essay about challenge of sustainable development

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Essay on Sustainable Development: Samples in 250, 300 and 500 Words

• Updated on  
• Nov 18, 2023

On 3rd August 2023, the Indian Government released its Net zero emissions target policy to reduce its carbon footprints. To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDG) , as specified by the UN, India is determined for its long-term low-carbon development strategy. Selfishly pursuing modernization, humans have frequently compromised with the requirements of a more sustainable environment.

As a result, the increased environmental depletion is evident with the prevalence of deforestation, pollution, greenhouse gases, climate change etc. To combat these challenges, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019. The objective was to improve air quality in 131 cities in 24 States/UTs by engaging multiple stakeholders.

‘Development is not real until and unless it is sustainable development.’ – Ban Ki-Moon

Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SGDs, are a list of 17 goals to build a sustained and better tomorrow. These 17 SDGs are known as the ‘World’s Best Plan’ to eradicate property, tackle climate change, and empower people for global welfare.

This Blog Includes:

What is sustainable development, essay on sustainable development in 250 words, 300 words essay on sustainable development, 500 words essay on sustainable development, what are sdgs, introduction, conclusion of sustainable development essay, importance of sustainable development, examples of sustainable development.

As the term simply explains, Sustainable Development aims to bring a balance between meeting the requirements of what the present demands while not overlooking the needs of future generations. It acknowledges nature’s requirements along with the human’s aim to work towards the development of different aspects of the world. It aims to efficiently utilise resources while also meticulously planning the accomplishment of immediate as well as long-term goals for human beings, the planet as well and future generations. In the present time, the need for Sustainable Development is not only for the survival of mankind but also for its future protection. 

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 250 words:

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 300+ words:

We all remember the historical @BTS_twt speech supporting #Youth2030 initiative to empower young people to use their voices for change. Tomorrow, #BTSARMY 💜 will be in NYC🗽again for the #SDGmoment at #UNGA76 Live 8AM EST welcome back #BTSARMY 👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/pUnBni48bq — The Sustainable Development Goals #SDG🫶 (@ConnectSDGs) September 19, 2021

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 500 + words:

Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs are a list of 17 goals to build a better world for everyone. These goals are developed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. Let’s have a look at these sustainable development goals.

• Eradicate Poverty
• Zero Hunger
• Good Health and Well-being
• Quality Education
• Gender Equality
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
• Reduced Inequalities
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Responsible Consumption and Production
• Climate Action
• Life Below Water
• Life on Land
• Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Partnership for the Goals

Essay Format

Before drafting an essay on Sustainable Development, students need to get familiarised with the format of essay writing, to know how to structure the essay on a given topic. Take a look at the following pointers which elaborate upon the format of a 300-350 word essay.

Introduction (50-60 words) In the introduction, students must introduce or provide an overview of the given topic, i.e. highlighting and adding recent instances and questions related to sustainable development. Body of Content (100-150 words) The area of the content after the introduction can be explained in detail about why sustainable development is important, its objectives and highlighting the efforts made by the government and various institutions towards it.  Conclusion (30-40 words) In the essay on Sustainable Development, you must add a conclusion wrapping up the content in about 2-3 lines, either with an optimistic touch to it or just summarizing what has been talked about above.

How to write the introduction of a sustainable development essay? To begin with your essay on sustainable development, you must mention the following points:

• What is sustainable development?
• What does sustainable development focus on?
• Why is it useful for the environment?

How to write the conclusion of a sustainable development essay? To conclude your essay on sustainable development, mention why it has become the need of the hour. Wrap up all the key points you have mentioned in your essay and provide some important suggestions to implement sustainable development.

The importance of sustainable development is that it meets the needs of the present generations without compromising on the needs of the coming future generations. Sustainable development teaches us to use our resources correctly. Listed below are some points which tell us the importance of sustainable development.

• Focuses on Sustainable Agricultural Methods – Sustainable development is important because it takes care of the needs of future generations and makes sure that the increasing population does not put a burden on Mother Earth. It promotes agricultural techniques such as crop rotation and effective seeding techniques.
• Manages Stabilizing the Climate – We are facing the problem of climate change due to the excessive use of fossil fuels and the killing of the natural habitat of animals. Sustainable development plays a major role in preventing climate change by developing practices that are sustainable. It promotes reducing the use of fossil fuels which release greenhouse gases that destroy the atmosphere.
• Provides Important Human Needs – Sustainable development promotes the idea of saving for future generations and making sure that resources are allocated to everybody. It is based on the principle of developing an infrastructure that is can be sustained for a long period of time.
• Sustain Biodiversity – If the process of sustainable development is followed, the home and habitat of all other living animals will not be depleted. As sustainable development focuses on preserving the ecosystem it automatically helps in sustaining and preserving biodiversity.
• Financial Stability – As sustainable development promises steady development the economies of countries can become stronger by using renewable sources of energy as compared to using fossil fuels, of which there is only a particular amount on our planet.

Mentioned below are some important examples of sustainable development. Have a look:

• Wind Energy – Wind energy is an easily available resource. It is also a free resource. It is a renewable source of energy and the energy which can be produced by harnessing the power of wind will be beneficial for everyone. Windmills can produce energy which can be used to our benefit. It can be a helpful source of reducing the cost of grid power and is a fine example of sustainable development. 
• Solar Energy – Solar energy is also a source of energy which is readily available and there is no limit to it. Solar energy is being used to replace and do many things which were first being done by using non-renewable sources of energy. Solar water heaters are a good example. It is cost-effective and sustainable at the same time.
• Crop Rotation – To increase the potential of growth of gardening land, crop rotation is an ideal and sustainable way. It is rid of any chemicals and reduces the chances of disease in the soil. This form of sustainable development is beneficial to both commercial farmers and home gardeners.
• Efficient Water Fixtures – The installation of hand and head showers in our toilets which are efficient and do not waste or leak water is a method of conserving water. Water is essential for us and conserving every drop is important. Spending less time under the shower is also a way of sustainable development and conserving water.
• Sustainable Forestry – This is an amazing way of sustainable development where the timber trees that are cut by factories are replaced by another tree. A new tree is planted in place of the one which was cut down. This way, soil erosion is prevented and we have hope of having a better, greener future.

Related Articles

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations in 2015. These include: No Poverty Zero Hunger Good Health and Well-being Quality Education Gender Equality Clean Water and Sanitation Affordable and Clean Energy Decent Work and Economic Growth Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure Reduced Inequality Sustainable Cities and Communities Responsible Consumption and Production Climate Action Life Below Water Life on Land Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions Partnerships for the Goals

The SDGs are designed to address a wide range of global challenges, such as eradicating extreme poverty globally, achieving food security, focusing on promoting good health and well-being, inclusive and equitable quality education, etc.

India is ranked #111 in the Sustainable Development Goal Index 2023 with a score of 63.45.

Hence, we hope that this blog helped you understand the key features of an essay on sustainable development. If you are interested in Environmental studies and planning to pursue sustainable tourism courses , take the assistance of Leverage Edu ’s AI-based tool to browse through a plethora of programs available in this specialised field across the globe and find the best course and university combination that fits your interests, preferences and aspirations. Call us immediately at 1800 57 2000 for a free 30-minute counselling session

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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.

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Climate Change Is a Challenge For Sustainable Development

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Rachel Kyte Gaidar Forum Moscow, Russian Federation

Climate change is the most significant challenge to achieving sustainable development, and it threatens to drag millions of people into grinding poverty. 

At the same time, we have never had better know-how and solutions available to avert the crisis and create opportunities for a better life for people all over the world.

Climate change is not just a long-term issue. It is happening today, and it entails uncertainties for policy makers trying to shape the future.

EFFECTS ON RUSSIA

In 2008, the Russian National Hydrometeorological Service (Roshydromet) found that winter temperatures had increased by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius in Siberia over the previous 120-150 years, while average global temperature rose about 0.7 degrees during the same period.

Russia is projected to cross the 2°C threshold earlier than the world on average if significant and effective mitigation is not forthcoming. By 2100, the northern half of Asia, including Russia, is likely to experience a temperature increase of 6 to 16°C, compared to approximately 4°C global mean temperature increase.

While warming might have some potential gains for Russia, the adverse effects include more floods, windstorms, heat waves, forest fires, and the melting of permafrost.

Globally, permafrost is thought to hold about 1,700 gigatons of carbon – and near-shore seabeds in the Eastern Siberian Sea hold a similar amount in methane hydrates that could potentially be destabilized in a warmer world, as well. This is compared to 850 gigatons of carbon currently in the Earth’s atmosphere. Of this, 190 gigatons are stored just in the upper 30 cm of permafrost, the layers that area most vulnerable to melting and the irreversible release of methane. The release of even a small portion into the atmosphere could dramatically compound the challenge already presented from anthropogenic sources, potentially wiping out any hard-won mitigation gains.

Russia hosts perhaps 70 percent of methane in circumpolar permafrost, as well as the methane hydrates in the East Siberian Sea. Permafrost warming of up to 2°C in parts of the European Russia has already been observed.

Russia will be front and center for any efforts to deal with thawing permafrost and Russian leadership is much needed to better understand its effects for the global climate as well as finding solutions for effective adaptation. There is no time to lose.

In Yakutsk, collapsing ground caused by melting permafrost has damaged buildings, airport runways, and other infrastructure. In 2010, the Ministry of Emergency Situations estimated that a quarter of the housing stock in Russia’s Far North would be destroyed by 2030.

Analyses indicate that about 60 percent of infrastructure in the Usa Basin in Northeast European Russia is located in the "high risk" permafrost area, which is projected to thaw in the future. This region is an area of high industrial and urban development, like coal mines, hydrocarbon extraction sites, railways, and pipelines. Yet the timing of this thaw remains uncertain – potentially a few decades or as long off as a century away.

DECISION MAKING UNDER UNCERTAINTY

Policy makers all over the world are facing similar challenges. While we certainly know that the climate will change, there is great uncertainty as to what the local or regional impacts will be and what will be the impacts on societies and economies.  Coupled with this is often great disagreement among policy makers about underlying assumptions and priorities for action.

Many decisions to be made today have long-term consequences and are sensitive to climate conditions – water, energy, agriculture, fisheries and forests, and disasters risk management. We simply can’t afford to get it wrong.

However, sound decision making is possible if we use a different approach. Rather than making decisions that are optimized to a prediction of the future, decision makers should seek to identify decisions that are sound no matter what the future brings. Such decisions are called “robust.”

For example, Metropolitan Lima already has major water challenges: shortages and a rapidly growing population with 2 million underserved urban poor. Climate models suggest that precipitation could decrease by as much as 15 percent, or increase by as much as 23 percent. The World Bank is partnering with Lima to apply tested, state-of-the-art methodologies like Robust Decision Making to help Lima identify no-regret, robust investments. These include, for example, multi-year water storage systems to manage droughts and better management of demand for water. This can help increase Lima’s long-term water security, despite an increasingly unpredictable future.

WORKING WHERE IT MATTERS MOST

Each country will need to find its own ways to deal with uncertainties and find its best options for low-carbon growth and emissions reduction. While they vary, every country has them.  

One example: Russia has made remarkable progress since 2005 in reducing the flaring of gas from oil production, but it is still the world’s largest gas flarer. And it is situated in a region from where black carbon from the flares reaches the Arctic snow and ice cap, which diminishes the cap’s reflective power (albedo). The World Bank Group is appreciative of the successful cooperation with Russia's Khanty-Mansiysk region in the Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR). With more Russian partners, in particular from Russian state oil companies, the impact could be even greater.

Russia’s forests provide the largest land-based carbon storage in the world. Better forest management and improving forest fire response – a long-standing field of cooperation between Russia and the World Bank Group – are another example to reconcile growth and emissions reductions.

Options for countries all over the world include a mix of technology development that lowers air pollution; increasing investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency, expanding urban public transport; improving waste and water management; and better planning for when disasters strike.

Each of these climate actions can be designed to bring short-term benefits and lower current and future emissions.

To move forward on the global level at the required scale, we must drive mitigation action in top-emitting countries, get prices and incentives right, get finance flowing towards low-carbon green growth, and work where it matters most.

Prices: Putting a price on carbon and removing harmful fossil fuel subsidies are necessary steps towards directing investment to low-carbon growth and avoiding a 4°C warmer world. We are working with others to help lay the groundwork for a robust price on carbon and supporting the removal of harmful fossil fuel subsidies. An ambitious global agreement could help establish stronger carbon prices and should include commitments to accelerate fossil fuel subsidy reform and other fiscal or tax policy measures in support of low carbon and climate resilient development.

Finance flowing: Progress on the provision of climate finance is critical. Governments must deliver a clear strategy for mobilizing the promised $100 billion in climate finance. This $100 billion is doubly important in that it must be used to mobilize effectively private investment and other finance.

Climate change increases the costs of development in the poorest countries by between 25 and 30 percent.  For developing countries, the annual cost of infrastructure that is resilient to climate change is around $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion, resulting in a yearly $700 billion gap in financing. It will take combining efforts of development banks, financial institutions, export credit agencies, institutional investors, and public budgets to meet the climate and development challenge.

All public finance should be used to leverage private capital and fill gaps in the market where private finance is not flowing. Also, it must be deployed in a way that the least amount leverages the maximum amount from public and/or private sources. We are not dealing with how to jump start something in which the private sector is not interested, but how we create the framework within which the now small but significant momentum is captured, disseminated, and accelerated and the speed-bumps are removed and setbacks avoided.

At the World Bank Group we are committed to working where it matters most:

By 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities. Helping developing country cities access private financing and achieve low-carbon, climate-resilient growth and avoid locking in carbon intensive infrastructure is one of the smartest investments we can make. Every dollar invested in building creditworthiness of a developing country city will mobilize $100 dollars in private financing for low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure.

To feed 9 billion people nutritiously by 2050 we need to make agriculture resilient, more productive in changing landscapes, and aggressively reduce food waste. Making agriculture work for the people and the environment is one of the most pressing tasks at hand. We need climate-smart agriculture that increases yields and incomes, builds resilience, and reduces emissions while potentially capturing carbon. 

The World Bank Group supports the Sustainable Energy for All goals of doubling both the rate of improvement of energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix from 18 percent to 36 percent by 2030. Reaching these goals is key to low-carbon growth.

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Development challenges and solutions

The challenges.

UNDP’s work, adapted to a range of country contexts, is framed through three broad development settings. These three development challenges often coexist within the same country, requiring tailored solutions that can adequately address specific deficits and barriers. Underpinning all three development challenges is a set of core development needs, including the need to strengthen gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and to ensure the protection of human rights.

Outcome 1: Eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions

It's estimated that approximately 700 million people still live on less than US$1.90 per day, a total of 1.3 billion people are multi-dimensionally poor, including a disproportionate number of women and people with disabilities and 80 percent of humanity lives on less than US$10 per day. Increasingly, middle-income countries account for a large part of this trend.

UNDP is looking at both inequalities and poverty in order to leave no one behind, focusing on the dynamics of exiting poverty and of not falling back. This requires addressing interconnected socio-economic, environmental and governance challenges that drive people into poverty or make them vulnerable to falling back into it. The scale and rapid pace of change necessitates decisive and coherent action by many actors at different levels to advance poverty eradication in all forms and dimensions. UNDP works to ensure responses are multisectoral and coherent from global to local.

Outcome 2: Accelerating structural transformations for sustainable development

The disempowering nature of social, economic, and political exclusion results in ineffective, unaccountable, non-transparent institutions and processes that hamper the ability of states to address persistent structural inequalities.

UNDP will support countries as they accelerate structural transformations by addressing inequalities and exclusion, transitioning to zero-carbon development and building more effective governance that can respond to megatrends such as globalization, urbanization and technological and demographic changes.

Outcome 3: Building resilience to crisis and shocks

Some countries are disproportionately affected by shocks and stressors such as climate change, disasters, violent extremism, conflict, economic and financial volatility, epidemics, food insecurity and environmental degradation. Climate-related disasters have increased in number and magnitude, reversing development gains, aggravating fragile situations, and contributing to social upheaval. Conflict, sectarian strife and political instability are on the rise and more than 1.6 billion people live in fragile or conflict-affected settings.

Around 258 million people live outside their countries of origin and 68.5 million are displaced. Disasters and the effects of climate change have displaced more people than ever before – on average 14 million people annually. Major disease outbreaks result in severe economic losses from the effect on livelihoods or decline in household incomes and national GDPs, as demonstrated by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2015.

To return to sustainable development, UNDP is strengthening resilience by supporting governments to take measures to manage risk, prevent, respond and recover more effectively from shocks and crises and address underlying causes in an integrated manner. Such support  builds on foundations of inclusive and accountable governance, together with a strong focus on gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and meeting the needs of vulnerable groups, to ensure that no one is left behind.

The road to success

To fulfill the aims of the Strategic Plan with the multi-dimensionality and complexity that the 2030 Agenda demands, UNDP is implementing six cross-cutting approaches to development, known as Signature Solutions. A robust, integrated way to put our best work – or 'signature' skillset – into achieving the Sustainable Development Goals .

UNDP’s Signature Solutions are cross-cutting approaches to development— for example, a gender approach or resilience approach can be applied to any area of development, or to any of the SDGs.

Keeping people out of poverty

Today, 700 million people live on less than $1.90 per day and a total of 1.3 billion people are multi-dimensionally poor. People stay in or fall back into poverty because of a range of factors—where they live, their ethnicity, gender, a lack of opportunities, and others.

It’s no coincidence that our first Signature Solution relates directly to the first SDG: to eradicate all forms of poverty, wherever it exists. For UNDP, helping people to get out and stay out of poverty is our primary focus. It features in our work with governments, communities and partners across the 170 countries and territories in which we operate.

UNDP interventions help eradicate poverty, such as by creating decent jobs and livelihoods, providing social safety nets, boosting political participation, and ensuring access to services like water, energy, healthcare, credit, and productive assets. Our Signature Solution on poverty cuts across our work on all the SDGs, whether it’s decent work or peace and justice.

Governance for peaceful, just, and inclusive societies

People’s lives are better when government is efficient and responsive. When people from all social groups are included in decision-making that affects their lives, and when they have equal access to fair institutions that provide services and administer justice, they will have more trust in their government.

The benefits of our work on governance are evident in all the areas covered by the SDGs, whether it’s climate action or gender equality. UNDP’s governance work spans a wide range of institutions, from national parliaments, supreme courts, and national civil services through regional and local administrations, to some of the geographically remotest communities in the world. We work with one out of every three parliaments on the planet, help countries expand spaces for people’s participation, and improve how their institutions work, so that all people can aspire to a sustainable future with prosperity, peace, justice and security.

