully, economic recovery and environmental action can go hand in hand, leading to healthier, more prosperous lives.

This is a clarion call for public engagement and accountability

Amali Tower, Founder & Executive Director, Climate Refugees

The pandemic has made clear how shared our environment truly is, and also how unequal. Rich, high emitting countries that have benefited from the forces that created climate change are insulating themselves from those effects, in similar ways to the pandemic. This is a moral issue, but also one of justice. The most urgent changes needed are from these governments – crucially, the G20 countries – to reduce their emissions, which accounts for a staggering 80% of global emissions, and to fully transition to green economies. These countries need to grant, not loan, urgent climate adaptation finance that developing countries have long awaited so as to develop sustainably and build resiliency to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on their populations, many of whom are on the move. They also require parallel loss and damage climate finance to avert and minimize effects, and as compensation for the irreversible damage, forced migration and displacement.

Governments must also ratify and update their laws to uphold the right to a healthy environment to its full extent, including holding businesses, particularly extractive industries compliant. Environmental pollution and climate change have shown to be effective issues in empowering people to action, and climate related litigation has proven effective in Germany and the Netherlands , and in individual rights, where in France, pollution was a factor in determining a migrant’s residency rights . Civil society must seize this opportunity as a clarion call to mobilize public engagement and hold governments to account, where the greatest hope is in the resilient Global South and youth, pointing the way forward.

The right to a healthy environment offers hope to those most impacted

Katharina Rall, Senior Researcher, Environment & Human Rights, Human Rights Watch

The adoption of the resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment could offer some hope to many communities around the world already hard-hit by environmental degradation and climate change. To make the enjoyment of the right a reality for those most impacted, governments should recognize the right at the national level and develop strong environmental protection laws and policies to safeguard the rights of at risk populations. This includes requiring businesses to comply with environmental and human rights standards, for example through mandatory climate change due diligence regulations, and ensuring broad participation in environmental decision making by civil society groups and impacted populations – including protecting environmental defenders under threat or attack.

Businesses should comply with existing laws and ensure that their operations, including their global value chains , do not negatively affect the environment or violate the rights of nearby communities, including through rigorous environmental and human rights due diligence. They should stop efforts to silence environmental advocates, for example through baseless nuisance lawsuits—known as strategic lawsuits against public participation , or SLAPPs—and align their business models with international environmental and human rights standards.

Sustainable Development Essay

500+ words essay on sustainable development.

Sustainable development is a central concept. It is a way of understanding the world and a method for solving global problems. The world population continues to rise rapidly. This increasing population needs basic essential things for their survival such as food, safe water, health care and shelter. This is where the concept of sustainable development comes into play. Sustainable development means meeting the needs of people without compromising the ability of future generations. In this essay on sustainable development, students will understand what sustainable development means and how we can practise sustainable development. Students can also access the list of CBSE essay topics to practise more essays.

What Does Sustainable Development Means?

The term “Sustainable Development” is defined as the development that meets the needs of the present generation without excessive use or abuse of natural resources so that they can be preserved for the next generation. There are three aims of sustainable development; first, the “Economic” which will help to attain balanced growth, second, the “Environment”, to preserve the ecosystem, and third, “Society” which will guarantee equal access to resources to all human beings. The key principle of sustainable development is the integration of environmental, social, and economic concerns into all aspects of decision-making.

Need for Sustainable Development?

There are several challenges that need attention in the arena of economic development and environmental depletion. Hence the idea of sustainable development is essential to address these issues. The need for sustainable development arises to curb or prevent environmental degradation. It will check the overexploitation and wastage of natural resources. It will help in finding alternative sources to regenerate renewable energy resources. It ensures a safer human life and a safer future for the next generation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to keep sustainable development at the very core of any development strategy. The pandemic has challenged the health infrastructure, adversely impacted livelihoods and exacerbated the inequality in the food and nutritional availability in the country. The immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic enabled the country to focus on sustainable development. In these difficult times, several reform measures have been taken by the Government. The State Governments also responded with several measures to support those affected by the pandemic through various initiatives and reliefs to fight against this pandemic.

How to Practise Sustainable Development?

The concept of sustainable development was born to address the growing and changing environmental challenges that our planet is facing. In order to do this, awareness must be spread among the people with the help of many campaigns and social activities. People can adopt a sustainable lifestyle by taking care of a few things such as switching off the lights when not in use; thus, they save electricity. People must use public transport as it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. They should save water and not waste food. They build a habit of using eco-friendly products. They should minimise waste generation by adapting to the principle of the 4 R’s which stands for refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle.

The concept of sustainable development must be included in the education system so that students get aware of it and start practising a sustainable lifestyle. With the help of empowered youth and local communities, many educational institutions should be opened to educate people about sustainable development. Thus, adapting to a sustainable lifestyle will help to save our Earth for future generations. Moreover, the Government of India has taken a number of initiatives on both mitigation and adaptation strategies with an emphasis on clean and efficient energy systems; resilient urban infrastructure; water conservation & preservation; safe, smart & sustainable green transportation networks; planned afforestation etc. The Government has also supported various sectors such as agriculture, forestry, coastal and low-lying systems and disaster management.

Students must have found this essay on sustainable development useful for practising their essay writing skills. They can get the study material and the latest updates on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams, at BYJU’S.

Frequently Asked Questions on Sustainable development Essay

Why is sustainable development a hot topic for discussion.

Environment change and constant usage of renewable energy have become a concern for all of us around the globe. Sustainable development must be inculcated in young adults so that they make the Earth a better place.

What will happen if we do not practise sustainable development?

Landfills with waste products will increase and thereby there will be no space and land for humans and other species/organisms to thrive on.

What are the advantages of sustainable development?

Sustainable development helps secure a proper lifestyle for future generations. It reduces various kinds of pollution on Earth and ensures economic growth and development.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Request OTP on Voice Call

Post My Comment

environment and sustainable development essay

  • Share Share

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

close

Counselling

Live Support

Stanford University

What is Sustainability? A definition by environmental scientist Pamela Matson

Sustainability is not just about being green. it is the ability to meet the needs of people and their communities now and in the future..

Pam Matson, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman professor in environmental studies, former dean of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (now the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability) explains that the pursuit of sustainability through management, research, and operations is critical as we try to meet the needs of today’s 7-plus billion people without damaging the life support systems – water, air, land, oceans and more – not to mention those of future generations whose population is expected to reach 11 billion by the end of the century.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Sustainability is about the ability to meet the needs of people and their communities and organizations not just in the near term but over the long term. It’s about people and their needs, not just about technology, the environment or “being green.” With an environmental lens, sustainability is about managing and protecting Earth’s natural resources, ecosystems, climate and atmosphere so that current generations and future generations will have the things they need to live a decent life. In doing so, the millions of other species with whom we share the planet will also benefit.

What are the most critical sustainability challenges facing us in this century?

I think we all know the litany of challenges: energy, food, clean water, health and security, to name a few. We are making great progress in many of these areas; in others, there is much yet to be learned and done. But even when we have potentially useful new technologies or approaches or policies in hand, we can’t simply toss them over the fence and assume they will be used. We need to find better ways to engage with stakeholders to work toward sustainability solutions in the context of the complicated social-environmental systems in which they live.

What are some of Stanford’s tangible achievements in creating a sustainable campus?

Stanford has made huge strides in reducing our energy, carbon and water footprints through targeted programs.

For example, Stanford is now able to meet its energy needs while reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by about 68 percent. That happened with the launch of the Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) program, an amazing campus-wide system that incorporates a cutting-edge heat recovery process together with the increased production and use of solar power. Thanks to the wisdom of the Board of Trustees, Stanford’s academic leaders and our Energy and Sustainability Office, SESI has moved us from natural gas-based cogeneration – a leading edge and highly efficient technology of the 20th century – to a much more efficient system for both energy and water that can make use of multiple and changing sources of energy in the coming decades.

The university has reduced its water consumption by 47 percent since 2000, thanks not only to savings gained from SESI, but also to conservation across campus water users. We’ve also cut our employee drive-alone rate to around 50 percent, compared to 72 percent in 2002, thanks to the Transportation Demand Management program that incentivizes using alternative transportation and carpooling. Finally, the sustainability activities in our residential and dining services are astounding, sourcing sustainable foods, reducing waste, improving energy and water use efficiency, and so on.

What about students? How are we preparing tomorrow’s sustainability leaders?

In many cases, Stanford’s students have been the ones to encourage and demand action in all parts of the university, in particular through Students for a Sustainable Stanford, the Stanford Energy Club and the Green Living Council.

In the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, we aim to ensure that all Stanford undergrads know something about this planet we share. We’re doing that by offering courses that are appropriate to students in any major and that are easy to fit into crowded academic schedules. These include Thinking Matters courses, Sophomore College, field trips, courses on sustainable food, energy, water and climate solutions, and a growing number of 1-unit options, all that encourage students to think systematically about environmental and sustainability challenges. Several of these integrate faculty expertise across disciplines, a special hallmark of Stanford.

Beyond coursework, students can engage directly at our new O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, which has become a hotbed for engagement in and learning about sustainable agriculture. Students also have a range of internship and service learning opportunities through the Haas Center for Public Service and other venues, and students living in Roble Hall are participating in a new living lab for sustainability at Stanford.

What do tomorrow’s sustainability leaders look like?

I think there are at least three important characteristics of the new type of leader who can lead change for sustainability goals. First, we need systems thinkers – leaders who understand the connections and interactions of social-environmental systems in which sustainability challenges play out. It’s fine for someone to focus on technology or policy designs and innovations, but one also needs to understand the impact of those innovations – their interconnectivities, trade-offs and potential unintended consequences – in complex social-technological-environmental systems. Second, we need leaders who understand human behavior and decision-making and who have empathy, open-mindedness, and engagement and partnership skills to lead change collaboratively. Finally, we need leaders who can design innovations that can scale to a level where they can make a difference.

A new coterminal master’s program approved in 2017, Sustainability Science and Practice, was designed purposefully to foster those three critical elements for future leaders in sustainability. Likewise, the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) PhD and joint master’s program integrates social and natural sciences and technology to address sustainability challenges. And the Earth Systems undergraduate program and its new minor in Earth Systems Sustainability take that interdisciplinary approach in sustainability problem solving.

What sustainability success stories at Stanford do you personally connect with?

I’ve been lucky to be personally engaged in many sustainability efforts at Stanford, but I’ll mention two that stand out for me. First, planning for the Jerry Yang & Akiko Yamazaki Environment + Energy Building (Y2E2), Stanford’s first large-scale, high performance “green building” that opened in 2008. Y2E2 proved that every new building at Stanford can be a green building. Second, the development of our educational farm that gives students hands-on access to sustainable agriculture and a personal connection to Earth. A good number of students can see and learn, perhaps for the first time, how their food is produced; others can engage in the balancing act of sustainable food production, harmonizing economic, social and environmental concerns. Finally, members of our community can find peace and quiet and time for contemplation in a growing environment.

What still needs to be done?

First, through the thought leadership and research of our faculty, we need to make sure that scientific knowledge of all sorts is useful, available and accessible to decision-makers – whether they are in government, business or nonprofit organizations. We need to carry out cutting-edge research that contributes to scientific discovery and problem-solving, and we also need to help ensure that knowledge is actually useful and used in decision-making.

For our students, this means developing knowledge through both disciplinary and interdisciplinary coursework, but also linking it to action through experiential and service learning, internship and practicum opportunities.

Pamela Matson is the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. An environmental scientist and MacArthur Fellow, she was instrumental in building Stanford’s Initiative on Environment and Sustainability in the early 2000s and championed creation of the Woods Institute for the Environment, where she is a senior fellow, and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Pursuing Sustainability

Media Contacts M

Danielle t. tucker, (650) 497-9541.

[email protected]

  • Show search

Perspectives

The Science of Sustainability

Can a unified path for development and conservation lead to a better future?

October 13, 2018

Aerial view of roads cutting through a forest of trees.

  • A False Choice
  • Two Paths to 2050
  • What's Possible
  • The Way Forward
  • Engage With Us

The Cerrado may not have the same name recognition as the Amazon , but this vast tropical savannah in Brazil has much in common with that perhaps better-known destination. The Cerrado is also a global biodiversity hotspot, home to thousands of species only found there, and it is also a critical area in the fight against climate change, acting as a large carbon pool.

But Brazil is one of the two largest soy producers in the world—the crop is one of the country’s most important commodities and a staple in global food supplies—and that success is placing the Cerrado in precarious decline. To date, around 46% of the Cerrado has been deforested or converted for agriculture.

Producing more soy doesn’t have to mean converting more native habitat, however. A new spatial data tool is helping identify the best places to expand soy without further encroachment on the native landscapes of the Cerrado. And with traders and bankers working together to offer preferable financing to farmers who expand onto already-converted land, Brazil can continue to produce this important crop, while protecting native habitat and providing more financial stability for farmers.

The Cerrado is just one region of a vast planet, of course, but these recent efforts to protect it are representative of a new way of thinking about the relationship between conservation and our growing human demands. It is part of an emerging model for cross-sector collaboration that aims to create a world prepared for the sustainability challenges ahead.

Is this world possible? Here, we present a new science-based view that says “Yes”—but it will require new forms of collaboration across traditionally disconnected sectors, and on a near unprecedented scale.

Thumbnail of The Science of Sustainability download

Download a PDF version of this feature. Click to see translated versions of this page.

I.  A False Choice

Many assume that economic interests and environmental interests are in conflict. But new research makes the case that this perception of development vs. conservation is not just unnecessary but actively counterproductive to both ends. Achieving a sustainable future will be dependent on our ability to secure both thriving human communities and abundant and healthy natural ecosystems.

The Nature Conservancy partnered with the University of Minnesota and 11 other organizations to ask whether it is possible to achieve a future where the needs of both people and nature are advanced. Can we actually meet people’s needs for food, water and energy while doing more to protect nature? 

The perception of development vs. conservation is not just unnecessary, but actively counterproductive to both ends.

To answer this question, we compared what the world will look like in 2050 if economic and human development progress in a “business-as-usual” fashion and what it would look like if instead we join forces to implement a “sustainable” path with a series of fair-minded and technologically viable solutions to the challenges that lie ahead.

In both options, we used leading projections of population growth and gross domestic product to estimate how demand for food, energy and water will evolve between 2010 and 2050. Under business-as-usual, we played out existing expectations and trends in how those changes will impact land use, water use, air quality, climate, protected habitat areas and ocean fisheries. In the more sustainable scenario, we proposed changes to how and where food and energy are produced, asking if these adjustments could result in better outcomes for the same elements of human well-being and nature. Our full findings are described in a peer-reviewed paper— “An Attainable Global Vision for Conservation and Human Well-Being” —published in  Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment .

These scenarios let us ask, can we do better? Can we design a future that meets people’s needs without further degrading nature in the process?

Our answer is “yes,” but it comes with several big “ifs.” There is a path to get there, but matters are urgent—if we want to accomplish these goals by mid-century, we’ll have to dramatically ramp up our efforts now. The next decade is critical.

Furthermore, changing course in the next ten years will require global collaboration on a scale not seen perhaps since World War II. The widely held impression that economic and environmental goals are mutually exclusive has contributed to a lack of connection among key societal constituencies best equipped to solve interconnected problems—namely, the public health, development, financial and conservation communities. This has to change.

The good news is that protecting nature and providing water, food and energy to a growing world do not have to be either-or propositions. Our view, instead, calls for smart energy, water, air, health and ecosystem initiatives that balance the needs of economic growth and resource conservation equally. Rather than a zero-sum game, these elements are balanced sides of an equation, revealing the path to a future where people and nature thrive together.

View of the English Bay in Vancouver, Canada at sunset.

II. Two Paths to 2050

This vision is not a wholesale departure from what others have offered. A number of prominent scientists and organizations have put forward important and thoughtful views for a sustainable future; but often such plans consider the needs of people and nature in isolation from one another, use analyses confined to limited sectors or geographies, or assume that some hard tradeoffs must be made, such as slowing global population growth, taking a reduction in GDP growth or shifting diets off of meat. Our new research considers global economic development and conservation needs together, more holistically, in order to find a sustainable path forward.

What could a different future look like? We’ve used as our standard the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 measures for “a world where all people are fed, healthy, employed, educated, empowered and thriving, but not at the expense of other life on Earth.” Our analysis directly aligns with ten of those goals. Using the SDGs as our guideposts, we imagine a world in 2050 that looks very different than the one today—and drastically different from the one we will face if we continue in business-as-usual fashion.

A sustainable future is possible.

To create our assessment of business-as-usual versus a more sustainable path, we looked at 14 measurements including temperature change, carbon dioxide levels, air pollution, water consumption, food and energy footprints, and protected areas.

Business as usual compared to conservation pathway showing changes in temperature, air quality, fisheries, and protected land.

Over the next 30 years, we know we’ll face rapid population growth and greater pressures on our natural resources. The statistics are sobering—with 9.7 billion people on the planet by 2050, we can expect a 54 percent increase in global food demand and 56 percent increase in energy demand. While meetings these growing demands and achieving sustainability is possible, it is helpful to scrutinize where the status quo will get us.