Crisis prevention and increased resilience

Crises know no borders. More than 1.6 billion people live in fragile and/or conflict-affected settings, including 600 million young people. More people have been uprooted from their homes by war and violence and sought sanctuary elsewhere than at any time since the Second World War. Poverty, population growth, weak governance and rapid urbanization are driving the risks associated with such crises.

UNDP helps reduce these risks by supporting countries and communities to better manage conflicts, prepare for major shocks, recover in their aftermath, and integrate risk management into their development planning and investment decisions. The sooner that people can get back to their homes, jobs, and schools, the sooner they can start thriving again. Resilience building is a transformative process of strengthening the capacity of people, communities, institutions, and countries to prevent, anticipate, absorb, respond to and recover from crises. By implementing this Signature Solution, we focus on capacities to address root causes of conflict, reduce disaster risk, mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts, recover from crisis, and build sustainable peace. This has an impact that not only prevents or mitigates crises, but also has an effect on people’s everyday lives across all SDGs.

Environment: nature-based solutions for development

Healthy ecosystems are at the heart of development, underpinning societal well-being and economic growth. Through nature-based solutions, such as the sustainable management and protection of land, rivers and oceans, we help ensure that countries have adequate food and water, are resilient to climate change and disasters, shift to green economic pathways, and can sustain work for billions of people through forestry, agriculture, fisheries and tourism.

A long-standing partner of the Global Environment Facility, and now with the second-largest Green Climate Fund portfolio, UNDP is the primary actor on climate change in the United Nations. Our aim is to help build the Paris Agreement and all environmental agreements into the heart of countries’ development priorities. After all, the food, shelter, clean air, education and opportunities of billions of people depend on getting this right.

Clean, affordable energy

People can’t prosper without reliable, safe, and affordable energy to power everything from lights to vehicles to factories to hospitals. And yet, 840 million people worldwide have no access to electricity, and 2.9 billion people use solid fuels to cook or heat their homes, exposing their families to grave health hazards and contributing to vast deforestation worldwide 3 . In these and other ways, energy is connected to every one of the SDGs.

UNDP helps countries transition away from the use of finite fossil fuels and towards clean, renewable, affordable sources of energy. Our sustainable energy portfolio spans more than 110 countries, leveraging billions of dollars in financing, including public and private sources. With this financial support, we partner with cities and industries to increase the share of renewables in countries’ national energy mix; establish solar energy access to people displaced by conflict; fuel systemic change in the transport industry; and generate renewable ways to light homes for millions of people. 

Women's empowerment and gender equality

Women’s participation in all areas of society is essential to make big and lasting change not only for themselves, but for all people. Women and girls make up a disproportionate share of people in poverty, and are more likely to face hunger, violence, and the impacts of disaster and climate change. They are also more likely to be denied access to legal rights and basic services.

UNDP has the ability and responsibility to integrate gender equality into every aspect of our work. Gender equality and women’s empowerment is a guiding principle that applies to everything we do, collaborating with our partner countries to end gender-based violence, tackle climate change with women farmers, and advance female leadership in business and politics.

[1] OECD , States of Fragility 2016: Understanding Violence (Paris, 2016), p. 16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264267213-en .

[2] sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030, p.9.  http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/43291 ., [3] source: iea, irena, unsd, wb, who, 2019, tracking sdg7: the energy progress report 2019, washington, dc..

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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 .

Sustainable development lacks a single detailed and widely accepted definition. As a general approach to human development , it is frequently understood to encompass most if not all of the following goals, ideals, and values:

• A global perspective on social, economic, and environmental policies that takes into account the needs of future generations
• A recognition of the instrumental value of a sound natural environment , including the importance of biodiversity
• The protection and appreciation of the needs of Indigenous cultures
• The cultivation of economic and social equity in societies throughout the world
• The responsible and transparent implementation of government policies

The intellectual underpinnings of sustainable development lie in modern natural resource management , the 20th-century conservation and environmentalism movements, and progressive views of economic development . The first principles of what later became known as sustainable development were laid out at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment , also called the Stockholm Conference. The conference concluded that continued development of industry was inevitable and desirable but also that every citizen of the world has a responsibility to protect the environment. In 1987 the UN -sponsored World Commission on Environment and Development issued the Brundtland Report (also called Our Common Future ), which introduced the concept of sustainable development—defining it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”—and described how it could be achieved. At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also called the Earth Summit), more than 178 countries adopted Agenda 21, which outlined global strategies for restoring the environment and encouraging environmentally sound development.

Since that time, sustainable development has emerged as a core idea of international development theory and policy. However, some experts have criticized certain features of the concept, including:

• Its generality or vagueness, which has led to a great deal of debate over which forms or aspects of development qualify as “sustainable”
• Its lack of quantifiable or objectively measurable goals
• Its assumption of the inevitability and desirability of industrialization and economic development
• Its failure to ultimately prioritize human needs or environmental commitments, either of which may reasonably be considered more important in certain circumstances

Although the implementation of sustainable development has been the subject of many social scientific studies—so many, in fact, that sustainable development science is sometimes viewed as a distinct field—a number of public intellectuals and scholars have argued that the core value of sustainable development lies in its aspirational perspective. These writers have argued that merely attempting to balance social, economic, and environmental policymaking—the three “pillars” of sustainable development—is an inherently positive practice. Even if an imbalance of results is to a certain extent inevitable, it is better that policymakers at least attempt to achieve a balance. Abandoning the notion of sustainable development altogether, they argue, would likely worsen social, economic, and environmental conditions throughout the world, thus undermining all three pillars.

Despite widespread criticism , sustainable development has emerged as a core feature of national and international policymaking, particularly by agencies of the United Nations . In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included 17 sweeping goals designed to create a globally equitable society alongside a thriving environment.

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Article contents

Non-technical summary.

• Ecological dimension: reflection on the conditions and consequences of human activities
• Political dimension: sustainability as cross-sectional political guideline
• Ethical dimension: intergenerational and global responsibility
• Socio-economic dimension: operationalizing the principle of sustainability
• Democratic dimension: pluralism, participation and democratic innovation
• Cultural dimension: lifestyle and a new model of wealth
• Theological dimension: belief in creation and sustainability

Current challenges to the concept of sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2019

In this paper we discuss current challenges to the sustainability concept. This article focuses on seven dimensions of the concept. These dimensions are crucial for understanding sustainability. Even today, the literature contains basic misunderstandings about these seven dimensions. This article sketches such fallacies in the context of global and planetary sustainability. The sustainability concept has been criticized as a content-empty ‘fuzzy notion’ or non-committal ‘all-purpose glue’. This article thus has a critical intention of reflecting the sustainability concept accurately. The aim is to contribute a better understanding of the concept.

This article focuses on current challenges to the sustainability concept. The questions that are asked address the following seven dimensions, which are indispensable for understanding the term ‘sustainability’ and its normative content: (1) ecological dimension, (2) political dimension, (3) ethical dimension, (4) socio-economic dimension, (5) democratic dimension, (6) cultural dimension, and (7) theological dimension.

This paper has a critical intention. From our perspective, basic misunderstandings exist about these seven dimensions. We thus present and discuss seven fallacies. These fallacies are partly to blame for the fact that in recent years, the discourse about the environment and development has led to a dead-end, discrediting the term ‘sustainability’. The concept is seen as a seemingly content-empty ‘fuzzy notion’ or a non-committal ‘all-purpose glue’. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the concept of sustainability by presenting a differentiated analysis of its content. This effort highlights the ‘the need of an ethics of planetary sustainability’ (Losch, Reference Losch 2018 , p. 6), which will probably become an urgent topic to discuss at different levels.

1. Ecological dimension: reflection on the conditions and consequences of human activities

The first fallacy: sustainability refers mainly to a principle of passive limitation or regulation of human activities.

The principle of regulating sustainability was first formulated by the Saxon mining officer Hans Carl von Carlowitz in his book Silvicultura oeconomica in 1713 (von Carlowitz, Reference von Carlowitz 1713 , p. 105f.). This principle was a feature of the early Age of Enlightenment. Carlowitz, who ‘published the first comprehensive treatise about sustainable yield forestry’ (Silvius, Reference Silvius and Khosrow-Pour 2018 , p. 332), used the term ‘sustainable’ to denote the opposite of ‘neglectful’. Therefore, sustainability does not refer to a principle of passive limitation, but rather to the optimal planting and cultivation of trees that are suitable for a specific soil and demand. From the start, sustainability has been more than a rule for forest preservation. However, summarizing such rules for management makes the idea memorable and suitable for an initial understanding of the concept. In general terms, the principle means not using more resources than can be regenerated during the same period.

The core of sustainability, however, entails the planning and anticipating of the economy in the ecological metabolic cycle and its rhythms of time (this topic is discussed further under point 6: the cultural dimension). Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on the conditions and consequences of human activities for current and future generations. Sustainable development must be understood as a process of actively and innovatively searching, learning and shaping the present and future of human activities on Earth – and in outer space. The term ‘sustainable’ is not just a synonym for ‘good’ (Ostheimer, Reference Ostheimer, Vogt and Ostheimer 2013 ), and the future is generally difficult to predict (see point 3: the ethical dimension). Thus, questions such as How to manage the risk? How to manage the failure? must be asked in this context. However, Ulrich Beck did not directly use ‘sustainability’ in his analyses of ‘risk in society’ and ‘reflexive modernity’ (Beck, Reference Beck 1986 , p. 107f.). The term ‘future-oriented’ as a claim to justice, solidarity or responsibility is the most common normative description of sustainability. Trying more and more to shape the unplannable, the sustainability concept will be acknowledged as a political guideline rather than as just a principle of passive limitation or regulation of human actions. Sustainability does not refer only to the limits of what is allowed or forbidden. It is not simply about preserving what exists, but rather about making room for nature's vital forces.

Generalizing the principle of sustainability as a rule for good resource management, it might seem that the property rights of one generation's natural resources are never unlimited. Sustainability must not be viewed simply as a rule of balance and self-sufficiency for preserving the natural capital stock (see point 4: the socio-economic dimension). It rather has the character of a ‘usus fructus’: a right to acquire yields, if the potential of generating yields is preserved. Because humankind did not create nature, humans cannot claim ownership in an absolute sense.

The above line of thought, which was presented by the liberal philosopher John Locke as early as the 17th century, is well known today. It features in the monotheistic religions with their belief in God as the owner of His creation. Whether people believe in God or not, sustainability always requires critical reflection on the notion of ‘property’. Hence, it is crucial to reflect on the ‘ownership of natural resources’. The topic of property rights over natural resources must be discussed, not only for resources on Earth but also beyond. To whom do the resources of Earth and outer space belong (e.g. in the case of space mining)? Who profits from the exploitation of near-Earth objects (e.g. asteroids)?

International agreements must determine these property questions in a fair way for all humankind, so that sustainability can become a mediating concept. The United Nations, in its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), has established a Working Group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (UNOOSA, 2018 ). This group has ‘addressed thematic areas, including sustainable space utilization supporting sustainable development on Earth’ (Losch, Reference Losch 2018 , p. 1).

2. Political dimension: sustainability as cross-sectional political guideline

The second fallacy: sustainability is the equivalent consideration of ecological, social and economic factors.

At the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the global community agreed on the central theme of ‘sustainable development’. This theme was defined as a Program of Actions for the 21st Century (so-called Agenda 21 ), which became a decisive document in the global acceptance of sustainability. However, more than 25 years later, the term ‘sustainable development’ still lacks precise understanding or implementation as a guiding principle in global partnership. The implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by achieving all 169 targets in various areas, was recently decided at the highest global level by the United Nations in 2015 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018 ).

The systematic accentuation of the interdependences among ecological, social and economic factors forms the core of the United Nations approaches to sustainability. However, the widely discussed ‘three pillars concept’ is misleading. Hence, ‘equality’ does not have an exact meaning in this context. The three pillars concept harbours both a deep truth and a danger. It is true that from the ethical and political viewpoints, the strategic point of sustainability is to broaden the ecological perspective through social and economic approaches. Environmental policy is integrated into socio-economic concepts of development with regard to strengthening local knowledge cultures. Such effort is understood as the ecological dimension of poverty prevention. For this purpose, sustainable actions must not remain abstract but must become concrete in the context of various development models (Ostrom, Reference Ostrom 2005 ; Pope Francis, 2015 ).

However, it would be incorrect to use the three pillars concept to claim that ecology, economy and social affairs all have equal value. These are different areas which cannot be compared directly. A scholar who defines ‘sustainability’ as the sum of social, ecological and economic objectives would fall victim to a fallacy. Because hardly anything exists that cannot be subsumed under these three notions, the range of the concept becomes almost infinite (Vogt, Reference Vogt 2013 ). For the term ‘sustainability’ to make sense, it should not be defined as a sum but rather as the interdependence and interaction of ecological, social and economic factors. It is not about the totality of eco-social and economic problems. Rather, it concerns a cross-sectional policy, based on interdisciplinary analyses and a systemic way of thinking about the re-nationalization of environmental problems (Reis, Reference Reis 2003 ).

Although the SDGs do not commit the mentioned fallacy in most parts of the text, they sometimes take too little account of central global challenges such as increasing resource consumption and population growth, externalization of ecological and social costs. Some goals even seem to be contradictory. Within the text, there is sometimes a conflict of objectives between economic growth that is to be achieved (for instance in chapter 8 of the SDGs) and ecological limits of nature. This needs to be discussed in even more detail in order to strengthen the value of the concept of sustainability.

3. Ethical dimension: intergenerational and global responsibility

The third fallacy: intergenerational justice, as the normative core of sustainability, guarantees future generations an equal amount of natural resources.

When scholars talk or write about sustainability and the perspective of intergenerational justice, they often refer to the definition in the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, published in 1987. That definition reads as follows: ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987 , p. 41). The problems involve setting standards for intergenerational justice. Questions include: can there be a guaranteed right to an equal amount of natural resources with regard to historically contingent developments? Are future generations possible legal entities?

In view of the gross differences in geographical, cultural and historical conditions in which people live, postulates of (absolute) equality are highly problematic. As the future cannot be calculated, and the needs and competences of future people are not fully known, freedom should be given a high priority. Thus, the idea of equal distribution of resources among generations is of little practical help in many areas. The aim should rather be to leave to posterity a world that offers enough free space and enough chances. This would enable future generations to make their own decisions and further develop their capabilities. To examine factors in the relationship between people and commodities, the capability approach can be used (Sen, Reference Sen 1999 ). Therefore, sustainability requires openness to allow for unplanned things.

Sustainability is based on resilience in dealing with stress and surprises, as well as on transformational competence in designing transitions. Hence, sustainability extends beyond a focus on desirable goals to critical reflection on forces and obstacles that either enable or prevent a transformational process in society. In other words, intergenerational justice requires awareness of complexity and process, so that people can deal with issues related to power, ignorance and shaping the unplannable. This need becomes more urgent when the global and intergenerational perspective is augmented with factors related to extra-terrestrial life (life beyond Earth). The demands and rights of these entities, if they exist, might also need to be considered. Should we be thinking about the protection of planets as potential habitats for extra-terrestrial life or future generations? (Losch, Reference Losch 2018 ).

In the logic of its argument, the United Nations’ (Rio de Janeiro) sustainability concept did not invoke specifically ecological terms. Instead it was based on broadening the understanding of ‘equity’ in global and intergenerational dimensions. In other words, the main interest was global and intergenerational equity (Reis, Reference Reis 2003 ). This was a logical consequence of globalization, whose seemingly unlimited use of space and time in economic and social interactions raises ethical questions. Globalization necessitates an extension of ethics regarding the limits of natural resources (Vogt, Reference Vogt 2014 ).

The scientific debate hinges on the question of whether ‘equity’ means ‘equality’ in egalitarian terms. If so – for example, in the study ‘Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland’ (Loske & Bleischwitzt, Reference Loske and Bleischwitz 1996 ), two ethical postulates are derived. On the one hand is equal chances for future generations, and on the other hand, equal rights to globally accessible resources.

Currently, the central reliability test for intergenerational responsibility on Earth is carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) equity. A human rights approach would stress that fighting poverty must be integrated systematically and dealt with in terms of ethical priorities. Normatively, the fight against poverty should arguably have moral priority over climate protection. However, especially in the ecologically sensitive habitats of the Global South, environmental protection is a decisive way of combatting poverty and safeguarding human rights. Climate change, water pollution, soil degradation and deforestation have long been the main causes of poverty in these regions (Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung, 2010 ; Vogt, Reference Vogt 2013 ).

For leading and developed nations, CO 2 equity means those countries must reduce their CO 2 output by at least 80% by 2050 (relative to 1990). Thus, from a scientific perspective, climate equity requires – above all – improving data on and calculations of CO 2 cycles. For example, factors such as aircraft fuels and the sink function of woods and soils should be considered. Equality regarding access to natural resources as a basis for intergenerational and global justice is a claim which needs far more normative reflection (Kistler, Reference Kistler 2017 ).

4. Socio-economic dimension: operationalizing the principle of sustainability

The fourth fallacy: sustainability means preserving an equilibrium system in nature that does not consume more resources than it can regrow.

Sustainability manifests in the endeavour to preserve Earth's natural resources. Debate about natural resources aligns with the idea of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ sustainability. Weak sustainability allows for the substitution of natural stock by an ecological, social or economic gain in value, whereas the strong sustainability interpretation does not (Münk, Reference Münk 1999 ). In addition, the notion of ‘strong sustainability’ can create misunderstanding of the three pillars concept. The seemingly equal standing of the three dimensions undermines the ecological postulate. According to the concept of strong sustainability, the exploitation of natural capital stock cannot be compensated for by a gain in economic value in a constrained sense.

The ecologist Wolfgang Haber suggested that the model of sustainability evident in nature amounts to an idealization of recycling and self-sufficiency concepts. Haber stated that this natural model cannot provide a meaningful model for modern urban civilizations (Haber, Reference Haber 1994 ). The conservation rule of so-called strong sustainability is based on an idealization of equilibrium models, which can be questioned both in evolutionary theory and in cultural history. As a rule, socio-ecological interactions are open systems.

The model of strong sustainability also incurs a methodological problem. In the model of strong sustainability, the term ‘resource’ is assumed to be a pre-social fact. However, something can be defined as a resource only once it has been shown to have utility value. A resource is, by definition, something that can be used or consumed; thus, it is a culture- and technology-dependent variable. For example, after hydrogen engines were invented and were in demand, hydrogen became a resource. Therefore, what constitutes a resource depends on relevant technological innovations and social demand. Through new and more efficient inventions, resources can be increased. If this argument is denied, the concept of sustainability degenerates into a passive principle of constraint.