The World Health Organization, World Economic Forum and other leading global development organizations now say that air pollution and water scarcity—environmental challenges—are among the biggest dangers to human health and prosperity. And our business-as-usual analysis makes clear what many already fear: that human development based on the same practices we use today will not prepare us for a world with nearly 10 billion people.

To put it simply, if we stay on today’s current path, we risk being trapped in an intensifying cycle of scarcity—our growth opportunities severely capped and our natural landscapes severely degraded. Under this business-as-usual scenario, we can expect global temperature to increase 3.2°C; worsened air pollution affecting 4.9 billion more people; overfishing of 84 percent of fish stocks; and greater water stress affecting 2.75 billion people. Habitat loss continues, leaving less than 50 percent of native grasslands and several types of forests intact.

However, if we make changes in where and how we meet food, water and energy demands for the same growing global population and wealth, the picture can look markedly different by mid-century. This “sustainability” path includes global temperature increase limited to 1.6°C—meeting Paris Climate Accord goals—zero overfishing with greater fisheries yields, a 90 percent drop in exposure to dangerous air pollution, and fewer water-stressed people, rivers and agricultural fields. These goals can be met while natural habitats extend both inside and outside protected areas. All signatory countries to the Aichi Targets meet habitat protection goals, and more than 50 percent of all ecoregions’ extents remain unconverted, except temperate grasslands (of which over 50 percent are already converted today).

Behind the Science

Discover how TNC and its partners developed the models for 2050.

Aerial view of wind turbines on agricultural land.

III. What's Possible

Achieving this sustainable future for people and nature is possible with existing and expected technology and consumption, but only with major shifts in production patterns. Making these shifts will require overcoming substantial economic, social and political challenges. In short, it is not likely that the biophysical limits of the planet will determine our future, but rather our willingness to think and act differently by putting economic development and the environment on equal footing as central parts of the same equation.

Climate, Energy and Air Quality

Perhaps the most pressing need for change is in energy use. In order to both meet increased energy demand and keep the climate within safe boundaries, we’ll need to alter the way we produce energy, curtailing emissions of carbon and other harmful chemicals.

Under a business-as-usual scenario, fossil fuels will still claim a 76 percent share of total energy in 2050. A more sustainable approach would reduce that share to 13 percent by 2050. While this is a sharp change, it is necessary to stanch the flow of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

environment and sustainable development essay

The reduction in carbon-based energy could be offset by increasing the share of energy from renewable sources to 54 percent and increasing nuclear energy to one third of total energy output—delivering a total of almost 85 percent of the world’s energy demand from non-fossil-fuel sources.

Additionally, we will only achieve the full extent of reduced climate impacts if we draw down existing carbon from the atmosphere. This can be done through greater investment in carbon capture and storage efforts, including natural climate solutions—land management strategies such as avoiding forest loss, reforestation, investments in soil health and coastal ecosystem restoration.

The net benefit of these energy redistribution efforts is twofold. First, they lower the rate at which greenhouse gases are flowing into the air—taking atmospheric carbon projections down to 442 parts per million, compared to business-as-usual estimates that put the level closer to 520 ppm.

Second, these energy source shifts would create a marked decline in particulate air pollution. Our models show that the higher fossil fuel use in the business-as-usual scenario is likely to expose half the people on the planet to poorer air quality by 2050. Under the sustainable scenario, that figure drops to just 7 percent of the world’s inhabitants, thanks to lower particulate emissions from renewable and nuclear energy sources.

Case Studies: 

  • Forests That Fight Climate Change: Brazil’s Serra da Mantiqueira region demonstrates how reforestation can tackle climate change, improve water supplies, and increase incomes in rural communities.  Learn More
  • Can Trees Be a Prescription for Urban Health?:  Conservationists, community organizations and public health researchers joined forces to plant trees in Louisville, Kentucky and monitor their impact on air quality and residents’ health.  Learn More

Near Cachoeira Reservoir, Brazil.

Food, Habitat and City Growth

Meeting the sustainable targets we propose requires a second front on land to shift how we use available real estate and where we choose to conduct necessary activities. Overall, the changes we include in our more sustainable view allow the world to meet global food, water and energy demands with no additional conversion of natural habitat for those needs—an outcome that is not possible under business as usual.

While transitioning away from fossil fuels is essential to meet climate goals, new renewable energy infrastructure siting will present land-use challenges. Renewable energy production takes up space, and if not sited well it can cause its own negative impacts on nature and its services to people. In our more sustainable path, we address this challenge by preferencing the use of already converted land for renewables development, lessening the impact of new wind and solar on natural habitat. We also exclude expansion of biofuels, as they are known to require extensive land area to produce, causing conflicts with natural habitat and food security.

Perhaps most encouraging, we show that it is possible to meet future food demands on less agricultural land than is used today. Notably, our scenario keeps the mix of crops in each growing region the same, so as not to disrupt farmers’ cultures, technologies, capacity or existing crop knowledge. Instead, we propose moving which crops are grown where within growing regions, putting more “thirsty” crops in areas with more water, and matching the nutrient needs of various crops to the soils available.

Unlike some projections used by others, for this scenario we left diet expectations alone, matching meat consumption with business-as-usual expectations. If we were able to reduce meat consumption, especially by middle- and high-income countries where nutritional needs are met, reducing future agricultural land, water and pollution footprints would be even easier.

Meanwhile, on the land protection front, our analysis is guided by the Convention on Biological Diversity, the leading global platform most countries have signed. Each signatory country has agreed to protect up to 17 percent of each habitat type within its borders. While many countries will fall short of this goal under business as usual, it can be achieved in our more sustainable option.

Use already degraded land for energy development.

By making changes in food, water and energy use, we can better protect nearly all habitat types.

We acknowledge 17 percent is an imperfect number, and many believe more natural habitat is needed to allow the world’s biodiversity to thrive. Looking beyond protected areas, we see additional differences in the possible futures we face. Our more sustainable option retains 577 million hectares more natural habitat than business as usual, much of it outside of protected areas. Conservation has long focused on representation—it is not only important to conserve large areas, but to represent different kinds of habitat. Under business as usual, we will lose more than half of several major habitat types by mid-century, including temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, Mediterranean forest, and temperate grassland. Flooded and tropical grasslands approach this level of loss as well.

But with the proposed shifts in food, water and energy use, we can do better for nearly all habitats in our more sustainable scenario. The one exception is temperate grasslands, a biome that has already lost more than 50 percent of its global extent today. In all, the more sustainable scenario shows a future that would be largely compatible with emerging views that suggest protecting half of the world’s land system.

 Case Study:

  • Managing Sprawling Soy:  A partnership between businesses and nonprofit groups in Brazil will help farmers plant soy in the areas where it is has the smallest impact on natural habitats.  Learn More

The gravel bottoms and braided channels of rivers leading into Iliamna Lake in southwest Alaska are ideal for the many king salmon that spawn in the lake's waters.

Drinking Water, River Basins and Fisheries

Water presents a complex set of challenges. Like land, it is both a resource and a habitat. Fresh water resources are dwindling while ocean ecosystems are overburdened by unregulated fishing and pollution. Business-as-usual projections estimate that 2.75 billion people will experience water scarcity by 2050 and 770 water basins will experience water stress. Africa and Central Asia in particular would see fewer water stressed basins in the sustainable scenario.

environment and sustainable development essay

Changes in energy sources and food production (see above sections) would lead to significant water savings by reducing use of water as a coolant in energy production and by moving crops to areas where they need less irrigation. Thanks to these changes, our more sustainable option for the future would relieve 104 million people and biodiversity in 25 major river basins from likely water stress.

Meanwhile, in the seas, we find an inspiring possibility for fisheries. Continuing business-as-usual fisheries management adds further stress to the oceans and the global food system as more stocks decline, further diminishing the food we rely on from the seas. But more sustainable fisheries management is possible, and our projections using a leading fisheries model shows that adopting sustainable management in all fisheries by mid-century would actually increase yield by over a quarter more than we saw in 2010.

And, while we know that aquaculture is a certain element of the future of fish and food, many questions remain about precisely how this industry will grow, and how it can be shaped to be a low-impact part of the global food system. Given these unknowns, we kept aquaculture growth the same in both our views of the future.

environment and sustainable development essay

 Case Studies:

  • Cities and Farmers Find Common Ground on Water: Smarter agricultural practices in the Kenya’s Upper Tana River Watershed are resulting in better yields for farmers and more reliable water supplies for the city of Nairobi.  Learn More
  • Technology Offers a Lifeline for Fish:  A new mobile application being piloted in Indonesia is helping fill a crucial gap in fisheries management—providing accurate data about what species are being caught where.  Learn More

The land meets the sea in Uruma City, Japan

IV.  The Way Forward

This analysis does not represent a panacea for the growing need for economic development across the planet or for the environmental challenges that are ahead. But it does provide an optimistic viewpoint and an integrated picture that can serve as a starting point for discussion.