Sustainability is not ‘strong’ when one assumes a naturalistic notion of resources. However, to do so, one would have to forget about the complex interdependence among socio-economic and ecological systems – which follow their own logic. The current backdrop is global crises related to climate change, financial crises, unemployment, hunger, lack of fresh water (in certain regions), loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and scarcity of resources – to name a few aspects of the many developmental crises of the early 21st century. Thus, operationalizing the concept of sustainability requires focusing on resilience for the future. Sustainability advocates should deal strongly with democratic processes of change.

5. Democratic dimension: pluralism, participation and democratic innovation

The fifth fallacy: the model of sustainability is a clearly defined objective. Approval of the concept of sustainability can simply be guaranteed by the widespread participation of affected groups.

Participation, and thus actor-oriented concepts, have central significance in sustainability. The third (and most creative) section of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference in Rio deals with this topic. In the implementation of sustainability, however, utopian exaggeration of the role of civil-society initiatives is often evident. This tendency can be described as the naivety of idealistically charged concepts among civil society. Eco-social protest movements are not intrinsically good. They are often based on a radical reduction of complexity which prevents a nuanced awareness of the factual problems. Sustainability also requires uncomfortable decisions, which are not fostered by a policy that is too much reliant on media approval.

Analyses by social scientists, and courageous political leadership, are necessary correctives for the utopian exaggeration of civil-society rationality, and for promoting joint responsibility in sustainability processes. The constructive dynamics of societal adaptation to the conditions of nature rest on innovation and cultural values. The objectives of sustainability must be integrated into scientific, technological and economic development. Such adaptation is possible within a framework which acknowledges the diverse preferences, worldviews and competences of a pluralistic society. Because of such openness, models of sustainability cannot present a fixed aim. Sustainability is rather a system of objectives with components. It embodies a pluralistic model, which can be represented in concrete terms through diverse societal processes in the areas of economy, science and culture (Vogt, Reference Vogt 2013 ).

The openness of sustainability demands the participatory shaping of public life by civil society. The active shaping of living spaces should not be decided exclusively by authorities (top-down) but must also grow slowly (bottom-up). Through recognition and participatory shaping, a consciousness of responsibility can thrive (Honneth, Reference Honneth 1994 ). Thus, participation is an essential element of the ethical principle of sustainability. Sustainability requires far-reaching democratic innovations. A multi-dimensional approach is needed, which takes up the practices of sustainability employed by pioneer groups. This approach would open up spaces in civil society for a change in values. Such change must be secured structurally through changing the social institutions.

6. Cultural dimension: lifestyle and a new model of wealth

The sixth fallacy: green growth and efficiency gains are sufficient reasons to economically implement the concept of sustainability.

Sustainability does not only mean a socio-technical programme to save resources; more than anything else, it means a new ethical-cultural orientation. Current paradigms of progress and unlimited growth must be replaced by the guiding principle of development, which is embedded in the metabolic cycles and rhythms of nature. Sustainability also implies a new definition of limits and goals for progress. Instead of ‘faster, higher, farther’, safeguarding the ecological, social and economic stability of human living spaces will be a central principle.

The considered avoidance of risk is another principle for societal development and political planning. Thus, reflection is required on certain issues of liberalism. However, alternative (post-growth) models also raise many unanswered questions (Sachverständigengruppe ‘Weltwirtschaft und Sozialethik’, 2018 ). Sustainability must be described in terms of criteria for what should grow and what should decrease. Furthermore, these criteria require standards (for a discussion of controversial economic and scientific theories, see: Miegel, Reference Miegel 2010 ; Hauff, Reference Hauff 2012 ; Linz, Reference Linz 2014 ).

The blind spot in traditional growth concepts is that growth is equated unilaterally with an increase in prosperity. However, the gross national product is also increased by accidents, although these can hardly be counted as profit. A common misconception of sustainable growth, linked to social theory, is that qualitative standards for and definitions of a good life are regarded as private matters and are thus excluded from public and scientific discourse. The win–win promises, which focus on decoupling growth and environmental consumption, have not proved their worth. Successes in individual areas, for instance, have been neutralized or reversed by the so-called ‘rebound effect’ of rising demand for prosperity. In other words, efficiency gains are neutralized due to rising prosperity (von Weizsäcker, Hargroves & Smith, Reference von Weizsäcker, Hargroves and Smith 2010 ; Sachverständigengruppe ‘Weltwirtschaft und Sozialethik’, 2018 ).

Sustainability therefore also requires a systemic and anchored ability for people to become self-sufficient (thrifty) and efficient (technologically optimized). In addition, sustainability requires the substitution of resources. Being able to link innovative technology with organizational optimization and changes in personal attitudes is essential.

A culture of sustainability acknowledges the protection of nature as a cultural task. Such a culture also integrates the quality of the environment as a fundamental value in definitions of wealth – at the cultural, social, health-related, political and economic levels. Sustainable culture expresses a rediscovery of the ethics of moderate living. A sustainable lifestyle does not forego wealth but rather aims to achieve intelligent, resource-friendly and environment-friendly patterns of consumption (Stehr, Reference Stehr 2007 ). Nevertheless, the opportunity for critical consumerism is rather small. In her book Ende der Märchenstunde , Katharina Hartmann drew a sobering picture of the power of a moralization of the markets through eco-social customer demand (Hartmann, Reference Hartmann 2009 ).

7. Theological dimension: belief in creation and sustainability

The seventh fallacy: religions, especially Christianity, do not play a major role in shaping the concept of sustainability and bringing it to life.

The distinct quality of Christian ethics in a pluralistic society is not derived mainly from additional arguments for sustainable actions. It lies, rather, in incorporating a spiritual dimension that inspires and motivates ethical behaviour. Christian ethics draw on a rich tradition that aims to translate ethics into an ethos by addressing both hearts and minds, and both deep-seated hopes and daily life.

The Brazilian theologian and writer Leonardo Boff criticized the anthropological and ethical traditions of modernity for not moving beyond rationality. Boff stated that ‘Without mysticism and its institutionalization in the different religions, ethics would degenerate to a cold catalogue of regulations and the codes of ethics would become processes of social control and cultural paternalism’ (Boff, Reference Boff 2000 , p. 11).

Spirituality is a type of knowledge that draws attention to the connection between ideas and emotions. It enables us to understand the manifold qualities of nature – beyond their physical, quantifiable features. Many environmentalists insist on an intrinsic value of nature. This requires a perspective that endorses not only the factual and scientifically quantifiable reality but also the beauty of nature, its sense and symbolism. It requires an aesthetic and spiritual sensibility that does not see things in isolation but in their entirety and their relationships. This is how ecological and religious perceptions can enhance and complement each other.

Responsibility for nature during climate change, the rising number of human beings on Earth, and the scarcity of resources are not a problem of knowledge. The problem is one of conviction and belief: we know about climate change and environmental issues, but it also seems that we do not really know; we do not understand, in a deeper sense, what the scientific data are telling us. We cannot sufficiently imagine what the data mean for us and for people all over the world – or for life on Earth in general. Therefore, we are unable to react adequately. We have never experienced such a deep, complex change of living conditions. The consequences seem too obscure for most westerners and for wealthy people globally. Pope Francis, in the encyclical Laudato si’, called this a ‘lack of sense for reality’ because of a ‘lack of physical contact’ with nature and with people who are suffering (Pope Francis, 2015 , p. 49).

One of the deepest aspects of spirituality presented in Laudato si’ is a balance between realistic and critical awareness of the situation of ecological destruction, and of the social problems connected with it – as well as the positive attitude of hope. The Christian holy scripture is called εὐαγγέλιον, the ‘good message’. That means a Christian's task is to spread hope, not anxiety. Important in this context is the cultural understanding of life and human identity and the practice of solidarity. The ecological crisis raises religious questions. It requires us to understand the greater cultural, anthropological and ethical contexts in which human lives are embedded.

The religious potential lies in spiritual orientation, long-term ethics, the forming of a global community, ritual endowment of life with meaning and institutional anchoring. A belief in God's creation highlights the limits of humankind with a certain humility and modesty. So far, these qualities have been activated only minimally. In other words, the discourse on sustainability is productive for religion to the extent that it raises basic issues about the world's long-term future, and about global responsibility.

Sustainability is the missing link between a belief in creation and modern environmental discourses. The Christian idea of charity was, for many centuries, understood merely as a personal virtue; the idea became politically effective and relevant only when connected to the solidarity principle. Similarly, the belief in creation needs translation into categories at the level of social order so that it can become a politically viable and justifiable idea. Belief in creation, without sustainability, is – in terms of structural and political ethics – a form of blindness. Sustainability without the belief in creation, whether Christian or not, risks ethical shallowness (Vogt, Reference Vogt 2013 ).

If we assume, in line with leading sociologists (Lübbe, Reference Lübbe, Graevenitz and Marqurd 1998 ; Luhmann, Reference Luhmann 2000 ), that managing contingency (in the meaning described above) is a main function of religion, then the competence of theological ethics in the discourse on sustainability becomes evident. Managing contingency is vital to respond to the postmodern breakdown of the belief in progress, which is the starting point of debates on climate change and sustainability. We do not need to resort to ecological apocalyptic scenarios or to a new version of the utopia of permanent growth. The religious dimension of hope liberates us from blind belief in the political promise of a complete management of all problems of ecology and social life.

The seven theses that have been briefly presented here leave questions unanswered and require deeper discussion. We did not want to offer limited definitions, but rather to stimulate debate about rehabilitating the ‘sustainability concept’.

Author ORCIDs

Christoph Weber, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9111-3339

Acknowledgments

Author contributions.

Markus Vogt and Christoph Weber conceived and designed the study. They wrote the article together.

Financial support

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. But Christoph Weber holds a PhD scholarship by the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung e.V. which supports his work for his doctor's thesis.

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• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2019.1

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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and their implementation: A national global framework for health, development and equity needs a systems approach at every level

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Stephen Morton, David Pencheon, Neil Squires, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and their implementation: A national global framework for health, development and equity needs a systems approach at every level, British Medical Bulletin , Volume 124, Issue 1, December 2017, Pages 81–90, https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldx031

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of global goals for fair and sustainable health at every level: from planetary biosphere to local community. The aim is to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity, now and in the future.

The UN has established web-sites to inform the implementation of the SDGs and an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on an Indicator Framework. We have searched for independent commentaries and analysis.

The goals represent a framework that is scientifically robust, and widely intuitive intended to build upon the progress established by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There is a need for system wide strategic planning to integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions into policy and actions.

Many countries have yet to understand the difference between the MDGs and the SDGs, particularly their universality, the huge potential of new data methods to help with their implementation, and the systems thinking that is needed to deliver the vision. The danger is that individual goals may be prioritized without an understanding of the potential positive interactions between goals.

There is an increasing understanding that sustainable development needs a paradigm shift in our understanding of the interaction between the real economy and quality of life. There would be many social, environmental and economic benefits in changing our current model.

We need to develop systems wide understanding of what supports a healthy environment and the art and science of making change.

Summary of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, linked to the five Areas of Critical Importance (5P’s)

Examples of targets and indicators (for Goal 2) 26

UN Graphical Illustration of the 17 SDGs.

The Sustainable Development Goals (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015) run from 2016 to 2030 and are formally the goals of the United Nations’ ‘Transforming our world; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, an agenda which sets out the vision, principles and commitments to a fairer and more sustainable world for all. The practical and political importance of the SDGs, and the challenges associated with them, can only truly be appreciated by understanding what preceded them. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were in place from 2000 to 2015 and consisted of eight international development goals. The first three goals covered poverty, education and gender equality; the next three goals addressed ‘health outcomes’ covering child mortality, maternal health and ‘HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases’. The remaining two goals addressed environmental sustainability and global partnership for development. These eight MDGs were supported by a total of 21 individual targets.

The MDGs, although a move in the right direction, were subject to certain criticisms. One was that there was insufficient analysis to justify why these goals were selected as priorities and insufficient information available to be able to compare performance, especially in tackling inequalities within countries. 1 This highlighted the perennial challenge in such initiatives of balancing political consensus with scientific validity. Nevertheless, based on data compiled by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG indicators, 2 the UN could demonstrate considerable success on some goals, especially on reducing extreme poverty (numbers of people living on less than $1.25 per day), reducing both child and maternal mortality, increasing access for people living with HIV to antiretroviral treatment and reducing new HIV infections. However, the report recognized that ‘progress has been uneven across regions and countries’ in the implementation of the MDGs.

Perhaps most importantly, the Millennium Development Goals focussed primarily on the needs of developing countries reinforcing a binary view of rich and poorer countries, of donors and recipients and implying that the global challenge is a problem of development which international aid can help address, rather than a set of shared problems which only collective action globally can resolve.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets are broader in scope and go further than the MDGs by addressing the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people. The goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.

Building on the success and momentum of the MDGs, the new global goals cover more ground, with ambitions to address inequalities, economic growth, decent jobs, cities and human settlements, industrialization, oceans, ecosystems, energy, climate change, sustainable consumption and production, peace and justice.

The new Goals are universal and apply to all countries, whereas the MDGs were intended for action in developing countries only.

A core feature of the SDGs is their strong focus on means of implementation: the mobilization of financial resources; capacity-building and technology; as well as data and institutions.

The new Goals recognize that tackling climate change is essential for sustainable development and poverty eradication. SDG 13 aims to promote urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

The UN resolution refers to five ‘areas of critical importance’; sometimes known as the 5 ‘P’s, these are People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnerships (see Table 1 ). The goals were launched with the strap-line of ‘Ensuring that no-one is left behind’ with its implication that development and levelling up will be the keys to progress by 2030. How this aspiration is reconciled with maintaining ecosystems and tackling climate change will be a challenge in itself. However, the SDGs do have a clear goal on climate action (Goal 13), which has been strengthened subsequently by the Paris Agreement of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, the SDGs are voluntary commitments by governments in contrast to the formal Paris Agreement which is legally binding now that it has been signed by 55% of parties and that those who have signed are responsible for more than 55% of greenhouse gas emissions. Also adopted in March 2015, and with a similar timescale, was the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–30) which succeeded the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–15); the Sendai Framework was agreed by 187 countries and was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015.

There is a wealth of published material on sustainable development in general and on the SDGs in particular from the UN, from international non-governmental organizations, and from many other concerned and committed organizations and individuals more locally. It is easy to get lost in all of this so we have been selective in the sources we have used. Most importantly, there is a widely held view that much more innovative ways to both collecting data and using data, from crowd sourcing to the use of big data, need to be used if the mechanisms for implementing and delivering the SDGs are to take full advantage of the data revolution.

There is a dedicated United Nations website on sustainable development ( http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ ) as well as a sustainable development knowledge platform ( https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ ) with updates on the High Level Political Forum, on individual topics and milestones, and a directory of resources including recent publications. Both sites have much supporting material on the SDGs and also on the challenge of integrating the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental).

The formal resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015 was published on 21 October 2015. 3 In the same year the United Nations Statistical Commission created an Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), which will coordinate proposals of a global indicator framework. 4 This should be properly recognized by all countries and associated organizations who are working towards consistent methods of tracking progress so that duplication can be avoided, gaps identified, and resources directed most effectively. While work continues on international action to support the SDGs, all countries are ‘expected to take ownership and establish a national framework for achieving the 17 goals’. The UN states that countries have the ‘primary responsibility for follow-up and review’ and this ‘will require quality, accessible and timely data collection’. In the UK, for example, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), has been working with the UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) to consult on national indicators for the SDGs. And some countries (notably Sweden, Germany, Colombia, the Philippines and Czechia) already have national institutional arrangements. 5

There is general agreement on the breadth and depth of the goals. There are clear obligations and responsibilities for all member states (for which they will be held to account) and a recognition that cross systems approaches to implementation will be needed. This is a significant change from the MDG process and requires explicit contributions from every country, particularly in developing and aligning the complex analytical tools to assess progress and assist decision making. The UN report on ‘critical milestones’ 6 refers to ‘an overarching vision and framework’. Getting accountability structures fit for purpose is already a key challenge. 7 A recent review in Nature 8 identifies that this requires a ‘new coherent way of thinking’ and that while it is implicit in the SDG logic that the goals depend on each other, no-one has specified exactly how. To help, different models have been developed, 9 including both scenario analysis and quantitative modelling. Some of these can be used as top-down macro-framework level tools and some as sectoral models for option level impact analysis. This independent review 7 of 16 countries who volunteered for national review (by the High Level Political Forum) noted a range of different approaches to deal with the complexity of the implementation process. Some countries with existing national sustainable development strategies have built on these and tried to align existing objectives with the new goals. Other countries have developed new national SDG Implementation Plans. Some have linked the SDGs to financial planning for sustainable development or sought to integrate SDGs either in sectoral planning (nutrition, education etc.) or in local government planning frameworks.

Other areas of agreement include the need to integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental), 10 , 11 the importance of raising awareness and creating ownership and the need for stakeholder engagement. 7 , 8 This is especially important to address the widespread misbelief that sustainable development concerns only the environmental dimension and conflicts with necessary ‘economic growth’. No strategy, not even one agreed by all member states of the United Nations, can immediately address historical cultures; yet, it remains one of the most fundamental challenges (and opportunities) for us all to address. The reality is that addressing all three dimensions collaboratively will yield the greatest benefits, whilst the alternative—addressing them separately and in competitive isolation—will deliver much less and with greater risks.

The agreement on the need for ‘systems thinking’, and integration across the three dimensions, is welcome, but the difficulties inherent in this approach should not be under-estimated. This has been illustrated by recent worked examples and case studies.

One worked example 8 concludes that action on the route to zero hunger in sub-Saharan Africa interacts positively with Goal 1 (poverty), Goal 3 (health and well-being), and Goal 4 (quality education). However, it also notes that food production has a more complex interaction with Goal 13 (climate change mitigation). This is because agriculture contributes 20–35% of global greenhouse gases, so climate mitigation constrains some types of food production (particularly meat). Additionally, food production (Goal 2) can compete with renewable energy production (Goal 7) and eco-system protection (Goals 14 and 15). Conversely, climate stability (Goal 13) and preventing ocean acidification (Goal 14) will support sustainable food production and fisheries (Goal 2).

Similarly, the UN paper on mainstreaming the three dimensions 11 highlights water as a nexus of integration and describes how water and sanitation (Goal 6) underpin other areas such as health (Goal 3), food (Goal 2), energy (Goal 7), elimination of poverty (Goal 1), economic productivity (Goal 8), equity (Goal 10) and access to education (Goal 4).