Our goal is to apply new questions—and ultimately new solutions—to our known problems. We present one of many possible paths to a different future, and we welcome like-minded partners and productive critics to share their perspectives with us. We encourage people from across society to join the conversation, to fill gaps where they exist, and to bring other important considerations to our attention. Most of all, we call on the development (e.g. energy, agriculture, infrastructure), health, and financial communities—among others—to work with us to find new ways of taking action together.

Ultimately, by illustrating a viable pathway to sustainability that serves both the needs of economic and environmental interests—goals that many have long assumed were mutually exclusive—we hope to inspire the global community to engage in the difficult but necessary social, economic and political dialogue that can make a sustainable future a reality.

Protecting nature and providing water, food and energy to the world can no longer be either-or propositions. Nature and human development are both central factors in the same equation. We have at our disposal the cross-sector expertise necessary to make informed decisions for the good of life on our planet, so let’s use it wisely. Our science affirms there is a way.

Join us as we chart a new path to 2050 by helping people and nature thrive—together.

Testimonials

environment and sustainable development essay

Opportunities to Engage

Designing strategies to address global challenges for people and nature requires integration of diverse bodies of evidence that are now largely segregated. As actors across the health, development and environment sectors pivot to act collectively, they face challenges in finding and interpreting evidence on sector interrelationships, and thus in developing effective evidence-based responses.

Learn more about these emerging coalitions that offer opportunities to engage and connect with shared resources.

environment and sustainable development essay

Bridge Collaborative

The Bridge Collaborative unites people and organizations in health, development and the environment with the evidence and tools to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. Learn More

SNAPP logo

Science for Nature and People Partnership

SNAPP envisions a world where protecting and promoting nature works in concert with sustainable development and improving human well-being. Learn More

Wicked Econfest Logo

Wicked Econ Fest

Wicked Econ Fests are workshops between leading economics, finance, conservation and policy experts to tackle specific, decision-driven challenges. Learn More

Macro view of a leaf.

Global Insights

Check out our latest thinking and real-world solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing people and the planet today. Explore our Insights

We personalize nature.org for you

This website uses cookies to enhance your experience and analyze performance and traffic on our website.

To manage or opt-out of receiving cookies, please visit our

environment and sustainable development essay

25,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today

Here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more.

environment and sustainable development essay

Verification Code

An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify

environment and sustainable development essay

Thanks for your comment !

Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers.

environment and sustainable development essay

Essay on Environment: Examples & Tips

' src=

  • Updated on  
  • May 30, 2022

Essay on Environment

In the 21st century, the Environmental crisis is one of the biggest issues. The world has been potentially impacted by the resulting hindrance in the environmental balance, due to the rising in industrialization and urbanization. This led to several natural calamities which creates an everlasting severe impact on the environment for years. To familiarize students with the importance environment, the subject ‘Environmental Studies’ is part of the curriculum in primary, secondary as well as higher school education. To test the knowledge of the students related to Environment, a question related to the topic in the form of essay or article writing is included in the exam. This blog aims to focus on providing details to students on the way, they can draft a well-written essay on Environment.

This Blog Includes:

Overview on environment, tips on writing an effective essay, format (150 words), sample essay on environment, environment essay (100 words), essay on environment (200-250 words), environment essay (300 words), world environment day.

To begin the essay on Environment, students must know what it is all about. Biotic (plants, animals, and microorganisms) and abiotic (non-living physical factors) components in our surroundings fall under the terminology of the environment. Everything that surrounds us is a part of the environment and facilitates our existence on the planet.

Before writing an effective essay on Environment, another thing students need to ensure is to get familiarised with the structure of essay writing. The major tips which students need to keep in mind, while drafting the essay are:

  • Research on the given topic thoroughly : The students must research the topic given in the essay, for example: while drafting an essay on the environment, students must mention the recent events, so to provide the reader with a view into their understanding of this concept.
  • Jot down the important points: When the students research the topic, students must note down the points which need to be included in the essay.
  • Quote down the important examples: Students must quote the important examples in the introductory paragraphs and the subsequent paragraphs as well.
  • Revise the Essay: The student after finishing writing students must revise the content to locate any grammatical errors as well as other mistakes.

Essay on Environment: Format & Samples

Now that you are aware of the key elements of drafting an essay on Environment, take a look at the format of essay writing first:

Introduction

The student must begin the essay by, detailing an overview of the topic in a very simple way in around 30-40 words. In the introduction of the essay on Environment, the student can make it interesting by recent instances or adding questions.

Body of Content

The content after the introduction can be explained in around 80 words, on a given topic in detail. This part must contain maximum detail in this part of the Essay. For the Environment essay, students can describe ways the environment is hampered and different ways to prevent and protect it.

In the essay on Environment, students can focus on summing the essay in 30-40 words, by writing its aim, types, and purposes briefly. This section must swaddle up all the details which are explained in the body of the content.

Below is a sample of an Essay on Environment to give you an idea of the way to write one:

The natural surroundings that enable life to thrive, nurture, and destroy on our planet called earth are referred to as an environment. The natural environment is vital to the survival of life on Earth, allowing humans, animals, and other living things to thrive and evolve naturally. However, our ecosystem is being harmed as a result of certain wicked and selfish human actions. It is the most essential issue, and everyone should understand how to safeguard our environment and maintain the natural balance on this planet for life to continue to exist.

Nature provides an environment that nourishes life on the planet. The environment encompasses everything humans need to live, including water, air, sunshine, land, plants, animals, forests, and other natural resources. Our surroundings play a critical role in enabling the existence of healthy life on the planet. However, due to man-made technical advancements in the current period, our environment is deteriorating day by day. As a result, environmental contamination has risen to the top of our priority list.

Environmental pollution has a detrimental impact on our everyday lives in a variety of ways, including socially, physically, economically, emotionally, and cognitively. Contamination of the environment causes a variety of ailments that can last a person’s entire life. It is not a problem of a neighborhood or a city; it is a global issue that cannot be handled by a single person’s efforts. It has the potential to end life in a day if it is not appropriately handled. Every ordinary citizen should participate in the government’s environmental protection effort.

Between June 5 and June 16, World Environment Day is commemorated to raise awareness about the environment and to educate people about its importance. On this day, awareness initiatives are held in a variety of locations.

The environment is made up of plants, animals, birds, reptiles, insects, water bodies, fish, humans, trees, microbes, and many other things. Furthermore, they all contribute to the ecosystem.

The physical, social, and cultural environments are the three categories of environments. Besides, various scientists have defined different types and numbers of environments.

1. Do not leave rubbish in public areas. 2. Minimize the use of plastic 3. Items should be reduced, reused, and recycled. 4. Prevent water and soil contamination

Hope the blog has given you an idea of how to write an essay on the Environment. If you are planning to study abroad and want help in writing your essays, then let Leverage Edu be your helping hand. Our experts will assist you in writing an excellent SOP for your study abroad consultant application. 

' src=

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Contact no. *

browse success stories

Leaving already?

8 Universities with higher ROI than IITs and IIMs

Grab this one-time opportunity to download this ebook

Connect With Us

25,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. take the first step today..

environment and sustainable development essay

Resend OTP in

environment and sustainable development essay

Need help with?

Study abroad.

UK, Canada, US & More

IELTS, GRE, GMAT & More

Scholarship, Loans & Forex

Country Preference

New Zealand

Which English test are you planning to take?

Which academic test are you planning to take.

Not Sure yet

When are you planning to take the exam?

Already booked my exam slot

Within 2 Months

Want to learn about the test

Which Degree do you wish to pursue?

When do you want to start studying abroad.

September 2024

January 2025

What is your budget to study abroad?

environment and sustainable development essay

How would you describe this article ?

Please rate this article

We would like to hear more.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • View all journals
  • Explore content
  • About the journal
  • Publish with us
  • Sign up for alerts
  • Perspective
  • Published: 31 January 2024

Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future

  • Fernando Vidal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3027-768X 1 , 2 ,
  • Eva R. van der Marel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4543-6794 3 , 4 ,
  • Ryan W. F. Kerr   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8045-2060 1 ,
  • Caitlin McElroy   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0614-6556 5 ,
  • Nadia Schroeder 5 ,
  • Celia Mitchell 5 ,
  • Gloria Rosetto 1 ,
  • Thomas T. D. Chen 1 ,
  • Richard M. Bailey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4566-843X 6 ,
  • Cameron Hepburn   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0467-7441 5 ,
  • Catherine Redgwell   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5326-4649 3 &
  • Charlotte K. Williams   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0734-1575 1  

Nature volume  626 ,  pages 45–57 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

3873 Accesses

147 Altmetric

Metrics details

  • Polymer chemistry
  • Sustainability

The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

environment and sustainable development essay

Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options (OECD, 2022).

Schneiderman, D. K. & Hillmyer, M. A. 50th anniversary perspective: there is a great future in sustainable polymers. Macromolecules 50 , 3733–3749 (2017).

Article   ADS   CAS   Google Scholar  

Ostle, C. et al. The rise in ocean plastics evidenced from a 60-year time series. Nat. Commun. 10 , 1622 (2019).

Article   ADS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Borrelle, S. B. et al. Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution. Science 369 , 1515–1518 (2020).

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Lau, W. W. Y. et al. Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution. Science 369 , 1455–1461 (2020).

Brahney, J., Hallerud, M., Heim, E., Hahnenberger, M. & Sukumaran, S. Plastic rain in protected areas of the United States. Science 368 , 1257–1260 (2020).

MacLeod, M., Arp, H. P. H., Tekman, M. B. & Jahnke, A. The global threat from plastic pollution. Science 373 , 61–65 (2021).

Santos, R. G., Machovsky-Capuska, G. E. & Andrades, R. Plastic ingestion as an evolutionary trap: toward a holistic understanding. Science 373 , 56–60 (2021).

Tamargo, A. et al. PET microplastics affect human gut microbiota communities during simulated gastrointestinal digestion, first evidence of plausible polymer biodegradation during human digestion. Sci. Rep. 12 , 528 (2022).

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Bachmann, M. et al. Towards circular plastics within planetary boundaries. Nat. Sustain. 6 , 599–610 (2023). Evaluation of various pathways for a circular plastics economy in view of nine planetary boundaries beyond GHG emissions .

Article   Google Scholar  

Carus, M., Dammer, L., Raschka, A. & Skoczinski, P. Renewable carbon: key to a sustainable and future‐oriented chemical and plastic industry: definition, strategy, measures and potential. Greenh. Gases Sci. Technol. 10 , 488–505 (2020).

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Pires da Mata Costa, L. et al. Capture and reuse of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) for a plastics circular economy: a review. Processes 9 , 759 (2021).

Bauer, F. et al. Plastics and climate change—breaking carbon lock-ins through three mitigation pathways. One Earth 5 , 361–376 (2022). Potential risks and consequences of carbon lock-in at each stage of the plastics life cycle and their relationship with innovations and policy to change the plastic system .

Article   ADS   Google Scholar  

Spierling, S. et al. Bio-based plastics – a review of environmental, social and economic impact assessments. J. Clean. Prod. 185 , 476–491 (2018).

Cywar, R. M., Rorrer, N. A., Hoyt, C. B., Beckham, G. T. & Chen, E. Y. X. Bio-based polymers with performance-advantaged properties. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7 , 83–103 (2021).

Rosenboom, J.-G., Langer, R. & Traverso, G. Bioplastics for a circular economy. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7 , 117–137 (2022). Prospects of integrating bio-based plastics in a future circular economy, with a critical look at all the stages of the life cycle, as well as the current state of their market and policy implementation worldwide .

Law, K. L. & Narayan, R. Reducing environmental plastic pollution by designing polymer materials for managed end-of-life. Nat. Rev. Mater. 7 , 104–116 (2021).

Jehanno, C. et al. Critical advances and future opportunities in upcycling commodity polymers. Nature 603 , 803–814 (2022).

Mangold, H. & von Vacano, B. The frontier of plastics recycling: rethinking waste as a resource for high‐value applications. Macromol. Chem. Phys. 223 , 2100488 (2022).

Jambeck, J. R. et al. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347 , 768–771 (2015).

Brooks, A. L., Wang, S. & Jambeck, J. R. The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade. Sci. Adv. 4 , eaat0131 (2018).

Wang, C., Zhao, L., Lim, M. K., Chen, W.-Q. & Sutherland, J. W. Structure of the global plastic waste trade network and the impact of China’s import ban. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 153 , 104591 (2020).

van der Marel, E. R. Trading plastic waste in a global economy: soundly regulated by the Basel Convention? J. Environ. Law 34 , 477–497 (2022).

Lebreton, L. C. M. et al. River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans. Nat. Commun. 8 , 15611 (2017).

Horejs, C. Solutions to plastic pollution. Nat. Rev. Mater. 5 , 641–641 (2020).

Rochman, C. M. et al. Classify plastic waste as hazardous. Nature 494 , 169–171 (2013).

Jung, Y. S. et al. Characterization and regulation of microplastic pollution for protecting planetary and human health. Environ. Pollut. 315 , 120442 (2022).

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Fortman, D. J. et al. Approaches to sustainable and continually recyclable cross-linked polymers. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 6 , 11145–11159 (2018).

Coates, G. W. & Getzler, Y. D. Y. L. Chemical recycling to monomer for an ideal, circular polymer economy. Nat. Rev. Mater. 5 , 501–516 (2020). Advances in chemical depolymerization to monomers from polymers to revalorize plastic waste .

Vollmer, I. et al. Beyond mechanical recycling: giving new life to plastic waste. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59 , 15402–15423 (2020).

Ellis, L. D. et al. Chemical and biological catalysis for plastics recycling and upcycling. Nat. Catal. 4 , 539–556 (2021). Challenges and opportunities for catalysis development in chemical and biological recycling .

World Trade Organization (WTO), Committee on Trade and Environment. WTO Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade . WT/CTE/W/250/Rev.2 (WTO, 2021).

United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) of the United Nations Environment Programme. End Plastic Pollution: Towards an International Legally Binding Instrument . UNEP/PP/OEWG/1/INF/1 (UNEA, 2022).

Stöfen-O’Brien, A. The prospects of an international treaty on plastic pollution. Int. J. Mar. Coast. Law 37 , 727–740 (2022).

Simon, N. et al. A binding global agreement to address the life cycle of plastics. Science 373 , 43–47 (2021).

Kirk, E. A. & Popattanachai, N. Marine plastics: fragmentation, effectiveness and legitimacy in international lawmaking. Rev. Eur. Comp. Int. Environ. Law 27 , 222–233 (2018).

Raubenheimer, K., McIlgorm, A. & Oral, N. Towards an improved international framework to govern the life cycle of plastics. Rev. Eur. Comp. Int. Environ. Law 27 , 210–221 (2018).

United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) of the United Nations Environment Programme. Combating Marine Plastic Litter and Microplastics: An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Relevant International, Regional and Subregional Governance Strategies and Approaches . UNEP/EA.3/INF/5 (UNEA, 2018).

Landrigan, P. J. et al. The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health. Ann. Glob. Health 89 , 23 (2023).

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Geyer, R. in Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions (ed. Letcher, T. M.) 13–32 (Academic, 2020).

Stubbins, A., Law, K. L., Muñoz, S. E., Bianchi, T. S. & Zhu, L. Plastics in the Earth system. Science 373 , 51–55 (2021).

Zheng, J. & Suh, S. Strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics. Nat. Clim. Change 9 , 374–378 (2019). The effect of implementing decarbonized energy, reduced demand, high recycling and bio-based plastics in reducing the carbon footprint of plastics .

Friedlingstein, P. et al. Global Carbon Budget 2022. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 14 , 4811–4900 (2022).

Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution (The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, 2020).

The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2016).

The New Plastics Economy: Catalysing Action (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017).

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A New Circular Economy Action Plan for a Cleaner and More Competitive Europe COM(2020) 98 final (European Commission, 2020).

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Closing the Loop – An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy COM(2015) 614 final (European Commission, 2015).

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy COM(2018) 28 final (European Commission, 2018).

Meys, R. et al. Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission plastics by a circular carbon economy. Science 374 , 71–76 (2021). Life-cycle assessments of circular pathways for the plastics sector, focused on recycling, biomass and CCU, and aimed towards carbon-footprint reductions .

Stegmann, P., Daioglou, V., Londo, M., van Vuuren, D. P. & Junginger, M. Plastic futures and their CO 2 emissions. Nature 612 , 272–276 (2022). Cumulative projections of plastic production and emissions towards 2100 and the effects of implementing circular mitigation strategies .

Bank, M. S. & Hansson, S. V. The plastic cycle: a novel and holistic paradigm for the Anthropocene. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53 , 7177–7179 (2019).