Perhaps the biggest single controversy, particularly because simplicity and logic favour collaborative and system wide implementation, is the high number of goals, targets and supporting actions that have been agreed. This raises concerns about whether governments and international agencies have sufficient skills in ‘whole systems thinking’ 12 to implement the goals without the risk of ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘perverse outcomes’. 8 Early mapping exercises 8 , 11 , 12 have demonstrated the important interconnections between achieving goals but experience suggests that government departments and international negotiations do not always have the mandate or skills to realistically address what might at first appear to be inconvenient and politically contentious trade-offs 8 and unintended consequences.

Deciding which goals to prioritize and then assessing the positive (or negative impacts) on other goals, is a crucial step. There is scope for concern if governments, corporations or agencies were to prioritize energy production (to meet Goal 7), agricultural output (to meet Goal 2) or development of business and infrastructure (to meet Goals 8 and 9), without considering impacts on climate (Goal 13), water (Goal 14) or land (Goal 15). The root cause of this problem is the failure to imagine better ways of addressing energy, agricultural output and what defines success of a business in the 21st century. It is rarely more of what has gone before. The SDGs are the formal stimulus for us to innovate collectively at scale and pace; and to think and act better not bigger. For instance, we need to be more open to the increasing evidence of the many potential positive interactions between different Goals. More equitable and sustainable food systems would help to meet Goal 2, produce ecological benefits (Goals 13–15) and help tackle problems such as obesity and non-communicable disease (Goal 3). 8 , 12

Interestingly, although the SDGs and supporting targets make little mention of tackling world population growth, there are several studies illustrating how coordinated, whole system approaches to the SDGs are already stabilizing the global population. One paper 13 looks at how the SDG targets on mortality, reproductive health and education for girls will directly and indirectly influence future demographic trends. Another paper, 14 looking from the opposite perspective, describes how reductions in fertility in Africa could reduce dependency ratios (the proportion of population not economically active) and thus help tackle poverty (Goal 1), increase productivity (Goal 8), and improve education and gender equality (Goals 4 and 5).

It should be clear that each country will pursue these Global Goals differently, and that a key benefit of the SDG approach is a degree of local flexibility. However, there are certain goals which require urgent collective action, where the clock is ticking on the world’s ability to tackle changes that are already significantly impacting on planetary health. 15 This means that international collaboration must give primacy to action on climate change (Goal 13) and the need to make economic policy subservient to the minimization of environmental impact (see Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production). This is of increasing importance with the recent expressions of electoral judgements in some western countries. The danger is that electorates are seduced into abandoning collective responsibility for the three dimensions of sustainable development in the hope that this will produce short-term benefits for individual countries while ignoring the wider longer term environmental, social and economic costs, knowingly leaving these to be borne by future generations.

A significant risk of allowing countries to take unilateral and apparently self-interested approaches by opting out of multi-state arrangements and economic agreements is the threat of a ‘race to the bottom’ where a country adopts low taxation, relaxed labour laws and reduced regulation as a deceptively attractive way to avoid economic crises. This approach risks increasing health inequity alongside continued restraints on social assistance and environmental protection, with negative impacts on many of the SDGs. Alternatively, a country, region or state could seek to build an economy which is directed at realizing the combined economic, social and environmental benefits associated with implementing the SDGs, with a focus on renewable energy, sustainable food and agriculture and environmentally sustainable technology (recycling, energy conservation and the like). This may also provide a model of sustaining prosperity given the demographic changes and likely labour shortages if countries, such as the UK, shift away from an economic model which depends on a migrant labour force for continued growth.

Given that it took 21 years of annual conferences of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change before a substantial agreement for action (the Paris Agreement) was achieved in December 2015, there could well be international controversy if reneging on key global commitments weakens the collective resolve. If we accept the fact that human health, and its future survival and prosperity, depend on a liveable earth, we would argue therefore that a refocus of population health to ecological 16 and planetary health 15 is the golden thread which binds the SDGs together as a systems approach. 1 This brings us to a fundamental challenge for governments, businesses, consumers and communities.

To what extent can we seek to implement the SDGs by improvements in current systems and at what point do we need a paradigm shift in our outlook and aspirations? This subject has been explored in relation to health and food systems 17 and in relation to regional trade agreements and health related SDGs. 18 However, it has also been clearly addressed by the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Inquiry into the design of a sustainable financial system’. 19 This inquiry points out that ‘failure of the financial system to take adequate account of climate change could result in extensive damage to financial assets globally, may well threaten the stability of the financial system itself, and most importantly could impose irreversible damage to the underlying state of the real economy and the quality of life for those who depend on it for their livelihoods’, a point that has been repeatedly echoed by some of the most powerful financial organizations and people globally. It is not enough to simply wait until action is obviously needed. As Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, says: ‘…once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late’. 20

The existing macroeconomic model had already been challenged by a report prepared for the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission in 2009 21 and developed further by their Economics Commissioner. 22 Essentially, this is a challenge to a global economic model, which sees wealth creation based on rising production to meet ever increased demand as the basis of development. This continued consumption based model would be unsustainable even if the world’s population was stable but is compounded by the projected increase from 6 billion people in 2000 to potentially 9 billion by 2050; the consequences in terms of resources consumed, waste generated and boundaries exceeded will be an unprecedented planetary emergency. 23

However, before we despair completely, some of these reports are also clear that there would be many social, environmental and economic benefits in changing our current model and that ‘transitioning to a green economy opens us to many opportunities as well as posing many challenges’. 19 , 21 The fundamental challenge is aligning the three dimensions across all 17 SDGs and that will challenge many current sectoral interests.

The UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development recently coordinated an open letter, 24 from over 80 UK businesses, to the Prime Minister, asking her to highlight the UK’s commitment to the SDGs at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos. This included not just many UK ethical environmental businesses but also many more traditional major multinational companies such as Coca Cola, Tesco, HSBC, Nestle, Land Rover, KPMG and Standard Chartered. It would seem that large corporations are more aware of the need to fundamentally re-shape the economy than many political parties.

The last two centuries have seen huge advances in our understanding of what causes diseases in individuals. There has been far less progress in understanding systematically exactly what causes health in populations: from a village level or a planetary level. The challenge for this generation is to synthesize our knowledge into creating those conditions that foster health and protect us from poverty as much as they protect us from polio. If we continue to devote resources disproportionately to finding ever more detailed causes of disease without considering the solutions to some of the obvious problems we have created for ourselves and others, we will be breaking the implicit contract we have with future generations, with those people who have no voice or choice; that is the agreement that we make every effort to leave the world in a better place than we found it. Without understanding how we collectively protect and improve all those conditions that make life worth living for all, we will be forever remembered as the generation who knew too much and did too little. The art and science of making change is fraught with more human and cultural barriers than with technical or knowledge barriers. The SDGs provide perhaps the last best hope we have of being honest about why and how we should implement the evidence we already have. The number of challenges and opportunities we face, from demographic transitions to new models of economic activity and workforce development makes it essential that we embrace clear and systematic frameworks for action that are measurable and monitorable and for which we should all be held accountable and responsible. Every generation in history has faced global challenges. ‘We Are the First Generation that Can End Poverty, the Last that Can End Climate Change’. 25

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest.

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• Challenges to Sustainable Development

Several challenges threaten progress towards sustainable development goals. The spike in food and energy prices in 2008 led to a severe food crisis. The subsequent fall of energy prices has eased some of the pressure on energy importing countries. Yet, food prices remain high. The global financial and economic crisis in 2009 has exacerbated the situation: Growth rates are falling, unemployment is rising, poverty in deepening, hunger and malnutrition are on the increase again, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is in jeopardy.

DESA’s Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) is the substantive secretariat to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and seeks to enhance the integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions in policy-making at international, regional and national levels. The division also promotes the adoption of an integrated and broadly participatory approach to sustainable development, aimed at measurable progress in the implementation of the goals and targets of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

The world is currently facing extremely difficult challenges to sustainable development and environmental management. The food crisis, energy crisis, financial crisis, a global recession and, of course, the looming climate crisis are all interconnected and the only way of addressing them effectively is through integrated solutions.

At the Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (IPM) for the seventeenth Session of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) , held in New York 23-27 February 2009, many delegations expressed their concerns regarding the impacts of the financial and economic crisis on sustainable development, including on trade financing for food and other essential imports and on farmers’ access to credit.

Sustainable development is the bridge, between environmental, economic and social goals, between north and south, between Governments, civil society and business, between science and policy, and between policy and action. CSD provides a powerful forum for guiding a prompt and sustainable response to these urgent development challenges, including the financial and economic crisis.

• Statement of the Secretary-General at CSD-17 about the crisis
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Partnerships enable all stakeholders to make concrete contributions to the implementation of sustainable development goals and commitments outlined in international agreements. The need to engage these actors in implementation has become more pressing in view of the food crisis, energy crisis, financial crisis and global recession – making partnerships an effective vehicle for promoting sustainable development in a globalizing world.

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• Published: 15 September 2024

Understanding the landscape of education for sustainable development in China: a bibliometric review and trend analysis of multicluster topics(1998–2023)

• Weiqi Tian 1 ,
• Jingshen Ge 2 ,
• Xu Zheng 2 ,
• Yu Zhao 1 ,
• Tingliang Deng 1 &
• Huijun Yan 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1213 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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This study examined Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in China spanning over two decades(1998–2023). Assisted with text mining tool of Itginsight, by combining latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling with social network analysis(SNA) and sentiment analysis, this study constructed a visualized analysis of the research status of ESD and explores the topics distribution and sentiment trends of Chinese scholars regarding ESD. The analysis shows that studies concerning ESD are displaying a “trending-declining” tendency with ample space for greater expansion. Existing researches have predominantly exhibited a predilection towards objectives, ideologies, methodologies, and themes concerning ESD. After further modeling, mapping multicluster topics, and conducting sentiment analysis on highly cited literature, it is found the focus of this discipline lies more on environmental education from different aspects, and an overriding sense of positivity concerning the inherent potential of ESD to drive transformative societal change is found. Despite the intricacies of various research themes, the scholarly consensus is that ESD represents a vital and indispensable means of addressing the pressing environmental and social challenges of our epoch, which should be optimized both theoretically and practically.

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Introduction.

Since the proposal of “sustainable development,” its meaning and scope have undergone dynamic evolution. Initially introduced by Carl von Carlowitz in his work Silvicultura Oeconomi to describe the sustainable management of German forestry (Enders and Remig, 2014 ), the concept has stimulated extensive discussions about human development models (Klarin 2018 ).

In 1972, Stockholm hosted the “World Conference on Human Environment” (Garcia and Newton, 1994 ; Fonseca González, 2011 ; Assefa, 2008 ), marking the first global conference on environmental issues and reflecting a growing worldwide interest in conservation. In March 1980, the United Nations formulated the “World Conservation Strategy,” which initially proposed the idea of sustainable development (McCormick, 1986 ). In 1992, the “Conference on Environment and Development” in Rio de Janeiro recognized sustainable development as a new development philosophy (Redclift, 2002 ; Johnson, 2001 ; Wirth, 1994 ; Foo and Short, 1992 ). The United Nations further promoted global sustainable development at the “World Summit on Sustainable Development” in Johannesburg in 2002 (Foo, 2013 ; Doran, 2002 ; Hens and Nath, 2005 ; Green et al., 2005 ). The “United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development” in Rio de Janeiro established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Open Working Group (Camacho, 2015 ; Hák et al., 2016 ; Ford, 2015 ; Kamau et al., 2018 ; Kanie and Biermann, 2017 ; Thérien and Pouliot, 2020 ), further advancing global efforts.

The core of sustainable development involves managing and protecting natural resources to meet current and future needs (Garcia, 2000 ). This encompasses environmental integrity, technical feasibility, economic viability, and social acceptance (Ciegis et al., 2009 ; Bhagat, 2011 ; Imran et al., 2014 ). The widely accepted definition by the Brundtland Commission describes it as development that meets present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs (Borowy, 2013 ; Fien and Tilbury, 2002 ; Jacobs, 1999 ; Cerin, 2006 ; Dernbach, 1998 ; Dernbach, 2003 ; Stoddart, 2011 ).

China has made concerted efforts to prioritize sustainable development, evidenced by 32 policy documents from the State Council Policy Document Database (2003–2022), notably the “Action Plan for China’s Sustainable Development in the Early 21st Century” (2003) (McBeath and Wang, 2008 ; Zhao et al., 2002 ). Subsequent policies span various sectors, offering robust guidance for sustainable development.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), an integral part of sustainability defined by the international community, aims to meet present needs without compromising those of future generations (Holdgate, 1987 ). ESD has rapidly grown in China (Little and Green, 2009 ; Grosseck et al., 2019 ; Vare and Scott, 2007 ; Rieckmann, 2018 ; Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2010 ; Lu et al., 2023 ), although there is a relative lack of empirical and theoretical literature in China’s unique context. Despite this, various ESD initiatives are implemented at multiple levels.

Our study tracks ESD development in China’s academic community by conducting a bibliometric analysis of entries over the past 20 years in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, also known as China National Knowledge Internet, which is a valuable resource for conducting literature reviews due to its extensive coverage of Chinese academic publications. CNKI plays a significant role in facilitating research by providing access to a vast amount of scholarly work from China, which is particularly important given China’s substantial contribution to global research output (Schar et al., 2020 ). This is especially relevant in fields such as environmental science, where understanding local contexts and research is essential for effective analysis and decision-making (Zhao et al., 2023 ).

The increasing global emphasis on sustainable development mandates an urgent understanding of how ESD is progressing, especially in rapidly developing countries like China. By comprehensively analyzing ESD literature, we can identify gaps, challenges, and future research pathways, making this research timely and crucial. For the global community, understanding China’s approach to ESD provides comparative insights, facilitates cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and contributes to collective sustainability efforts. Moreover, as educational frameworks evolve, aligning them with SDGs becomes increasingly important for fostering a globally conscious citizenry capable of addressing future challenges.

By presenting a holistic picture of ESD research and development in China, this study not only contributes to the academic field but also aids policymakers and educators in shaping effective ESD strategies, ultimately promoting sustainability on a broader scale.

Therefore, the research questions for this study are:

What is the current state and thematic distribution of academic research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in China over the past two decades?

What are the characteristics of academic attitudes and sentiment tendencies toward themes such as education reform and school education within the Chinese academic community?

By analyzing highly cited literature on ESD in China, what research hotspots and future development trends can be identified?

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the context of the world and China

Evolution and expansion of esd: from conceptual framework to global practice.

Before the concept of ESD gained global recognition, environmental education (EE) emerged in the 1970s as a related movement in response to the growing awareness of environmental degradation and development issues. The United Nations proposed an EE framework in the Belgrade Charter (1975) with the aim of increasing public awareness of environmental conditions and related issues, and developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation, and commitment to solve current problems in individual and collective ways and prevent the emergence of new problems” (The United Nations, 1975 ). This framework was further developed in the Tbilisi Declaration (1977), which proposed expanding environmental expression to include “biological, ethical, social, cultural, and economic aspects of environmental issues,” and laid the foundation for EE, and later ESD, in the global paradigm (Hume and Barry, 2015 ).

Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio Earth Summit (1992), re-prioritized educational goals towards sustainable development, proposing four educational objectives: “promoting and improving the quality of education, restructuring curricula [towards sustainable development], increasing public awareness of the concept of sustainable development, [and] training the workforce” (The UNESCO, 1992 ). Thus, ESD aims to address concerns about the environment and humanity while meeting the needs of the education and development sectors.

Since 1992, the definition and scope of ESD has continuously expanded. In 2015, the member states of the United Nations (UN) approved a prospective 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is designed to promote sustainability up to the year 2030. This agenda comprises a framework of 17 SDGs encompassing all aspects of sustainability, and encompasses several targets or objectives that are aimed to be achieved by the conclusion of the 2030 decade. Notably, a crucial component of the 2030 Agenda is the inclusion of ESD. According to UNESCO’s definition, ESD aims to “empower learners with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to make wise decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society, while respecting cultural diversity” (The United Nations, 2015 ). The adoption of sustainable development can be divided into two main aspects: firstly, realizing the beliefs of stakeholders in sustainable development, that is, using education as a tool to promote global sustainable development (i.e., sustainable development perspective); secondly, over the past decade, establishing education stakeholders who integrate the concept of sustainable development into the education system (i.e., education perspective) (Leicht et al., 2018 ).

Influence of global sustainability objectives on the progress of ESD in China: key milestones

Incubation and emergence phase.

Whether internationally or within China, ESD has its roots in education for environmental protection (Zhang and Shi, 2004 ; Yue and Li, 2023 ; Wang and Xie, 2013 ). The first United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, held in 1972, proclaimed the necessity of educating the younger generation about environmental issues through the Stockholm Declaration. This agenda was further iterated in 1975 through the International EE Program, which led to the articulation of EE objectives in the Tbilisi Declaration of 1977 by UNESCO and UNEP (Berchin et al., 2021 ). Transition towards ESD commenced in 1992 when the UN Conference on Environment and Development proposed “environment and development education”.

Following this global trajectory, China embarked on its journey of environmental protective education between the 1970s and 1990s. In 1972, the first national environmental protection conference marked the commencement of environmental protection and EE in China. The subsequent rollout of EE at various educational levels, the establishment of national EE institutions, and the enactment of the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China established a robust framework for EE that would form the foundation for ESD (Wang and Xie, 2013 ). In 1994, the “Agenda 21” white paper issued by China transcended the content of EE, stipulated the integration of sustainable development into the national education reform process, aligning China’s EE with international norms, and marking the onset towards Sustainable Development Education.

Preliminary formation stage

By the late 1990s, China had formally embarked on the path of ESD. During the initial three to five years, the country was in a transitional phase, evolving from EE to ESD, with the former constituting a crucial part of ESD at the time. Key national events facilitated the transition towards ESD. With the growing importance of ESD on the global stage, China started implementing ESD in 1992. Since 1990, the Ministry of Education has required Chinese general high schools to offer elective courses in EE. To integrate EE content into the compulsory education curriculum plan and subject teaching outline, the textbook “Environmental Protection” was published. Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, China initiated the development of “China Agenda 21” in 1992 (Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 1994 ). In 1996, China identified “developing science and education to revitalize the country and achieve sustainable development” as a national strategy, proposing to shift economic development from extensive to intensive. In the first national report on sustainable development and progress in 1997, China emphasized the importance of environmental protection in the education system to promote the values of sustainable development (People’s Republic of China, 1997 ).

During this period, ESD progressively moved from theory to practice, infiltrating the instructional practices of various teaching institutions. The education of environmental majors in universities was significantly bolstered, with continuous strengthening of program offerings and discipline construction. ESD content permeated classrooms in primary and secondary schools, with specific curriculum guidelines mandating EE. Educators and researchers popularly regarded education as a means to enhance citizen awareness of environmental conservation. In academic research, amidst the unfolding new conceptual system, the majority of literature concentrated on understanding the crux, core values, and localized implementation pathways of ESD, striving to build a comprehensive and macroscopic theoretical framework.

Rapid development stage

In 2002, the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations underscored education as an essential component for the realization of sustainable development and consecutively demarcated 2005–2014 as the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”. Correspondingly, this phase witnessed accelerated momentum in China’s educational growth in ESD. During this epoch, China undertook substantial policy adaptations and structural modifications across diverse educational spectra, progressively achieving systematic perfection in ensuring educational sustainability. Scholarly institutions were intensely involved in the educational reformation process, thereby augmenting the scope of ESD from environmental shield to a more overarching, integrative perspective involving economic, political, and social dimensions. Over this time, the progression of China’s education system has been significantly noteworthy. The nine-year mandatory education system saw widespread adoption, secondary education gravitated towards mass access, and higher education experienced swift democratization. Concurrently, it is important to acknowledge persistent regional variations in educational development, as well as significant disparities in educational access across urban-rural landscapes and among different economic and social strata.

With the rapid growth of sustainable development in China, the ESD concept has integrated elements of Chinese culture, based on UNESCO’s definition. Sustainable development is defined as the scientific knowledge of achieving a sustainable lifestyle, while promoting social, cultural, economic, and environmental change through the development of values and behaviors (Beijing Municipal Education Commission, 2007 ). In 2010, the Ministry of Education released the “Outline of China’s Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020)”, which emphasized the importance of ESD in China’s education system. However, it lacked detailed discussion on ESD and specific implementation plans (Witoszek, 2018 ). The 2011 National Sustainable Development Report further highlights the role of education in sustainable development. The focus of education related to sustainable development has shifted towards education equity, compulsory education, vocational education, and health education (Witoszek, 2018 ).

Sustained innovation stage

The term “ESD” has been included in the category of “strengthening ecological civilization capacity” in the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Education Development (2017)” and has been redefined. The scope of ESD has been narrowed down to education on frugality, conservation, environmental awareness, and the promotion of sustainable development values (The State Council of People’s Republic of China, 2017 ). Initiated during the 2018 National Education Congress, the Chinese authorities proposed creating a comprehensive “Five Educations” talent cultivation system: moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education - holistic development becoming the cornerstone of talent nurturing for the new era. To facilitate these “Five Educations”, in October 2020 the Outline on “Strengthening and improving school physical education in the new era” was released, mandating well-rounded physical education, pairing full complement of PE teachers, and deepening of reforms. Simultaneously, an Outline on “Strengthening and improving school aesthetic education” was released, aimed at embedding aesthetic education throughout, reinforcing students’ aesthetic and humanistic appreciation.

In a concerted effort to construct and advance a high-quality, equitable education system, the Chinese Government has released a series of ESD-oriented policy documents for various educational stages. For preschool education, the release of the “Opinions on Deepening Reform and Standardization of Preschool Education’ and ‘Fourteenth Five-Year Action Plan for Preschool Education Development” signals a pivot from universalism to patching resource gaps. Concurrently, policies for compulsory education, such as the “Opinions on Deepening Educational and Teaching Reforms” and “Compulsory Education Quality Evaluation Guidelines”, offer a comprehensive enhancement to compulsory education quality. Noteworthy reforms in senior secondary education, as exemplified by releases like “Guidance on Advancing Talent Cultivation Reform in Ordinary High Schools”, and “Ordinary High School Quality Evaluation Guidelines”, have activated creativity development.

Similarly, for higher education, continuous adjustments to the discipline and professional directories have occurred, centralized under the implementation of the “Six Excellences and One Top” 2.0 plan, subsequently enriching faculty structures. The “Double Reduction” policy has curtailed the burden of extracurricular homework at compulsory stages, while vocational education has seen rejuvenation with the “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education”, facilitating the construction of an attractive, modern vocational education system. Overall, these policies underscore China’s commitment to fostering sustainable education.

Emerging Trends in China’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): a recent perspective

Emerging from a swift period of academic development, the ongoing study of ESD in China has been experiencing significant growth in recent years. Delivering a dual narrative, scholars observe a paradigm shift catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted education, and the evolution aided by novel information technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. Prominent academics navigate the sustainable development of education against the backdrop of COVID-19 and post-poverty-alleviation era (Liu, 2021 ; Wei and Yang, 2020 ). Concurrently, some scholars analyze AI-enhanced education’s potential opportunities and challenges for fostering sustainable development (Zhang et al., 2019 ).

Secondly, policy-centric studies leveraging impactful national macro-policy like China’s Education Modernization 2035 plan, “double reduction” policy, rural revitalization strategy, and community of shared future of mankind investigates the advancement of China’s ESD. Economical effects and class reactions to “double reduction” policy’s impact on educational ecology and society have been explored by some scholars respectively (Zhang et al., 2023 ; Yang, 2022 ). Du ( 2022 ) highlights the crucial role of sustainable higher education for developing a shared future for humankind, while some other scholars (Gu and Teng, 2019 ) demonstrates how China’s Education Modernization 2035 plan provides methodological and substantial value towards achieving global ESD goals.

Thirdly, progress and trends in international ESD have been attentively monitored by researchers, and others, investigating the ESD models of developed nations like Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, and international organizations, seeking a path for localization of practices (Yuan and Wang, 2023 ; Wu et al., 2023 ; Tong and Yu, 2023 ). Notably, Shi Xueyi ( 2023 ) presents a comprehensive review of the work spearheaded by UNESCO in the education informatization field, and Yue and Li ( 2023 ) predicts the panorama of global ESD progression based on analyses of UNESCO’s series of reports. Leaning into UNESCO’s “Future Higher Education” project and related policy reports, Liang et al. ( 2023b ) forecasts the development goals and pathways of future higher education, itemizing possible directions for changes (Liang et al. 2023a ).

Research design

Data collection.

To ensure the credibility and efficiency of the resource, taking CNKI as the database, by advanced searching, this research is conducted on the basis of CSSCI reference resource, which represents the highest level and most cutting-edge research results in China. The data selection for the bibliometric review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach as a systematic strategy to search for articles (Chen and Pang, 2022 ). The PRISMA method is widely adopted as the primary approach to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Page et al., 2021).

The advanced search was carefully structured, with the topic elements connected internally by the operator “+” and different search items integrated using the Boolean operator “AND.” This logical structuring ensured precise retrieval of relevant literature spanning titles, abstracts, and topical keywords. The data extraction process followed the four-step PRISMA protocol: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion, as depicted in Fig. 1 .

Flowchart of data collection.

A critical aspect of this study was the justification for excluding certain groups of documents, focusing solely on “articles” and “reviews”. This selectivity was driven by the need to maintain a rigorous academic standard, as peer-reviewed articles and reviews undergo meticulous scrutiny, ensuring reliability and validity. By excluding interviews, school profiles, news reports, book reviews, conference notices, and unrelated journal literature, the research streamlined its focus on scientifically robust and systematically reviewed content. Books and other document types were also excluded due to their often inconsistent peer review processes, which could introduce variability and potential bias, thereby compromising the study’s overall methodological rigor.

The search criteria for this study combined “sustainable development” and “education” as keywords, encompassing titles, abstracts, and topics. This focus was guided by two primary facets of ESD adoption: the sustainable development (SD) perspective, which involves stakeholders viewing education as a means to promote global sustainability, and the education perspective, which pertains to the incorporation of sustainable development ideas into education systems (Leicht et al., 2018 ). The study types were limited to “articles” or “reviews”, after manually excluding interviews, school profiles, news reports, book reviews, conference notices, and journal literatures unrelated to the subject, a total of 1092 valid sample literature meet the criteria were obtained from 1998 to May 2023.

Research methodology

We used the text mining tool of Itginsight and Microsoft Excel 2019 to perform further bibliometric analysis and visualization. All associated data with annual publishment trends, journals and prolific institutions were imported into Excel for quantitative and dynamics trends. Itginsight was used to draw the knowledge map, and the hot spots and frontiers of ESD research were visually analyzed. (Wang et al., 2022 ).

Furthermore, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) (Blei et al., 2003 ) modeling was used for content analysis, targeting highly cited papers on the subject of ESD research, and we aimed to determine the basic value, main framework, and main content in respect of ESD. LDA is a typical unsupervised learning model that applies machine learning methods to statistically count word frequency, generate a multiple layer probability distribution composed of keywords and comment topics, and then implement classification (Gao and Lin, 2022 ). LDA belongs to a Bayesian model that assumes that the statistical distribution of topics and vocabulary conforms to a multinomial distribution, representing the generated topic random variable. For the k-th topic, let \({\vec{\mu }}_{k}\) represent the random variable of the generated word. The topic probability distribution of the m-th document and the word distribution of the k-th topic of the LDA model meet the following equation:

\(\vec{\alpha }\) and \(\vec{\beta }\) are hyperparameters of the distribution, \({\vec{\theta }}_{m}\) and \({\vec{\varphi }}_{k}\) are both random variables. The joint probability distribution of LDA is as follows:

Where, \({\lambda }_{m,n}\) represents the topic corresponding to the nth word, \({\vec{\varphi }}_{{\lambda }_{m,n}}\) represents the word distribution corresponding to the topic \({\lambda }_{m,n}\) , and \({\mu }_{m,n}\) represents the word sampled from the word distribution \({\vec{\varphi }}_{{\lambda }_{m,n}}\) .

LDA is a widely used approach for identifying topics and clustering large-scale datasets in the field of natural language processing. In this study, we utilized the open-source Python library called Scikit-Learn (sklearn) to implement LDA topic identification (Gao and Lin, 2022 ). During the LDA topic classification process, the optimal number of topics needs to be determined by evaluating perplexity, and then conducting topic analysis accordingly. Perplexity is a commonly used metric to evaluate the performance of the LDA topic model, whose calculation formula is presented as follows:

Where, in Eq. ( 3 ), \(P(D)\) represents perplexity, where D denotes the testing set in the corpus. Furthermore, M indicates the number of documents in the corpus, N m represents the number of words in document m , and in Eq. ( 4 ), \(p({\mu }_{m})\) denotes the probability of word \({\mu }_{m}\) .

Based on topic modeling of the most highly cited works from the 1092 documents, by employing Social Network Analysis (SNA), this paper utilize the co-occurrence relationship between topic keywords of the most highly cited works to extract the network of relationships between hotspot topics, as well as between topics and feature words, with the help of the software of Ucinet, which is a comprehensive package for the analysis of social network data. By analyzing the co-occurrence patterns of topics and features, we can gain insights into how they are related and how they influence one another. This approach helps us better understand the underlying structures and dynamics of textual data. Furthermore, sentiment analysis was employed to quantify researchers’ emotional tendencies towards specific topics. By categorizing researchers’ emotions as positive, negative, or neutral, we can gain a more detailed understanding of researchers’ attitudes and focus towards different topics and how these attitudes evolve over time. SNA provides support for analyzing the importance of topic keywords and related words, and the co-occurrence of words can indirectly reflect their associative relationships. This approach helps to recognize the core topics in the retrieved literature and the social network relationships between topics, which is beneficial for discovering the associative relationships among topics. The sentiment analysis helps to identify researchers’ subjective emotions, opinions, and attitudes from textual data. In this study, Rostcm6 is used to conduct the sentiment analysis.

Research process

The research process for this study comprises four meticulously planned steps(as shown in Fig. 2 ) to ensure comprehensive and systematic data analysis.

Flow chart of analysis.

Firstly, the software Itginsight was downloaded and installed, followed by extensive debugging to ensure optimal performance. This initial phase was crucial, as it guaranteed the software’s readiness for handling subsequent data processing and analysis tasks seamlessly.

Secondly, research data was obtained from the CNKI database, specifically focusing on CSSCI (Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index) reference resources, which represent the highest level of academic research in China. The extracted data was then transformed into a format compatible with Itginsight and the LDA model, facilitating effective bibliometric and text analysis.

In the third phase, Excel and Itginsight were employed to conduct a detailed bibliometric analysis of the study results. This involved calculating keyword co-occurrence frequency and centrality, producing keyword clustering maps, and identifying dynamic trends. Timeline maps were also generated to reveal the evolution characteristics of the research landscape, evolution hotspots, and to infer future research trends. These visualizations provided a comprehensive overview of how key themes and topics in ESD have developed over time.

The fourth phase involved constructing a citation space network by mapping the interconnectedness of normative citations among authors in the research field. This network analysis offered valuable insights into the central research themes that capture scholars’ concerns and interests. Highly cited literature was analyzed to identify influential works and prevailing academic discourse. The LDA model was utilized for text clustering, which included data pre-processing steps such as data cleaning, word segmentation, and the removal of stop words. This process enabled the identification and exploration of latent topics, revealing topic distributions and facilitating the classification of literature. SNA was conducted using the Ucinet64 tool to explore relationships between topics and feature words of highly cited works. This analysis provided a visual representation of how different research themes and keywords are interconnected, highlighting significant patterns and collaborations within the academic community.

To assess the emotional trends of Chinese scholars on “ESD,” sentiment analysis was performed at the final phase by using Rostcm6 software. This analysis utilized “Baidu” emotion dictionary to detect researchers’ attitudes towards this study and their research focus. Sentiment analysis provided an additional layer of understanding, revealing whether the discourse around ESD was predominantly positive, neutral, or negative.

Visual analysis

Post analysis.

The application of bibliometric methods to analyze the annual publication trends in ESD has yielded a nuanced understanding of scholarly engagement over different periods. By employing rigorous statistical analysis, a trend chart (Fig. 3 ) was generated, illustrating the trajectory of published articles in the field, facilitating projections of future research dynamics. Our review indicates that ESD research has been continuously documented since 1998, with a cumulative total of 1023 articles published in CSSCI core journals indexed in the CNKI database from 1998 to 2022. These findings elucidate scholars’ sustained interest and evolving focus within ESD, providing an empirical foundation for future scholarly inquiries.

Publication trend chart.

A particularly promising viewpoint is the steady increase in ESD publications, reflecting the growing recognition of the field’s importance. This trend underscores the need for ongoing empirical research to adapt and respond to emerging global challenges, enhancing educational strategies that support sustainable development objectives.

Analyzing the annual publication statistics and trends within the field of ESD, as depicted in Fig. 3 , is pivotal for comprehending the evolution and impact of research in this domain. Bibliometric analysis, which involves both quantitative and qualitative evaluation of publications through statistical methodologies, plays a crucial role in this process (Zhang et al., 2023 ). The resultant data reveals three distinct stages in the progression of ESD research.

The first stage (1998–2009) demonstrates a steady increase in publication volume, culminating in a peak of 75 papers by 2009. A notable spike occurred in 2007, with an increase of 25 papers, signifying burgeoning interest and recognition of ESD’s relevance during this phase. This upward trajectory underscores the foundational growth period wherein the discourse around sustainable education began to solidify and gain academic traction.

The second stage (2010–2018) reveals a gradual decline in publication numbers, despite a minor resurgence from 2011 to 2013. This period concludes with a significant drop, reaching a low of 22 papers in 2018. These fluctuations may reflect shifting academic priorities, economic constraints impacting research funding, or evolving focuses within the broader educational and environmental landscapes. Analyzing the underlying causes of this downturn is essential for identifying and mitigating barriers to sustained research efforts in ESD, highlighting the need for targeted funding and policy support to invigorate scholarly activities.

The final phase (2019–2022) shows a modest revival, with publication numbers stabilizing within the range of 20 to 40 papers annually. This period of stabilization, though characterized by only gradual growth, indicates a renewed, albeit cautious, scholarly commitment to exploring ESD themes. The relative stagnation in growth during this phase may suggest that while interest remains, there is a need for reinvigorated strategies to enhance research outputs and impact.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint that emerges from this analysis is the interplay between economic, social, and academic factors influencing publication trends. Understanding these dynamics could lead to innovative approaches for fostering resilient research ecosystems in ESD. For instance, integrating interdisciplinary research frameworks, increasing international collaboration, and securing diverse funding sources could amplify the field’s growth. These strategies not only ensure the continuity of research but also enhance the collective capacity to address complex sustainability challenges through education.

The current findings illustrate a discernible trend of overall growth in research on ESD during the initial decades of the 21st century, segmented by distinctive fluctuations. The field experienced a pronounced expansion phase followed by a notable bottleneck period in the 2010s, characterized by a substantial decline in scholarly output. Despite this decline, recent years have seen a relatively stable yet slow progression in the volume of related research publications, indicating an area ripe for further advancement.

This temporal analysis sheds light on the varying levels of scholarly attention devoted to ESD across different phases. The initial growth phase underscores the increasing recognition and importance of sustainable education as a critical research area. However, the subsequent decline during the 2010s suggests potential issues such as shifting research priorities, limited funding, or broader economic factors that may have impacted academic focus and productivity.

Understanding the underpinnings of this bottleneck period is crucial for addressing the impediments to sustained research endeavors in ESD. It necessitates a strategic approach to reinvigorate research momentum. Potential strategies could include fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, enhancing funding opportunities, and promoting international research networks. Such initiatives would not only mitigate past challenges but also create a robust framework for future research expansion.

The sluggish yet steady development in recent years signals a stabilized interest, suggesting a readiness for a renewed surge in scholarly activity. The insights garnered from this study offer valuable guidance for predicting future publication trends and highlight the need for a concerted effort to amplify research outputs in ESD. By leveraging innovative research methodologies, expanding educational frameworks, and enhancing institutional support, the field can achieve significant advancements. Thus, this comprehensive analysis not only illuminates past and present dynamics within ESD research but also sets a strategic direction for future inquiries, ensuring the continued evolution and impact of sustainable education worldwide.

Hotspot analysis

Topic generated.

Topic co-occurrence analysis represents an invaluable tool for exploring the topic generated and the interrelationships among research topics in a given field. This technique aids in ascertaining research hotspots, as well as the strength of relationships shared between various research objects. To develop the co-occurrence network analysis between topics, we leveraged Itginsight. Key topics are represented as nodes, with the size of each node corresponding to the frequency of the respective topic within the literature. The lines connecting these nodes delineate the co-occurrence relationships between related topics, with the thickness of the lines indicating the frequency of these co-occurrences.