Zhu, X. The plastic cycle – an unknown branch of the carbon cycle. Front. Mar. Sci. 7 , 1227 (2021).

Global Waste Management Outlook (UNEP, 2015).

Zimmerman, J. B., Anastas, P. T., Erythropel, H. C. & Leitner, W. Designing for a green chemistry future. Science 367 , 397–400 (2020).

Sinha, V., Patel, M. R. & Patel, J. V. Pet waste management by chemical recycling: a review. J. Polym. Environ. 18 , 8–25 (2008).

Lopez, G., Artetxe, M., Amutio, M., Bilbao, J. & Olazar, M. Thermochemical routes for the valorization of waste polyolefinic plastics to produce fuels and chemicals. A review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 73 , 346–368 (2017).

Rahimi, A. & García, J. M. Chemical recycling of waste plastics for new materials production. Nat. Rev. Chem. 1 , 0046 (2017).

Lopez, G. et al. Recent advances in the gasification of waste plastics. A critical overview. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 82 , 576–596 (2018).

Schyns, Z. O. G. & Shaver, M. P. Mechanical recycling of packaging plastics: a review. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 42 , 2000415 (2021).

Ghosh, K. & Jones, B. H. Roadmap to biodegradable plastics—current state and research needs. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 9 , 6170–6187 (2021). Analysis of current biodegradable plastics and description of future focus areas for development .

Zhang, X., Fevre, M., Jones, G. O. & Waymouth, R. M. Catalysis as an enabling science for sustainable polymers. Chem. Rev. 118 , 839–885 (2017).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Sun, Z., Fridrich, B., de Santi, A., Elangovan, S. & Barta, K. Bright side of lignin depolymerization: toward new platform chemicals. Chem. Rev. 118 , 614–678 (2018). Review on the catalytic processes to obtain chemicals and monomers from lignin .

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Grignard, B., Gennen, S., Jérôme, C., Kleij, A. W. & Detrembleur, C. Advances in the use of CO 2 as a renewable feedstock for the synthesis of polymers. Chem. Soc. Rev. 48 , 4466–4514 (2019). Catalytic pathways for the chemical conversion of CO 2 into polymers .

O’Dea, R. M., Willie, J. A. & Epps, T. H. 100th anniversary of macromolecular science viewpoint: polymers from lignocellulosic biomass. Current challenges and future opportunities. ACS Macro Lett. 9 , 476–493 (2020).

Hepburn, C. et al. The technological and economic prospects for CO 2 utilization and removal. Nature 575 , 87–97 (2019).

Smith, S. M. et al. The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal 1st edn (The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, 2023).

Centi, G., Quadrelli, E. A. & Perathoner, S. Catalysis for CO 2 conversion: a key technology for rapid introduction of renewable energy in the value chain of chemical industries. Energy Environ. Sci. 6 , 1711–1731 (2013).

Sternberg, A., Jens, C. M. & Bardow, A. Life cycle assessment of CO 2 -based C1-chemicals. Green Chem. 19 , 2244–2259 (2017).

Zhong, J. et al. State of the art and perspectives in heterogeneous catalysis of CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol. Chem. Soc. Rev. 49 , 1385–1413 (2020).

Kaiser, S. & Bringezu, S. Use of carbon dioxide as raw material to close the carbon cycle for the German chemical and polymer industries. J. Clean. Prod. 271 , 122775 (2020).

Schirmeister, C. G. & Mülhaupt, R. Closing the carbon loop in the circular plastics economy. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 43 , 2200247 (2022).

Steffen, W. et al. Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science 347 , 1259855 (2015).

Tulus, V., Pérez-Ramírez, J. & Guillén-Gosálbez, G. Planetary metrics for the absolute environmental sustainability assessment of chemicals. Green Chem. 23 , 9881–9893 (2021).

Rockström, J. et al. Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature 619 , 102–111 (2023).

Raubenheimer, K. & Urho, N. Possible elements of a new global agreement to prevent plastic pollution. Nordic Council of Ministers https://www.nordicreport2020.com/ (2020).

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: EU Policy Framework on Biobased, Biodegradable and Compostable Plastics COM(2022) 682 final (European Commission, 2022).

Brizga, J., Hubacek, K. & Feng, K. The unintended side effects of bioplastics: carbon, land, and water footprints. One Earth 3 , 45–53 (2020).

Nicholson, S. R., Rorrer, N. A., Carpenter, A. C. & Beckham, G. T. Manufacturing energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics consumption. Joule 5 , 673–686 (2021).

Miller, S. A. Five misperceptions surrounding the environmental impacts of single-use plastic. Environ. Sci. Technol. 54 , 14143–14151 (2020).

Ragaert, K., Delva, L. & Van Geem, K. Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid plastic waste. Waste Manage. 69 , 24–58 (2017).

Stram, B. N. Key challenges to expanding renewable energy. Energy Policy 96 , 728–734 (2016).

Posen, I. D., Jaramillo, P., Landis, A. E. & Griffin, W. M. Greenhouse gas mitigation for U.S. plastics production: energy first, feedstocks later. Environ. Res. Lett. 12 , 034024 (2017).

Stockholm+50: A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All–Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity A/CONF.238/9 (United Nations, 2022).

Barrowclough, D., Birkbeck, C. D. & Christen, J. Global trade in plastics: insights from the first life-cycle trade database . UNCTAD Research Paper No. 53, UNCTAD/SER.RP/2020/12 (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2020).

Chiroleu-Assouline, M. & Fodha, M. From regressive pollution taxes to progressive environmental tax reforms. Eur. Econ. Rev. 69 , 126–142 (2014).

Kirk, E., Popattanachai, N., van der Marel, E. R. & Barnes, R. Research Handbook on Plastics Regulation: Law, Policy and the Environment (Edward Elgar, 2024).

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: The European Green Deal COM(2019) 640 final (European Commission, 2019).

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 2021 establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulations (EC) No 401/2009 and (EU) 2018/1999 (‘European Climate Law’) (European Commission, 2021).

Ayeleru, O. O. et al. Challenges of plastic waste generation and management in sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Waste Manage. 110 , 24–42 (2020).

Velis, C. A. Circular economy and global secondary material supply chains. Waste Manag. Res. 33 , 389–391 (2015).

Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A/RES/70/1 (UNGA, 2015).

Bocken, N. M. P. & Short, S. W. in Handbook of the Circular Economy 250–265 (Edward Elgar, 2020).

Mederake, L. Without a debate on sufficiency, a circular plastics economy will remain an illusion. Circ. Econ. Sustain. 3 , 1425–1439 (2023).

Murakami, S., Oguchi, M., Tasaki, T., Daigo, I. & Hashimoto, S. Lifespan of commodities, part I. The creation of a database and its review. J. Ind. Ecol. 14 , 598–612 (2010).

Leal, J. M., Pompidou, S., Charbuillet, C. & Perry, N. Product recoverability: a review of assessment methods. Procedia CIRP 69 , 710–715 (2018).

Geyer, R., Jambec, J. R. & Law, K. L. Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Sci. Adv 3 , e1700782 (2017).

Fagnani, D. E. et al. 100th anniversary of macromolecular science viewpoint: redefining sustainable polymers. ACS Macro Lett. 10 , 41–53 (2020).

Haque, F. M. et al. Defining the macromolecules of tomorrow through synergistic sustainable polymer research. Chem. Rev. 122 , 6322–6373 (2022).

The Gazette of Meghalaya. The Meghalaya Prohibition of Manufacture, Sale, Use and Throwing of Low Density Plastic Bags Act, 2001 (Act No. 4 of 2001) (Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, 2001).

Regulation Gazette. Regulation 543 under Section 24 (d) of the Environmental Conservation Act (Act No. 73 of 1989) . No. 7348 Vol. 443 (South Africa Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 2002).

Gazette of Eritrean Laws: Proclamations and Legal Notices. Regulations to Prohibit the Production, Sale or Distribution of Plastic Bags in Eritrea (Legal Notice No. 63/2002) . Vol. 11/2002 No. 7 (The Government of Eritrea, 2002).

Bangladesh Gazette. The Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995 Act No. 1 of 1995, Sec. 6a, as amended by Sec. 5 of Act 9 of 2002 (The Government of Bangladesh, 2002).

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment . L155/1 (European Commission, 2019).

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Potential options for elements towards an international legally binding instrument, based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastics as called for by United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/14 . UNEP/PP/INC.2/4 (UNEP, 2023).

United Nations. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants . Treaty Series, Vol. 2256, p. 119 (United Nations, 2001).

United Nations. Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer . Treaty Series, Vol. 1522, p. 3 (United Nations, 1987).

United States Congress. Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 . Public Law 114–114 (U.S. Congress, 2015).

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055 of 25 September 2023 amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards synthetic polymer microparticle . L238/67 (European Commission, 2023).

ReShaping Plastics: Pathways to a Circular, Climate Neutral Plastics System in Europe (SYSTEMIQ, 2022).

Desalegn, G. & Tangl, A. Banning vs taxing, reviewing the potential opportunities and challenges of plastic products. Sustainability 14 , 7189 (2022).

Klenert, D. et al. Making carbon pricing work for citizens. Nat. Clim. Change 8 , 669–677 (2018).

European Commission. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council: Sustainable Carbon Cycles . COM(2021) 800 (European Commission, 2021).

Bergsma, G., Broeren, M., Schep, E. & Warringa, G. Mandatory percentage of recycled or bio-based plastic in the European Union (CE Delft, 2022).

The White House. Executive Order 14081: Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy (The White House, 2022).

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Bold Goals for U.S. Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing. Harnessing Research and Development to Further Societal Goals (The White House, 2023).

European Commission. Art. 8 of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on packaging and packaging waste, amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and Directive (EU) 2019/904, and repealing Directive 94/62/EC, 30 November 2022 (European Commission, 2022).

Watkins, E., Schweitzer, J.-P., Leinala, E. & Börkey, P. Policy approaches to incentivise sustainable plastic design. OECD Environment Working Papers 149. OECD Publishing https://doi.org/10.1787/233ac351-en (2019). Contextualized examples of policies designed to enhance the prospects of a sustainable plastic economy.

European Commission. Public procurement. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/public-procurement_en (European Commission, 2023).

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, United Kingdom. Evaluation of the Contracts for Difference Scheme. Phase 1: Allocation Rounds 1 & 2. Final Report (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2019).

Skovgaard, J. & van Asselt, H. The politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform: Implications for climate change mitigation. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Clim. Change 10 , e581 (2019).

Döhler, N., Wellenreuther, C. & Wolf, A. Market Dynamics of Biodegradable Bio-based Plastics: Projections and Linkages to European Policies (Hamburg Institute of International Economics, 2020).

Barrowclough, D. & Birkbeck, C. Transforming the global plastics economy: the role of economic policies in the global governance of plastic pollution. Soc. Sci. 11 , 26 (2022).

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Decision 1/CMA.3 Glasgow Climate Pact. Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement on its third session, held in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021 . FCCC/PA/CMA/2021/10/Add.1 (United Nations, 2021).

World Trade Organization. Ministerial Statement on Fossil Fuel Subsidies . WT/MIN(21)/9/Rev.2 (World Trade Organization, 2022).

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Directive (EU) 2023/959 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 amending Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union and Decision (EU) 2015/1814 concerning the establishment and operation of a market stability reserve for the Union greenhouse gas emission trading system . L130/134 (European Commission, 2023).

The Future of Petrochemicals: Towards More Sustainable Plastics and Fertilisers (IEA, 2018). A highlight of the petrochemical sector becoming the largest driver of global oil demand and its continuous investments in the production of fossil-fuel-based plastics.

Bauer, F. & Fontenit, G. Plastic dinosaurs – digging deep into the accelerating carbon lock-in of plastics. Energy Policy 156 , 112418 (2021).

European Committee for Standardization (CEN). CEN/TC 411 - Bio-based products . https://standards.cencenelec.eu/dyn/www/f?p=CEN:6 (CEN, 2021).

United Nations. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal . Treaty Series, Vol. 1673, p. 57 (United Nations, 1989).

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of plastic wastes . UNEP/CHW.16/6/Add.3/Rev.1 (UNEP, 2023).

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Directive (EU) 2018/852 of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste . L150/141 (European Commission, 2018).

Raubenheimer, K. & Urho, N. Rethinking global governance of plastics – the role of industry. Mar. Policy 113 , 103802 (2020).

Extended Producer Responsibility: A Necessary Part of the Solution to Packaging Waste and Pollution (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2021).

Dalhammar, C. in Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law Ch. VI.16 (ed. Faure, M.) (2018).

Sachs, N. Planning the funeral at the birth: extended producer responsibility in the European Union and the United States. Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 30 , 51 (2006).

Google Scholar  

Extended Producer Responsibility (OECD, 2016).

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Revised Draft Practical manual on Extended Producer Responsibility . UNEP/CHW.14/5/Add.1 (UNEP, 2019).

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Report of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal on the work of its fourteenth meeting . UNEP/CHW.14/28 (UNEP, 2019).

WRAP and the UK Plastics Pact. A Roadmap to 2025: The UK Plastics Pact https://wrap.org.uk/resources/guide/roadmap-2025-uk-plastics-pact (WRAP, 2022).

Colorado Department of Revenue. Plastic recycling investment tax credit. https://tax.colorado.gov/sites/tax/files/Income56.pdf (1989).

Larrain, M., Billen, P. & Van Passel, S. The effect of plastic packaging recycling policy interventions as a complement to extended producer responsibility schemes: a partial equilibrium model. Waste Manage. 153 , 355–366 (2022).

Gao, W., Hundertmark, T., Pais, G., Ryba, A., & Wallach, J. Addressing the challenges of plastic waste: circularity and leakage. McKinsey https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/chemicals/our-insights/addressing-the-challenges-of-plastic-waste-circularity-and-leakage#/ (2022).

Gall, M., Wiener, M., Chagas de Oliveira, C., Lang, R. W. & Hansen, E. G. Building a circular plastics economy with informal waste pickers: recyclate quality, business model, and societal impacts. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 156 , 104685 (2020).

Alaranta, J. & Turunen, T. How to reach a safe circular economy?—Perspectives on reconciling the waste, product and chemicals regulation. J. Environ. Law 33 , 113–136 (2021).

European Commission. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the circular economy package: options to address the interface between chemical, product and waste legislation . COM(2018) 32 final. (European Commission, 2018).

Schwarz, A. E., Lensen, S. M. C., Langeveld, E., Parker, L. A. & Urbanus, J. H. Plastics in the global environment assessed through material flow analysis, degradation and environmental transportation. Sci. Total Environ. 875 , 162644 (2023).

Hahladakis, J. N., Velis, C. A., Weber, R., Iacovidou, E. & Purnell, P. An overview of chemical additives present in plastics: migration, release, fate and environmental impact during their use, disposal and recycling. J. Hazard. Mater. 344 , 179–199 (2018).

European Commission. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability Towards a Toxic-Free Environment . COM(2020) 667 final (European Commission, 2020).

United Nations. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity . Treaty Series, Vol. 2226, p. 208 (United Nations, 2000).

Basel Convention, Rotterdam Convention, and Stockholm Convention. Joint clearing house mechanism for information exchange: revised draft strategy . UNEP/CHW.13/1-UNEP/FAO/RC/COP.8/1-UNEP/POPS/COP.8/1 (Basel Convention, Rotterdam Convention, and Stockholm Convention, 2017).

European Commission. Proposal for an EU Regulation on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products . COM(2022)142 final (European Commission, 2022).

CO2 Emissions in 2022 https://www.iea.org/reports/co2-emissions-in-2022 (IEA, 2023).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The Oxford Martin School (‘Future of Plastics’, C.K.W., all authors), European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie no. 101018516) (F.V.), EPSRC (EP/S018603/1; EP/R027129/1; EP/V038117/1) (C.K.W.) and Research England (iCAST, RED, RE-P-2020-04) (C.K.W.) are acknowledged for funding.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Fernando Vidal, Ryan W. F. Kerr, Gloria Rosetto, Thomas T. D. Chen & Charlotte K. Williams

POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain

Fernando Vidal

Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Eva R. van der Marel & Catherine Redgwell

Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Eva R. van der Marel

Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Caitlin McElroy, Nadia Schroeder, Celia Mitchell & Cameron Hepburn

School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Richard M. Bailey

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

C.K.W., C.H. and C.R. conceived the idea for the paper. F.V., E.R.v.d.M., R.W.F.K., C. McElroy and N.S. conducted the research and led the writing of the manuscript, with further contributions from all the other authors. All authors approved submission of the article for publication.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cameron Hepburn , Catherine Redgwell or Charlotte K. Williams .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information.