Table 1 enumerates the top 14 high-frequency keywords (frequency ≥ 7) that serve to underscore the thematic distribution of sustainable education research in China. Frequency indicates the count of each keyword’s occurrence, while centrality measures the node’s influence within the network, providing insights into both the prominence and the interconnectedness of various research themes in ESD. This dual metric approach underscores the criticality and interdependence of these themes, facilitating a nuanced understanding of the research landscape. Notably, the integration of informatization emerges as an innovative fulcrum, enhancing both reach and efficacy in sustainable education.

The analysis of high-frequency keywords, as delineated in Table 1 and visualized through the topic co-occurrence network in Fig. 4 , underscores a range of pivotal themes within the field of sustainable education. Keywords such as “higher education,” “EE,” “quality education,” “physical education,” “ecological civilization,” “basic education,” “humanistic education,” “college students,” “people-oriented,” and “vocational education” signify core research foci. These terms collectively reflect the multifaceted goals, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and thematic preoccupations intrinsic to sustainable education.

Topic co-occurrence.

The interconnectedness and prevalence of these keywords highlight the necessity of a holistic, interdisciplinary methodology in advancing ESD. For instance, the repeated emphasis on “quality education” and “humanistic education” suggests a broad commitment to fostering inclusive, value-driven learning environments. Simultaneously, the integration of “ecological civilization” and “EE” indicates an ongoing dedication to embedding sustainability within educational curricula.

One of the most creative potential viewpoints lies in the intersection of these themes, specifically the convergence of humanistic and ecological imperatives within higher education and vocational training. This nexus fosters an educational model that not only equips learners with technical skills but also instills a deep-seated respect for sustainable practices and ecological stewardship, positioning future research to explore innovative pedagogical strategies that bridge these crucial elements.

The centrality value indicates the influence exerted by a node on its neighboring ones, affirming “higher education” as the most central node in the co-occurrence network, and consequently underscores its indispensable role in constituting a foundational research area. Moreover, “EE”, “education”, “quality education”, “ecological civilization”, and “people-oriented” exhibit relatively high centrality values (≥0.05), underscoring their significant roles in shaping research trajectories. Notably, certain less frequently occurring keywords demonstrate high centrality values, acting as critical intermediary nodes that merit increased scholarly attention. This suggests a need for comprehensive and multidisciplinary research prioritizing terms like “ecological civilization” and “people-oriented.” Despite moderate centrality values overall, the results underscore substantial potential for expansive and multidimensional investigation into sustainable education, highlighting avenues for future academic endeavors in ESD.

According to the topic node, it can be seen from the color in Fig. 4 that the subject words can be mainly divided into three hot topic word clusters. The red cluster, characterized by terms such as “informatization” and “educational resources”, signifies the pervasiveness and paramount frequency of these concepts. This cluster further encompasses sustainability, environmental protection, the Ministry of Education, teachers, libraries, and learners, underscoring that the thrust towards informatization—a prevailing trend in contemporary development—necessitates integrating high-quality educational resources to advance ESD. This integration mandates collective efforts from educational authorities, including the Ministry of Education, teachers, committees, and learners. The intrinsic emphasis on environmental protection places it as an essential and perpetual theme within ESD exploration.

The purple cluster, dominated by terms like “quality education,” “economy society”, “values”, and “college students”, highlights the significant role of quality education in ESD. This cluster also includes keywords pertaining to teaching staff, teaching quality, and human resources, pointing to the necessity of enhancing the teaching workforce and improving instructional quality to instill sustainable values in college students—a critical endeavor for ESD.

Significantly, the blue cluster, with “lifelong education” as the focal point and terms such as “globalization”, “productivity”, and “knowledge economy”, illustrates the synergetic relationship between ESD and science and technology amidst globalization. This convergence is posited to catalyze the rapid advancement of productive forces and engender new vitality within the knowledge economy, offering a fertile ground for innovative potential. The intertwined evolution of ESD and technological progress, within a global context, emerges as a crucial area for further inquiry and development, potentially yielding transformative impacts on education and sustainable practices globally.

Utilizing Itginsight to generate a heat map depicting the distribution of research topics in ESD, as illustrated in Fig. 4 , offers significant insights into the correlation and intensity of various research themes. The figure’s color gradients—ranging from red to green—indicate the frequency of specific keywords, with the spatial proximity of these terms denoting their interrelatedness. Prominently featured high-frequency keywords include “informatization”, “educational resources”, “quality education”, “economic”, “social”, “values”, “college students”, “environmental protection”, and “sustainability”. This distribution underscores the steadfast prominence of quality education and environmental protection within ESD, affirming their critical roles.

A deeper analysis reveals that quality education and environmental protection are not merely prevalent themes but foundational pillars in the context of ESD. The integration of informatization into ESD highlights a shift toward leveraging digital technologies to enhance the quality and accessibility of education, thus fostering a digitally inclusive educational environment. This transition plays a pivotal role in promoting sustainability, encompassing economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Furthermore, quality education serves as a cornerstone for social equity and economic prosperity, equipping learners with the necessary skills and values to navigate and influence the sustainable paradigm.

The interconnected nature of these keywords also reveals an intrinsic relationship between educational quality and broader socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Informatization acts as a catalyst, accelerating the dissemination and assimilation of sustainable practices. This multidimensional approach supports the hypothesis that advancements in ESD contribute significantly to sustainable development across various sectors. Consequently, this analysis underscores the imperative to continuously innovate and integrate emerging technologies and pedagogies in ESD, ensuring it effectively addresses and adapts to the evolving demands of sustainability.

Topic and featured words

Using Itginsight, we conducted a semantic analysis to identify similar key terms based on term frequency within the titles and abstracts of relevant literature. This methodology facilitated the filtering of topics by automatically recognizing semantically related terms (Mantasiah et al., 2020 ). While keywords, summarized by authors, reflect subjective interpretations based on the title, hierarchical headings, and overall content, they imbue a personal bias (Moreno et al., 2018 ; Zhang et al., 2015 ; Ho et al., 2023 ). Conversely, topics identified through Itginsight provide a more comprehensive and objective reflection of the article’s content. Figure 5 presents a co-occurrence map where keywords are represented by blue nodes and topics by green nodes. By analyzing these relationships, we deduce the alignment between the author-selected topic and the objective content, offering insights into the research landscape in this domain.

Interrelationship between topics and keywords.

For instance, the term “information technology” is linked with “sustainable development”, “sustainable development strategy”, “EE”, and “library” in the co-occurrence map. This suggests a bifurcated relationship. Firstly, a close affiliation exists between information technology and sustainable development education, highlighting the necessity for leveraging information technology to integrate high-quality education resources effectively. The adoption of digital tools and platforms is vital for disseminating sustainable practices and knowledge, thereby enhancing the reach and impact of ESD initiatives.

Secondly, a subset of literature posits that university libraries, as pivotal academic resources, necessitate the integration of modern information technology to achieve their SDGs. This perspective underscores the role of digital transformation in enhancing operational efficiency, resource accessibility, and educational impact, aligning library functions with broader sustainable development objectives.

Another illustrative example involves the term “college student”, which is connected with “ecological civilization”, “quality education”, “UNESCO”, “green education”, and “Scientific Outlook on Development”. This linkage indicates that when “college student” serves as a keyword, the literature predominantly addresses themes of environmental and quality education. This finding underscores the pivotal role of universities as critical fronts for both environmental and quality education, with college students being the primary recipients of these educational endeavors.

The intersection of “college student” with “ecological civilization” and “green education” suggests an educational focus on fostering environmentally conscious mindsets and sustainable behaviors among young adults. This aligns with global education initiatives advocated by organizations such as UNESCO, emphasizing the integration of sustainable principles within higher education curricula to cultivate responsible and informed future leaders.

It is also found that the interplay between technological advancements and educational strategies in promoting sustainable development remains as a potential area of exploration. The dual focus on integrating information technology within both educational frameworks and library systems reveals a cross-sectoral approach to enhancing sustainability education. This multifaceted strategy highlights the necessity of technological adeptness in fostering an informed and environmentally responsible citizenry.

Moreover, the prominent role of universities and college students in ESD signals an opportunity to expand interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities. Incorporating practical sustainability projects, collaborative research, and community engagement initiatives within university settings can strengthen the educational impact and foster a culture of sustainability. By leveraging the intellectual and innovative potential of students, higher education institutions can become incubators of sustainable solutions and practices, contributing significantly to broader societal goals.

Keyword emergent analysis

Emerging keywords are those whose frequency of use experiences a significant surge within a specific timeframe, highlighting them as focal points of research interest during that period. This phenomenon not only indicates emerging research trends but also unveils prospective research questions across related fields, aiding in the anticipation of future research areas and trends. Utilizing Itginsight, a map showcasing the top 13 emerging keywords (Fig. 6 ) was crafted, providing a clear depiction of the current discourse in ESD research and eloquently illustrating its evolution.

Outburst chart.

Figure 6 reveals two primary characteristics of emerging keywords within the ESD domain. Firstly, a red line denotes the initial appearance year of the keyword, with “Begin” and “End” years marking the onset and cessation of research hotspots. Early hotspots such as “sustainable development strategy,” “green education,” “quality education,” and “sustainable development” predate later emerging themes like “EE,” “ecological civilization,” “higher vocational education,” and “education informatization.” These trends reflect the evolving focus within ESD research. Secondly, the values within brackets indicate the breakthrough rate of these keywords, with “sustainable development strategy” leading at an index value of 0.3889. This is followed by significant terms such as “green education,” “quality education,” “higher education,” “EE,” and “ecological civilization,” highlighting them as robust hotspots within academic research. Notably, “ESD” and “Sustainable Development” have maintained their prominence over 25 years, indicating their enduring relevance and potential as future research frontiers.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint emerging from these findings is the dynamic and interrelated nature of ESD research themes. The transition from early to later hotspots illustrates how academic focus shifts in response to emerging global challenges and educational imperatives. This evolving landscape suggests that future research in ESD must be adaptive, interdisciplinary, and responsive to continual shifts in environmental, technological, and educational paradigms. Leveraging these insights can guide strategic prioritization and holistic approaches in advancing sustainable education.

A deeper analysis of these emerging keywords reveals shifts in academic focus and highlights the dynamic nature of sustainability studies. For example, keywords such as “Education Informatization” have seen a substantial increase in prevalence, emphasizing the growing recognition of technological integration as essential for advancing sustainable education. This aligns with the broader global trend of digital transformation, which redefines educational methodologies by promoting accessibility, interactive learning environments, and the effective dissemination of sustainability concepts.

Moreover, the rise in frequency of terms like “green education” and “sustainable development stategy” underscores the heightened awareness and urgency of addressing climate-related issues through educational initiatives. The shift indicates a collective academic effort to equip learners with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and mitigate the impacts of climate change, thereby reinforcing sustainability practices on a systemic level.

Interestingly, “Higher Education” and “Higher Vocational education” also feature prominently among the emerging keywords, suggesting a scholarly interest in how policy and institutional support can facilitate the mainstreaming of sustainable education practices. This area of research explores the mechanisms through which educational institutions and policymakers can collaborate to create conducive environments for sustainability education, thereby enhancing its reach and impact.

The emergence of “UNESCO” and “Scientific Outlook on Development” as keywords highlight the alignment of ESD research with international agendas. The focus on SDGs reflects the global academic community’s commitment to contributing to these universally recognized goals, underscoring the interconnectedness of education, sustainability, and development. This keyword’s prominence indicates a growing trend in research that seeks to align educational practices with global sustainability targets, fostering a holistic approach to development.

Another potential viewpoint from these findings is the integration of interdisciplinary approaches in ESD. The convergence of terms like “green, technology, engineering, and mathematics education” with sustainability underscores the innovative potential of merging traditional disciplinary boundaries to address complex sustainability challenges. This interdisciplinary focus not only broadens the scope of ESD but also enriches the educational experience by exposing learners to diverse perspectives and methodologies.

Furthermore, the presence of “quality education” among the emerging keywords reveals a comprehensive and multifaceted focus. It underscores the necessity of an inclusive, high-standard educational framework that integrates sustainable development principles, adapts to evolving global challenges, and ensures the holistic development of learners. This trend embodies a forward-thinking approach, aiming to equip current and future generations with the requisite tools to foster a more sustainable and equitable world.

Topic trending analysis

Analyzing the evolution trajectory of a research field provides vital insights into its developmental direction, facilitating predictions about future research trends. Itginsight incorporates a topic evolution model that identifies emerging and evolving trends, allowing researchers to map these changes over time. Utilizing Itginsight, a topic evolution map highlighting the top 8 words yearly within the domain of ESD was generated (Fig. 7 ). This chronological map aligns topics and their intensity horizontally from left to right, elucidating how topics have gained or lost significance, as well as how they have converged or split throughout the study period. The distinct colors assigned to each topic and the thickness of the connections between them signify the inter-topic strength and relevance.

Macro evolution of ESD.

As depicted in Fig. 7 , “quality education” and “knowledge economy” emerged as the dominant keywords characterizing ESD’s primary research focus before the turn of the 21st century. These terms underscore an initial emphasis on enhancing education standards and leveraging economic principles within educational frameworks to promote sustainable development. The prominence of these concepts highlights the foundational role they played in shaping early discussions and research in the field.

Moving into the early 21st century, there has been sustained and extensive scholarly focus on the concept of “informatization”. This term has the highest item density, indicating its crucial status within ESD’s knowledge structures. The persistent attention to informatization reflects the ongoing integration of information technologies within educational paradigms, signifying a pivotal shift towards digital learning environments and the utilization of technological advancements to support sustainable education. The longevity and relevance of this focus suggest that informatization will continue to be a critical area of interest in future ESD research.

In recent years, emerging topics such as “artificial intelligence”, “experimental teaching”, “library”, and “lifelong education” have gained increased prominence. These trends indicate a growing interest in innovative pedagogical tools and methods that can enhance the efficacy and accessibility of sustainable education. The rise of artificial intelligence as a topic of interest points to its potential in personalizing learning experiences and optimizing educational outcomes through data-driven approaches. Experimental teaching methods, likewise, suggest an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning that fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students.

The inclusion of “library” highlights the evolving role of academic libraries as central hubs for knowledge dissemination and resource accessibility, adapting to the digital age’s demands. “Lifelong education” reflects the recognition of the need for continuous learning opportunities beyond traditional schooling, supporting the notion that education for sustainability extends throughout an individual’s life.

Additionally, topics such as “college student”, “postgraduate”, “excellent teacher”, and “educationist” have consistently been areas of significant interest, identifying important subjects and objects within the educational landscape. The consistent focus on college students and postgraduates underscores the critical role that higher education institutions play in embedding sustainable practices and knowledge. These groups are seen as pivotal for fostering a culture of sustainability and driving future innovations in the field.

The emphasis on “excellent teacher” and “educationist” highlights the importance of high-quality educators and thought leaders in advancing ESD. The role of educators is fundamental in implementing effective sustainable education strategies and nurturing a new generation of environmentally conscious and responsible citizens.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint emerging from these findings is the synthesis of technological advancements with innovative pedagogical strategies to forge robust frameworks for ESD. The integration of artificial intelligence and information technologies into educational practices allows for personalized, adaptive learning environments that can cater to diverse student needs and promote inclusive education for sustainability. This digital-educational convergence has the potential to revolutionize traditional teaching methodologies, making them more interactive, engaging, and effective.

Furthermore, the emphasis on lifelong education and experimental teaching indicates a shift towards more dynamic and flexible educational models. By fostering continuous learning and practical engagement, these models can better equip individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to address complex sustainability challenges comprehensively.

To further investigate the evolution of topics across different stages, we selected the top 24 topics based on word frequency and constructed a matrix (Fig. 8 ). In this matrix, the rows represent high-frequency topics, while the columns denote different time periods. Nodes appear at the intersections of the high-frequency topic rows and the corresponding year columns, indicating the years in which these topics were frequently discussed. The numbers on these nodes represent the frequency with which the high-frequency topics appeared in the corresponding years.

Time-high frequency topic matrix.

Figure 8 reveals that “quality education” was a concentrated theme in ESD literature from 1999 to 2001. In contrast, topics such as “postgraduate education” and “basic education” saw heightened focus during the 2010s. Notably, topics directly related to the ecological environment, such as “green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization”, have consistently appeared from the onset of relevant studies to the present day. This matrix enables a clearer analysis of the temporal distribution and frequency of high-frequency topics, providing insights into their prominence over time.

The persistent presence of topics related to the ecological environment throughout the study period underscores a continuous and heightened academic interest in integrating environmental concerns within educational frameworks. “Green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization” reflect a powerful undercurrent of sustainability as a core objective of educational policies and practices. This consistent focus on environmental topics signals a longstanding commitment within the scholarly community to foster ecological awareness and stewardship through education.

The concentration of “quality education” in earlier years (1999–2001) suggests a foundational effort to establish high educational standards as a critical component of sustainable development. This early emphasis likely set the stage for subsequent research efforts that aim to refine and implement quality education practices that align with sustainability goals. The focus on “postgraduate education” and “basic education” in the 2010s indicates a broadening of the research scope to encompass both advanced and foundational levels of education, striving to embed sustainable principles across the educational spectrum.

When examining these trends, one notable observation is the dynamic interplay between foundational educational reforms and advanced pedagogical approaches. The early emphasis on “quality education” likely provided a critical backdrop for later innovations in both postgraduate and basic education. This evolution suggests that foundational improvements in educational quality create a fertile ground for advanced educational methods and comprehensive curriculum development centered on sustainability.

Moreover, the sustained attention to environmental topics hints at an evolving understanding of the role of education in addressing ecological challenges. By consistently prioritizing “green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization”, researchers and educators emphasize the importance of equipping learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate and mitigate ecological crises. This trend highlights the critical role of education in fostering a generation of environmentally responsible citizens who are equipped to tackle pressing sustainability issues.

The matrix also reveals potential future directions for ESD research. Given the ongoing prominence of informatization, including the integration of digital tools and technologies in education, it is plausible that future research will continue to explore innovative ways to enhance educational quality and accessibility through technology.

Meanwhile, combining the principles of “quality education” with modern technological advancements such as “artificial intelligence” and “experiment teaching” could catalyze novel educational methodologies that are both high in quality and adaptive to contemporary learning needs, which implies the intersection of traditional and emerging educational themes.