Nature thanks Anna Schwarz and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

This Supplementary Information file contains the following five sections: (1) Supporting Materials for Modelled Scenarios of the Plastic Industry in 2050; (2) GHG Emissions Calculations and Assumptions; (3) Supplementary Information of Economic Challenges in Section 3; (4) Supplementary Information of Legal Concepts in Section 3; and (5) Supporting Materials for Scenario Roadmaps. It includes one Supplementary Figure, 22 Supplementary Tables and Supplementary References.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Vidal, F., van der Marel, E.R., Kerr, R.W.F. et al. Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future. Nature 626 , 45–57 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06939-z

Download citation

Received : 02 November 2021

Accepted : 05 December 2023

Published : 31 January 2024

Issue Date : 01 February 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06939-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines . If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Quick links

  • Explore articles by subject
  • Guide to authors
  • Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

environment and sustainable development essay

IMAGES

  1. 500+ Words Essay on Sustainable Development with PDF |Leverage Edu

    environment and sustainable development essay

  2. 500+ Words Essay on Sustainable Development with PDF |Leverage Edu

    environment and sustainable development essay

  3. 500+ Words Essay on Sustainable Development with PDF |Leverage Edu

    environment and sustainable development essay

  4. Essay on Save Environment: 5 Long & Short Samples

    environment and sustainable development essay

  5. Essay on Sustainable Development: Format & Examples

    environment and sustainable development essay

  6. Environment and Sustainable Development

    environment and sustainable development essay

VIDEO

  1. Sustainable Development

  2. Climate Justice & Sustainable Development

  3. Project on Sustainable Development Class 10th #parulcreations #class10 #project

  4. ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DETAILED EXPLANATION PART 5

  5. ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DETAILED EXPLANATION PART 4

  6. Environment and sustainable development project file

COMMENTS

  1. 500+ Words Essay on Sustainable Development with PDF |Leverage Edu

    Looking for ideas to incorporate in your Essay on Sustainable Development? Read our blog on Energy Management - Find Your Sustainable Career Path and find out! 250-300 Words Essay on Sustainable Development

  2. The importance of the Sustainable Development Goals to ...

    To fight the global problems of humanity, the United Nations has adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To achieve these goals, it is necessary that future decision-makers and...

  3. Sustainable development

    sustainable development, approach to social, economic, and environmental planning that attempts to balance the social and economic needs of present and future human generations with the imperative of preserving, or preventing undue damage to, the natural environment. Learn how biodiversity is good for the economy. See all videos for this article

  4. PDF The Concept of Sustainable Development: Definition and Defining Principles

    A Pocket guide to sustainable development governance. Stakeholder Forum. United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. (1992). Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Rio de Janiero, Brazil: United Nations . United Nations General Assembly. (1987). Report of the world commission on environment and development: Our common future.

  5. Sustainable development

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sustainable development requires six central capacities. [1] Sustainable development is an organizing principle that aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans. [2]

  6. Introduction of Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and the

    Sustainable development is a process that creates growth and progress through the addition of physical, economic, environmental, and social components to improve quality of life without damaging the resources of the environment. Simply put, sustainable development is a way for people to use resources without the resources running out 3.

  7. PDF Sustainable Development: Balancing Economic Prosperity and

    Sustainable development is a concept that aims to address the urgent need for economic prosperity while ensuring the preservation and protection of the environment for future generations. This essay explores the challenges and opportunities associated with achieving a balance between economic development and environmental sustainability.

  8. Why having a clean and healthy environment is a human right

    Leading civil society voices told us why this is so crucial to ensure a healthy environment for all. On 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council declared that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right, with 43 votes in favor and 4 abstentions. The measure was first debated during the 1990s, and the new resolution ...

  9. The SDGs and human well-being: a global analysis of synergies, trade

    This paper explores the empirical links between achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and subjective well-being. Globally, we find that in terms of well-being, there are increasing...

  10. 500+ Words Essay on Sustainable Development

    There are three aims of sustainable development; first, the "Economic" which will help to attain balanced growth, second, the "Environment", to preserve the ecosystem, and third, "Society" which will guarantee equal access to resources to all human beings.

  11. Sustainable Development: Goals, Importance, and Career Guide

    The term "sustainable development" is often used in business, government, and non-profit spaces to refer to the processes and pathways required to balance economic growth, environmental stewardship, and social inclusion. Sustainability is considered a paradigm for thinking about balancing environmental, economic, and social needs for the ...

  12. Current Debates on Environment and Sustainability: Major Issues ...

    An environmentally sustainable mode of. human development has gained increasing prominence due to catastrophic events and issues such as nuclear accidents, oil spills, the greenhouse effect, rise in sea levels, water pollution, deforestation, ozone depletion, land degra.

  13. What is Sustainability? A definition by environmental scientist Pamela

    Pam Matson, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman professor in environmental studies, former dean of the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (now the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability) explains that the pursuit of sustainability through management, research, and operations is critical as we try to meet the needs of today's 7-plus billion people without damaging the life support ...

  14. A Sustainable Future: Two Paths to 2050

    The statistics are sobering—with 9.7 billion people on the planet by 2050, we can expect a 54 percent increase in global food demand and 56 percent increase in energy demand. While meetings these growing demands and achieving sustainability is possible, it is helpful to scrutinize where the status quo will get us.

  15. Sustainability

    The idea of sustainability rose to prominence with the modern environmental movement, which rebuked the unsustainable character of contemporary societies where patterns of resource use, growth, and consumption threatened the integrity of ecosystems and the well-being of future generations.

  16. Environmental sustainable development

    Jonathon Porritt puts it: Sustainable development is the only intellectually coherent, sufficiently inclusive potentially mind-changing concept that gets even half-way close to capturing the true nature and urgency of the challenge that now confronts the world and there is really no alternative, (D.Clayton et al., 2002).

  17. PDF Globalization and Environment

    Keywords: Environment, Globalization, International Trade JEL Classification Codes: F18, O13 _____ Theodore Panayotou is the Director of the Program on Environment and Sustainable Development at the Center for International Development. His recent research has focused on the intersection between economic growth and environmental sustainability.

  18. The Environment And Sustainable Development Essay

    The Environment And Sustainable Development Essay 1432 Words 6 Pages Living sustainably isn 't always easy. It seems that every aspect of life can be looked at from a sustainable perspective, and when trying to reduce your ecological footprint this can be very overwhelming.

  19. PDF The importance of the Sustainable Development Goals to ...

    The importance of the Sustainable Development Goals to students of environmental and sustainability studies—a global survey in 41 countries Matthias Winfried Kleespies 1 & Paul Wilhelm Dierkes 1

  20. Essay on Environment: Examples & Tips

    Format (150 words) Sample Essay on Environment Environment Essay (100 words) Essay on Environment (200-250 words) Environment Essay (300 words) World Environment Day FAQs Overview on Environment To begin the essay on Environment, students must know what it is all about.

  21. Role of economics in analyzing the environment and sustainable development

    The challenge of sustainable development is one of developing "economic, social, and governance systems capable of ending poverty and achieving sustainable levels of population and consumption while securing the life-support systems underpinning current and future human well-being". The environmental sciences have documented large and worrisome changes in earth systems, from climate change ...

  22. Essay about Sustainable Development

    Environmental dimension: Sustainable development aims to achieve many environmental goals, as follows: Rational use of depleted resources, in the sense of preserving natural assets, so that we leave for future generations a similar environment as there are no alternatives to those depleted resources. Save your time! We can take care of your essay

  23. [PDF] Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development, Selected Essays

    Contents: Introduction Part I: Basic Concepts and Ideas Part II: Issues with the World Bank Part III: Issues in Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development Part IV: Testimony and Opinion Part V: Reviews and Critiques Part VI: Globalization Part VII: Philosophy and Policy Index

  24. Unleashing virtuous cycles of sustainable development goals and well

    This article advances sustainability towards a new logic that favors the flourishing of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and well‐being from North to South. It presents a Global Dual‐Perspective (GDP) and a Dynamic Equilibrium Framework (DEF) that inform sustainability, management, and international business with a paradoxical view of the SDGs and a strengthened analysis that outlines ...

  25. Biochar aged or combined with humic substances: fabrication and

    Purpose Humic substances (HSs) and biochar (BC) are carbon-based soil amendments. These amendments improve soil health and fertility, enhance nutrient pools and carbon content, remove soil pollutants, and enhance plant performance. As a result, they contribute to agro-environmental sustainability and the development of a circular bioeconomy. However, there is a lack of research on the effects ...

  26. Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable

    3. Maximize recycling: design plastic materials and products for circularity and ensure that 95% of plastics are recycled. 4. Minimize environmental impacts: remove all sources of hazards to ...

  27. Pengurus Pusat MGEI on Instagram: "[OLYMPIAR 2024-Olimpiade PT

    71 likes, 1 comments - mgeiofficial on February 8, 2024: "[OLYMPIAR 2024-Olimpiade PT Agincourt Resources 2024] "Harmony in The Elements, Navigating Susta..."