Analysis of highly cited literature

Normative citations among authors in a field form a citation space network, providing valuable insights into research themes that encapsulate academic concerns, especially when analyzing highly cited papers. To this end, we utilized a restricted citation frequency method to refine our study. Further screening enhanced the accuracy of the research literature, specifically selecting papers whose titles referenced the policy environment. For a precise hotspot analysis, we concentrated on the top 100 highly cited papers—each with a minimum citation frequency of 34. This selection was supplemented with additional high citation analyses to build upon the initial selection process, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of predominant research themes.

Research topic of highly cited literature analysis

This research employs the LDA modeling technique to undertake comprehensive topic identification. LDA is an unsupervised machine learning text mining methodology predicated on the bag-of-words model. This technique facilitates the uncovering of latent topics within documents and organizes textual associations through these topics. By leveraging the LDA topic model, we establish robust topic classification and perform detailed topic analysis of the top 100 highly cited papers. This methodological approach enables the detection of underlying research themes and the systematic organization of academic discourse, thereby providing a nuanced understanding of scholarly trends and focal points within the literature.

Preprocessing of the data

Firstly, text pre-processing was conducted, which involved converting unstructured Chinese text into structured text through a multi-step procedure. Initially, a custom dictionary and stop word library were created to aid in text segmentation and eliminate irrelevant components. The abstracts served as the model corpus, processed within the Spyder Python environment utilizing the Python programming language. Given the corpus’s Chinese language nature, the jieba segmentation tool and a dynamically evolving custom proper noun dictionary were employed to enhance segmentation accuracy. This iterative dictionary optimization was based on segmentation outcomes.

The segmentation process incorporated a Chinese stop word table to filter out extraneous particles, punctuation marks, and other non-essential elements. Additionally, words were filtered by their frequency, excluding those with max_df >0.5 or min_df <10, to focus on the most relevant terms. The processed text was then subjected to topic analysis using the LDA model, facilitating the extraction and organization of latent topics within the dataset.

Secondly, the minimum perplexity approach was used to determine the optimal number of topics for the LDA topic model. Perplexity, which is derived from the concept of entropy in information theory, measures the distributional mapping of topics to vocabularies within a given article. It serves as an indicator of how well a topic can be mapped to various terms, with lower perplexity signifying clearer and more distinct topics.

To identify the optimal number of topics, the LDA model was trained with topic numbers ranging from 5 to 20. For each configuration, perplexity was calculated, thereby enabling the identification of the most coherent topic structure. Figure 9 illustrates the determination of this optimal number, showcasing the perplexity calculations across different topic settings. This rigorous approach ensured that the selected number of topics provided the clearest and most accurate representation of the underlying thematic structures within the dataset.

The trend of perplexity with the number of topics.

Based on Fig. 9 , it was determined that the minimum perplexity occurs when the number of topics is set to 8. Consequently, for the purposes of optimizing the current study, the K value was accordingly established at 8. To facilitate an in-depth analysis of the “text-topic” probability distribution, a comprehensive dataset was compiled into an Excel file titled “data_topic.xlsx.” This dataset systematically captures the probability distribution of each text across the selected 8 topics, alongside the maximum probability distribution pertinent to each text.

Topic and keyword analysis

(1) LDA topic analysis

Table 2 and Fig. 10 exhibit 8 topics and their corresponding refined classification of 25 keywords. The classification of each topic is discerned by means of a critical appraisal process. It is worth noting that the table outlines topics in a descending order from top to bottom, while keywords are presented from left to right and from top to bottom. Notably, the table offers both an illustrative and analytical framework that serves to deepen comprehension and elucidate the interplay between topics and keywords.

Intertopic Distance Map (via multidimensional scaling).

The “School Education” topic constitutes 23.9% of the highly cited literature, while “Ecological Education” and “Educational Reform” account for 14.4% and 13.8%, respectively. Together, these top three topics represent over half of the highly cited articles. Consequently, these predominant themes were selected for an in-depth topic keyword analysis, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of their significance and the intricate interplay of concepts within these focal research areas. This targeted exploration reveals critical insights into the dominant scholarly concerns and foundational principles driving contemporary educational discourse.

Moreover, by analyzing the featured words presented in the “School Education” topic, such as “school”, “activity”, “science”, “connotation”, and “comprehensive”, and further combining with the abstract information, it has been demonstrated that the keyword “activity” is indicative of an array of ESD practices—including campus football activities and museum activities. These practices are considered integral learning components of school education activities in which students and teachers participate within the school’s premises. Notably, implementing ESD practices today seems to have far-reaching and comprehensive ramifications. This kind of education impacts students to become “sustainable people”, influencing and driving positive changes around them, and even their entire society —thus promoting sustainable development across diverse economic, social, and ecological aspects. However, it is apparent that the development of ESD practices presently faces several difficulties. Therefore, clarifying the theory of sustainable development can aid in overcoming these difficulties. Notably, highly cited articles within the “School Education” topic offer discussions on the definition and connotation of ESD. Specifically, ESD has a narrow scope, referring to school sustainable development education, which disseminates theories and knowledge about sustainable development. This, in turn, promotes sustainable development ethics and values among students, leading to improved abilities to plan, organize educational activities, and develop practical capabilities in sustainable development knowledge and skills. School education plays a predominant role in ESD and serves as a notable research hotspot in this field.

Drawing from the keywords within the “Ecological Education” topic, such as “ecology”, “human”, “strategy”, “foundation”, and “environment”, and further engaging the specific content of the abstract material, it is discovered that ecological education encompasses ecological civilization education, ecological moral education, and eco-art education. Specifically, Eco-art education prioritizes tackling eco-imbalance and enhancing students’ humanistic qualities and artistic abilities across divergent knowledge domains. Ecological education is a relatively new concept originating in the 1960s as issues related to the environment appeared in society. Subsequently, over time, the definition of the term has been transformed along with the development of EE. Recently, the heightened focus on environmental and ecological challenges has presented challenges in education that cut across both productive and ecological domains. Nevertheless, the emerging need to reflect on the relationship between humans and nature has raised interest in ecological education, which has consequently become a research hotspot in ESD. In this regard, ecological education is not only perceived as a reflection of ecological awareness in education but also as a means for cultivating well-rounded graduates.

Similarly, based on the keywords within the “Education Reform” topic, such as “teaching”, “model”, “reform”, “science”, “process”, among others, and integrating the content of the abstract, it is apparent that the subject of reform encompasses a range of specific areas. For instance, there’s the reform of AI-enabled education, which accentuates standardizing the development of AI+ education. Additionally, there’s the reform of vocational education, which underscores cooperation between schools and enterprises, integrating production and education. Moreover, the reform of geography ESD is an evident facet, emphasizing the cultivation of geography talents in line with current market trends, standardizing geography terminology, and enhancing geography instruction. Other reforms encompass the integration of information technology in primary and secondary education, overhauling the present “heavy hard, light soft” teaching and structural operational constraint deficiencies, while the reform of laboratory instruction and research focuses on creating new teaching models, such as reflective teaching models that enhance inquiry-based teaching methods. Significantly, the highly cited articles within the topic of “education reform” concentrate on multiple specific areas while maintaining the core focus on reform. The reform measures proposed prioritize sustainable development, responding to educational hotspots of social concern.

(2) Social Network Analysis on Keywords

To undertake a more detailed analysis of the research hotspots in the top 100 highly cited articles on ESD, this paper extensively employs SNA, which is a commonly used approach in content analyses. Specifically, using Ucinet tool, we constructed a co-occurrence network of the article abstracts related to ESD (depicted in Fig. 11 ). The analysis focused on investigating the interactions between different topics and the frequency of co-occurrence of keywords within each topic. The links between nodes graphically represented the relationship between different topics, with nodes with a higher number of links elucidating a more prominent role in the network. Through SNA and content analysis, this paper derives several key insights, including:

Social network visualization.

Upon further investigation of the top 100 highly cited articles on ESD, we observed that there is tacit convergence on eight topics, and the difference in the link width between topics is not significant. Notably, the differences in link width between these topics are not pronounced, indicating a relatively balanced research interest among the academic community across the eight themes, without any evident thematic preference.

The thickness of the links between topics denotes the degree of co-occurrence, with denser lines signifying stronger thematic connections. In particular, the links between “EE” and “higher education”, as well as between “school education” and “education reform”, are the thickest. This highlights these thematic pairs as integral focal points within the academic community, showcasing their tight interconnectivity.

These findings suggest that scholars frequently link “EE” with “higher education” when conducting research on the former, and similarly, associate “school education” with “education reform”. This interdisciplinary linkage underscores the intertwined nature of educational paradigms aimed at advancing sustainable development.

Upon examining the relationships between the keywords under each topic, it was found that the diagram of the keywords’ co-occurrence forms a multi-central structure, with the most prominent number of lines clustering under the “school education” topic, implying the closest associations among keywords in this domain. Core aspects of research on this topic include keywords such as “school,” “construction,” “methods,” and “teaching staff.” This pattern signifies that the academic community places significant emphasis on promoting the development of teaching methodologies and educational infrastructure within the school environment. Such concentration on these keywords underscores an ongoing commitment to enhancing the quality and effectiveness of school education, reflecting broader aspirations for sustainable educational practices.

Within the “education reform” topic, there is a notable emergence of both teaching-related and reform-related keywords, indicating that the academic community is intensely focused on the transformation of educational and pedagogical practices. This theme underscores a concerted effort to rethink and innovate existing educational paradigms to enhance efficacy and relevance.

The “ecological education” topic delves deeply into evaluating the impact of integrating ecological education on humanity. This topic critically examines how fostering ecological consciousness can influence human behavior and societal progress, underscoring the need to embed sustainability principles within educational frameworks.

In the realm of “EE”, the discussion extends to the holistic advancement of EE from a global perspective. This theme captures the international efforts and policies aimed at fostering environmental stewardship through education, reflecting a commitment to addressing global environmental challenges.

For the “higher education” topic, keywords such as “issue”, “science”, and “country” reveal a scholarly pursuit to identify suitable methodologies for achieving scientific and sustainable development within higher education systems. This focus highlights the importance of nurturing higher education growth across different national contexts, addressing diverse needs, and fostering international collaboration.

The “education quality” topic draws attention to the quality of rural education amidst rapid urbanization and the evolution of vocational education. This theme emphasizes the necessity of maintaining high educational standards in rural areas and adapting vocational training to meet the demands of a rapidly advancing education sector.

Finally, the “education research” topic encapsulates the dynamic progression and transformation of educational theories. The academic community’s focus on this area reflects an ongoing effort to refine and revolutionize theoretical frameworks to better inform practice and policy.

Emotional state analysis of research literature

After conducting a comprehensive review of the top 100 highly cited literature on ESD, we have meticulously gathered and analyzed the abstract keywords for each theme. Subsequently, the Emotion Calculator was used to conduct sentiment analysis and compile statistical outcomes for the emotional distribution associated with each topic, as illustrated in Table 3 . The data showcased in Table 3 demonstrates that the emotional attitudes evaluated are predominantly positive, with no neutral attitudes and a small proportion reflecting negative feelings. One of the reasons for the largely positive sentiments elicited in the academic community towards ESD is that it is a hot topic of this century. The erudite scholars and researchers possess a strong opinion on this subject and deem it to be of paramount importance in the current socio-economic and ecological scenarios. They believe that ESD holds the potential to cultivate sustainable people and play a constructive role in society’s sustainable development. Additionally, the wider public has become significantly influenced by the concept of sustainable development and value education, amplifying the prevailing positive perception in the academic community towards ESD.

Upon analyzing the emotional distribution of the eight themes, it was evident that the “education reform” topic garnered the highest proportion of positive attitudes, accounting for 96.43% of the total sentiments. This overwhelming positive sentiment underscores the academic community’s strong interest in contemporary education reforms and their conviction in the effectiveness of targeted reform measures. These measures include advocating for norms in AI education development, providing strategic guidance for AI educational growth, and promoting lifelong learning as a countermeasure to the constraints of exam-oriented education systems.

Interestingly, out of the eight topics examined, only “education reform” and “school education” garnered negative sentiments. These negative attitudes suggest that some scholars harbor concerns about the current state of education reform and school education. Such concerns might stem from the inherent challenges and practical difficulties encountered in the implementation of ESD activities within the school education framework.

Despite these challenges, the academic community is actively engaged in seeking viable solutions for education reforms. The presence of negative sentiments among some scholars should not be interpreted as a lack of support for reform but rather as a reflection of their deep-seated zeal for transformative changes within the education sector. These scholars’ critical stance points toward a heightened sense of urgency and commitment to addressing the shortcomings of current educational practices, which they believe can be remedied through comprehensive reform initiatives.

The creative potential of these findings lies in understanding the complex emotions surrounding educational reforms and leveraging these insights to foster a more inclusive and adaptive reform process. By recognizing the concerns and positive attitudes of scholars, policymakers and educational leaders can better tailor their strategies to accommodate both the optimism and the critical perspectives prevalent in the academic community. This dual approach ensures that reforms are not only ambitious and forward-thinking but also grounded in practical realities and potential challenges.

Furthermore, acknowledging the critical voices within the realm of “school education” can lead to more targeted interventions aimed at alleviating the practical difficulties faced in the implementation of ESD. This could involve more robust support mechanisms for teachers, the integration of innovative pedagogical methods, and a stronger emphasis on the development of sustainable educational practices.

Generally, the outcomes indicate an overriding sense of positivity and optimism concerning the inherent potential of ESD to drive transformative societal change, a thematic emphasis that has emerged as a key area of research in contemporary academia. Despite the intricacies and complexities of various research themes, the scholarly consensus is that ESD represents a vital and indispensable means of addressing the pressing environmental and social challenges of our epoch. Notably, the “Educational Reform” category emerges as the primary focus of scholarly discourse, with scholars predominantly espousing positive sentiment towards the need for critical systemic modifications in contemporary educational practices. Nevertheless, a minority of scholars expresses negative sentiment, attesting to significant challenges encountered in the implementation of sustainable education within school contexts. Collectively, these findings supply valuable insights illuminating the positive potentials of sustainable education in tackling contemporary societal problems and extend beyond the realm of educational scholarship to broader social, economic, and environmental domains.

The concept of sustainable development has undergone dynamic development since its proposal. The Chinese government has made a concerted effort to prioritize sustainable development by issuing a series of related policy documents across a range of sectors, including education. ESD is a crucial element of sustainable development, as defined by the international community. However, there is a relative lack of academic literature on the empirical development and theoretical considerations of ESD in the unique contextual settings of China.

The findings from our comprehensive examination of ESD within the Chinese academic milieu unequivocally indicate a significant escalation in scholarly engagement and discourse in this domain. This expansion is evidenced by the substantial increase in publications over recent years, corroborating our initial hypothesis concerning the growing recognition of sustainable educational practices. The utilization of bibliometric techniques, specifically keyword co-occurrence and clustering maps, has underscored dynamic trends and emergent themes such as interdisciplinary methodologies, policy integration, and innovative pedagogical strategies, all of which are pivotal to the evolving landscape of ESD research.

In applying theoretical constructs such as the LDA model and SNA, our study has unveiled the intricate dimensions of ESD. The LDA model effectively identified underlying topics within the corpus, while SNA elucidated the complex web of scholarly interactions, highlighting significant nodes and thematic clusters. Notably, sentiment analysis via Rostcm6 software revealed a predominantly positive sentiment among Chinese scholars towards ESD, demonstrating an optimistic and proactive stance towards sustainability issues. This observation is particularly intriguing as it contrasts with some aspects of the global discourse, which often emphasizes the challenges and obstacles encountered in the implementation of sustainable practices.

The implications of these findings are far-reaching. They reflect a robust and growing commitment within the Chinese academic context to embedding principles of sustainable development into educational frameworks. This trend not only aligns with global sustainability imperatives but also underscores a unique, culturally and policy-driven momentum towards sustainable development in China. By providing a detailed bibliometric and content analysis of ESD literature, our research contributes significantly to the existing body of knowledge, highlighting novel research trajectories and thematic areas for further exploration.

Looking ahead, our study suggests several promising avenues for future research. There is a pressing need to investigate the impact of specific ESD policies and interventions across varied educational contexts to assess their effectiveness and scalability. Furthermore, exploring interdisciplinary linkages between ESD and other academic fields such as environmental science, economics, and sociology could enrich the discourse and application of sustainable practices. Future research questions may include examining the influence of ESD on student outcomes, community engagement, and the role of technological advancements in promoting sustainable education.

A critical socio-political evaluation of our findings underscores the significance of ESD as a strategic tool in addressing broader societal challenges. The proactive engagement of Chinese scholars and policymakers in ESD reflects a concerted effort to align educational practices with both national and global sustainability objectives. This evaluation highlights the potential of ESD to cultivate an informed and engaged citizenry capable of driving societal transformation. Moreover, it raises vital questions about the scalability and adaptability of these initiatives across diverse socio-political landscapes, thereby broadening our understanding and posing new questions for future inquiry.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Tian, W., Ge, J., Zheng, X. et al. Understanding the landscape of education for sustainable development in China: a bibliometric review and trend analysis of multicluster topics(1998–2023). Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1213 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03713-y

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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Progress, Impact and Challenges

Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 interrelated goals. Check here all about the India's SDG Progress and associated challenges to SDGs.

Table of Contents

Context : Recently, NITI Aayog released its 4th evaluation report on India’s progress on the 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

India’s SDG Progress: Key Data from The Report

Overall India Score

• 2023-24 : 71 points out of 100
• 2020-21: 66 points out of 100

• Kerala : 79 points out of 100
• Uttarakhand : 79 points
• Bihar : 57 points
• Jharkhand : 62 points
• Punjab : Increased by 8 points to 76
• Manipur : Increased by 8 points to 72
• West Bengal: Increased by 8 points to 70
• Assam : Increased by 8 points to 65

• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Life on Land
• Gender Equality
• Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
• Reduced Inequalities : Decreased from 67 points in 2020-21 to 65 points in 2022-23
• Gender Equality: Lowest score of 49 points, increased by 1 point from 2020-21
• Zero Poverty : Increased by 8 points to 72
• Zero Hunger : Increased by 5 points to 52
• Quality of Education: Increased by 4 points to 61.

Related information:

• The report noted a slight drop in the ratio of women’s earnings compared to men, from 0.75 in 2020-21 to 0.73.

Read this article below to learn all about the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted by the United Nations in 2015. SDGs) are a significant topic for the UPSC Syllabus . The  UPSC Mock Test  can help candidates prepare for the exam with more precision.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), commonly referred to as the Global Goals, are a collection of 17 interconnected objectives that serve as a shared framework for world peace and prosperity both now and in the future.

A method called sustainable development tries to meet human development goals while letting natural systems meet human demands for vital ecosystem functions and natural resources. The term “sustainable development” was originally used in the 1987 report Our Common Future by the Brundtland Commission. Sustainable development (SD) refers to a coordinated Endeavour to build an equitable, sustainable, and resilient future for people and the earth.

Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprints for attaining a better, more sustainable future for everyone. In other words, the Sustainable Development Goals are a set of 17 pointers that all UN members have agreed to work towards to better the future of their respective nations. In the film “Future We Want,” which was shown at the Rio+20 conferences, a post-2015 development agenda was suggested.

As the post-2015 development agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an intergovernmental agreement that takes the role of the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations General Assembly’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Objectives established 17 goals with 169 targets and 304 indicators that must be achieved by 2030.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, often known as “Transforming Our World,” was formed during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. The SDGs, which are non-binding documents, were developed by the Rio+20 summits in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.

17 Sustainable Development Goals List

The United Nations created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a list of 17 objectives, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. By 2030, the SDGs seek to eradicate poverty, safeguard the environment, and promote prosperity for all. The 17 goals are:

The SDGs are interconnected and are intended to address some of the most important issues facing the globe today, including violence, poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation. Collaboration and engagement between governments, civic society, the private sector, and individuals are necessary to achieve the SDGs.

Sustainable Development Goal Explanations

• No Poverty: Put an end to poverty in all its manifestations worldwide.
• Zero Hunger: End hunger, achieve greater nutrition and food security, and advance sustainable agriculture.
• Good Health & well-being: Ensure healthy lifestyles and encourage well-being for everyone of all ages.
• Quality Education:  Make sure all students have access to high-quality, inclusive education, and encourage possibilities for lifelong learning.
• Gender Equality:  Obtain gender parity and give all women and girls more power.
• Clean Water and Sanitation: Make sure that everyone has access to water and is managed sustainably.
• Affordable and Clean Energy:  Ensure that everyone has access to modern, sustainable, cheap energy.
• Decent Work and Economic Growth:  Encourage consistent, equitable, and sustainable economic growth, complete and productive employment, and respectable employment for all.
• Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure:  Construction of robust infrastructure, encouragement of inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and support of innovation.
• Reduced Inequality: Lessen inequality both within and across nations
• Sustainable Cities and Communities: Make human settlements and cities inclusive, secure, hardy, and sustainable.
• Responsible Consumption and Production:  Ensure sustainable patterns of production and consumption.
• Climate Action:  To combat climate change and its effects, take immediate action.
• Life Below Water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.
• Life on land:  Protect, restore, and encourage sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managed forests, fight against desertification, and prevent, reverse, and stop biodiversity loss.
• Peace, justice, and strong institutions:  Promote inclusive and peaceful societies for sustainable development, ensure that everyone has access to justice, and create inclusive institutions at all levels.
• Partnership for the goals:  the global collaboration for sustainable development should be strengthened and revitalized.

Sustainable Development Goals Core Elements

In order to build a more sustainable future for all people, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of global goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. The main components of these sustainable development objectives are listed below.

Economic Growth

The SDGs seek to advance sustainable economic growth that benefits all people, especially the most marginalized and vulnerable. This includes making sure that economic growth is inclusive, abundant in jobs, and long-term sustainable.

Social Inclusion

By guaranteeing that everyone has an equal opportunity to engage in the economy and society, regardless of their background or circumstances, sustainable development goals seek to promote social inclusion. Addressing challenges like poverty, injustice, and discrimination is part of this.

Environmental Sustainability

By encouraging sustainable development that preserves and regenerates the natural environment, sustainable development goals seek to safeguard the world and its resources for coming generations. Addressing problems like climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and land degradation is part of this.

Sustainable Development Goals in India

India is a UN member and a participant in the UN General Assembly’s SDG project. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index Baseline Report, which examines the nation’s development in detail, was also released by the NITI Aayog. The progress India has made towards achieving these 17 Sustainable Development Goals is detailed here; The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) was implemented across the nation to give unskilled labourers meaningful employment while also raising their level of living.

The National Food Security Act was put into place to guarantee affordable access to food grains for everyone. To end open defecation in India, the government of India established its flagship program, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The target generation of renewable energy is 175 GW. By adopting renewable energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, and others, we can lessen our reliance on non-renewable resources like fossil fuels by the year 2022.

The Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) programs were introduced to enhance the nation’s infrastructure. India has made clear that it is determined to combat climate change after signing the Paris Agreement.

Sustainable Development Goals Significance

The goal of sustainable development is to balance social, economic, and environmental concerns in order to build a more sustainable future. Many factors make sustainable development vital, including In order to reduce the detrimental effects of human activity on natural resources, sustainable development emphasizes sustainable practices.

Additionally, it raises economic growth, creates jobs, and raises people’s standards of living. By minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, boosting resource efficiency, and reducing waste, sustainable development encourages the efficient use of resources. Encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting sustainable transportation systems, also combats climate change.

Sustainable Development Goals Impact

By 2030, sustainable development objectives are expected to improve the quality of life on Earth. The plan was approved in 2015, and reports provided by the UNDP up until 2020 show that numerous activities have been made for the benefit of the country and an increase in people’s standard of living worldwide.

The Maternal Mortality Rate has decreased as a result of the Sustainable Development Goals, which have also helped to alleviate poverty, enhance public health, raise awareness of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, as well as the importance of childhood vaccinations. Better medications are being developed, and mental illness is also being prioritized as a serious concern.

Overall, the Sustainable Development Goals aim to improve the quality of life for all by removing poverty, enhancing health, creating jobs, empowering women, reducing inequalities, and adhering to all seventeen targets set by the UN within the allotted time period of 15 years.

Sustainable Development Goals Challenges

Setting larger-scale sustainable development objectives presents some difficulties. The biggest obstacles occasionally prevent the achievement of the objectives for sustainable development.

• The achievement of sustainable development goals is hampered by the continuation of inequality in some nations.
• The youth unemployment rate.
• The acceleration of the growth in CO2 concentrations and global warming.
• The deterioration of ocean chemistry

Sustainable Development Goals 2030

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDGs were introduced by the United Nations (UN) in order to mainstream sustainable development. Over the next 15 years, this global, integrated, and revolutionary agenda intends to inspire activities that will end poverty and create a more sustainable society.

By 2030, there are 169 particular goals that must be accomplished. Action is needed on all fronts to achieve the goals; everyone has a part to play, including businesses, governments, civil society organizations, and everyday people.

Sustainable Development Goals UPSC

The UPSC may ask questions related to the SDGs, such as the 17 goals and their targets, the progress made towards achieving the SDGs, challenges in implementing the SDGs, and the role of various stakeholders in achieving the SDGs. To prepare for questions related to the SDGs, it is important to have a clear understanding of each of the 17 goals and their targets, as well as the interlinkages between them. Students can read all the details related to UPSC by visiting the official website of StudyIQ UPSC Online Coaching.

Sharing is caring!

Sustainable Development Goals FAQs

What are the sustainable development goals.

SDGs are to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all stages.

What is sustainable development goal 15?

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Who first proposed SDG?

The Sustainable Development Goals were first proposed in 1972 by a global think tank called the 'Club of Rome'.

What are the major goals of sustainable development goals 2030?

The Global Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seek to end poverty and hunger, realize the human rights of all, achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

Who is responsible for SDG in India?

NITI Aayog, the Government of India's premier think tank.

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THE 17 GOALS

Publications

End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

Do you know all 17 SDGs?

Implementation Progress

Sdgs icons. downloads and guidelines, the 17 goals.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,  adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, including the  UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

• In June 1992, at the  Earth Summit  in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178 countries adopted  Agenda 21 , a comprehensive plan of action to build a global partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the environment.
• Member States unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration at the  Millennium Summit  in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York. The Summit led to the elaboration of eight  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)  to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.
• The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation, adopted at the  World Summit on Sustainable Development  in South Africa in 2002, reaffirmed the global community's commitments to poverty eradication and the environment, and built on Agenda 21 and the Millennium Declaration by including more emphasis on multilateral partnerships.
• At the  United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)  in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the outcome document  "The Future We Want"  in which they decided, inter alia, to launch a process to develop a set of SDGs to build upon the MDGs and to establish the  UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development . The Rio +20 outcome also contained other measures for implementing sustainable development, including mandates for future programmes of work in development financing, small island developing states and more.
• In 2013, the General Assembly set up a 30-member  Open Working Group  to develop a proposal on the SDGs.
• In January 2015, the General Assembly began the negotiation process on the  post-2015 development agenda . The process culminated in the subsequent adoption of the  2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , with  17 SDGs  at its core, at the  UN Sustainable Development Summit  in September 2015.
• Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction  (March 2015)
• Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development  (July 2015)
• Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development  with its 17 SDGs was adopted at the  UN Sustainable Development Summit  in New York in September 2015.
• Paris Agreement on Climate Change  (December 2015)
• Now, the annual  High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development  serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.

Today, the  Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG)  in the United Nations  Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)  provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues, including  water ,  energy ,  climate ,  oceans ,  urbanization ,  transport ,  science and technology , the  Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) ,  partnerships  and  Small Island Developing States . DSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and on advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.

Follow DSDG on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/sustdev  and on Twitter at  @SustDev .

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Every year, the UN Secretary General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.

Please, check below information about the SDG Progress Report:

• SDG Progress Report (2024)
• SDG Progress Report (2023)
• SDG Progress Report (2022)
• SDG Progress Report (2021)
• SDG Progress Report (2020)
• SDG Progress Report (2019)
• SDG Progress Report (2018)
• SDG Progress Report (2017)
• SDG Progress Report (2016)

Please, check here for information about SDG indicators and reports: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs#

Additionally, the Global Sustainable Development Report is produced once every four years to inform the quadrennial SDG review deliberations at the General Assembly. It is written by an Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General.

• Global Sustainable Development Report (2019)
• Global Sustainable Development Report (2023)

SDGs Icons. Downloads and guidelines.

• Download SDGs icons according to guidelines at this link .
• Please send inquiries to: United Nations Department of Global Communications

New Challenges for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Volume II

Proceedings of the XXVI International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities, 2023

• Conference proceedings
• © 2024
• Maurizio Tira 0 ,
• Michela Tiboni 1 ,
• Michele Pezzagno 2 ,
• Giulio Maternini 3

Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

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• All papers blind peer-reviewed before selection
• Proceedings of XXVI International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities, held in 2023
• Volume Two of a two-volume set

Included in the following conference series:

• ECOOP: European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming

Conference proceedings info: ECOOP 1987.

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About this book

This volume is the second of a two-volume set of the Proceedings of the XXVI International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities, held September 6-8 2023 at the University of Brescia, Italy. The LWC International Conference was first organized in 1994 at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Brescia (IT). This year the LWC Conference has arrived at its XXVI edition. The Conference traditionally deals with the topics of urban mobility and quality of life in urban areas, with a specific focus on vulnerable road users. The LWC Conference allows researchers, experts, administrators, and practitioners to gather and discuss policy issues, best practices, and research findings from different perspectives. The main theme of the 2023 conference was “new challenges for sustainable urban mobility”, and the papers herein address the issue from a multidisciplinary perspective and cover a wide variety of related topics. These books are divided into four topical sections:

o Transport Systems and Pedestrian Mobility

o Urban Regeneration through Active Mobility

o Public Transport: New Technologies and Economic Sustainability

o Safe Mobility in Cities

• Transportation systems
• Pedestrian safety
• Urban regeneration
• Conference Proceedings
• Urban transit
• Cycle mobility
• Pedestrian mobility
• Public transit
• Safe mobility in cities

Table of contents (36 papers)

Front matter, transport systems and pedestrian mobility, accessibility evaluation of electric micro-mobility and public transport: an application to the medium-sized city of salerno (italy).

• Rosita De Vincentis, Ahmed Hamouda, Marialisa Nigro

Which Factors Contribute to the Mobility of Persons with Physical Disabilities? Case Study in Serbia

• Đorđe Petrović, Radomir M. Mijailović, Dalibor Pešić

Accessibility in the Metropolitan Spatial Transition. The Case Study of Cagliari City (Sardinia, Italy)

• Ginevra Balletto, Martina Sinatra, Giuseppe Borruso, Francesco Sechi, Gianfranco Fancello

Geo-Mining Landscape, Slow Mobility, and Services in Spatial Regeneration

• Mara Ladu, Silvia Battino, Ainhoa Amaro Garcia, Ginevra Balletto

An Indicator of Walkability for Urban Districts, Oriented Towards the MaaS Component, with Case Study of Naples

• Gerardo Carpentieri, Carmela Gargiulo, Floriana Zucaro

Assessing the Impacts of Urban Regeneration Projects on Smart and Active Mobility. An Application to the Cases of Cesena and Rimini

• Gloria Pellicelli, Silvia Rossetti, Michele Zazzi

Urban Green Space Accessibility as a Strategic Tool to Design Green Infrastructure and Pedestrian Way

• Monica Pantaloni, Francesco Botticini, Giovanni Marinelli

Walking Accessibility for Individuals with Reduced Mobility: A Sicilian Case Study

• Luca Barbarossa, Daniele La Rosa, Viviana Pappalardo

The Protected Areas as Accessible Walking-Destinations: Propensity and Limits in the Partenio’s Park in Campania

• Rosa Anna La Rocca

Sustainable Policies and Participation for Integrated Mobility Prospects in Cities. Case Studies in the Ligurian Region

• Ilenia Spadaro, Francesca Pirlone, Selena Candia

Nudging Walking and Cycling in Extreme Car-Dependent Communities

• Maria Attard, Carlos Cañas, Karyn Scerri, Suzanne Maas, Stephen J. Giuliano

Soft Mobility Knowledge Model: Heavyweight Ontologies

• Roberto De Lotto, Rakan Bahshwan, Caterina Pietra

Integration Between Urban and Mobility Planning in Territorial Government Processes: A Case Study

• Michelangelo Fusi, Michela Tiboni

Survey and Monitoring of the Mobility in the Parma University Campus for Improving Sustainable Transportation Options

• Erika Garilli, Felice Giuliani, Raffaella Burioni, Federico Autelitano

Sustainable Urban Design Strategies for Pedestrian-Oriented Neighborhood: Pozcu, Mersin

• Züleyha Sara Belge, Hayriye Oya Saf

The Process of City Logistics Supported by Regional Program: General Model and Applicative Case Study

• Francesco Russo, Domenica Savia Pellicanò, Maria Rosaria Trecozzi

Limited Traffic Zones Around School for Urban Mobility Supported by Regional Program

• Giovanna Petrungaro, Giuseppe Iiritano, Maria Rosaria Trecozzi

Temporal Policies to Support the Urban Life System. The Desynchronization Matrix

• Federica Cicalese, Michele Grimaldi, Isidoro Fasolino

Other volumes

New challenges for sustainable urban mobility: volume i, finance, economics, and industry for sustainable development, editors and affiliations.

Maurizio Tira, Michela Tiboni, Michele Pezzagno, Giulio Maternini

About the editors

Maurizio Tira

Maurizio Tira is Full Professor of Urban planning at the University of Brescia (I), member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna and member of the board of the European University Association. He has been President of the Italian Urban Planners’ Society and he acted as Rector of the University of Brescia from November 1 st 2016 until 31 st October 2022. In that role, he was delegate for international affairs within the Board of the Italian Rectors’ Conference. He has been member of the Technical Structure of the Italian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructures from 2017 to 2018 and he is at present member of the Transport Research Committee of OECD-ITF and of the DG Move Expert Group on Urban mobility. He is President of “GARR, the ultra-broadband network dedicated to the Italian research and education community”. He participated in several EU funded projects mainly in the field of urban and mobility planning, focusing on the urban safety management, publishing 275 scientific works. In December 2020, the President of the Italian Republic made him Commander of the Italian Republic.

Michela Tiboni

Michela Tiboni, born in 1970, is a Civil Engineer and Full Professor of Urban Planning. Since 1996, Tiboni has been at the forefront of scientific research, collaborating with national and international institutes on various projects. Her focus spans from urban planning to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), utilizing innovative techniques to analyze and address urban challenges, territorial planning in high-risk areas, emphasizing vulnerability and exposure within established cities. She also explores accessibility and safety in urban environments, pioneering methodologies to enhance safety and studying accident phenomena, especially among vulnerable users. Her commitment extends beyond academia; she actively engages in civic leadership roles, notably as Councilor for Urban Planning and Sustainable Development in Brescia. The approach in sustainable urban development aimed at revitalizing urban areas and improving citizens’ quality of life. 

Michele Pezzagno

Michele Pezzagno serves as an Associate Professor of Urban and Landscape Planning at the University of Brescia, Italy. She leads the University Research and Documentation Center for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (CRA2030). Her research primarily revolves around developing technical planning strategies for fostering sustainable development within urbanized regions. Author of more than 130 publications, she also dedicates her teaching efforts to topics such as participatory planning and engaging citizens in sustainable urban development.

Giulio Maternini

Giulio Maternini is Full Professor in Transport Engineering at the University of Brescia. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of CeSCAM and has assumed the role of Director since 2019. Since 2004, he has served as the Rector’s Delegate for Sustainable Mobility, showcasing his commitment to enhancing sustainable transport systems. Since 1998, he has been involved in AIIT (Italian Association for Traffic and Transport Engineering), where he became National Vice-President (2007-2010) and National President (2010-2014). He is a member of the Scientific Association SIIV (Italian Road Infrastructure Society) and SIDT (Italian Society of Transportation Academicians). Since 2018, he has been the Editor of the European Transport/Trasporti Europei. He has spearheaded numerous research initiatives focused on safety and mobility in urban areas, collaborating extensively with local governments, underlining his dedication to improving public transport and road safety standards.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : New Challenges for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Volume II

Book Subtitle : Proceedings of the XXVI International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities, 2023

Editors : Maurizio Tira, Michela Tiboni, Michele Pezzagno, Giulio Maternini

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62478-0

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science , Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-62477-3 Published: 18 September 2024

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-62480-3 Due: 02 October 2025

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-62478-0 Published: 17 September 2024

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVIII, 455

Number of Illustrations : 10 b/w illustrations, 108 illustrations in colour

Topics : Sustainable Development , Urban Studies/Sociology , Industries , Geography, general

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How can project managers help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in healthcare

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A rapidly changing world brings new health challenges and seeks, above all, the management of the health sector for its better alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs offer a global framework to achieve economic prosperity, sustainable development for all by 2030. Specifically, Goal 3 of the SDGs — "to ensure quality of life and promote prosperity for all in all age groups" — have a direct impact on health within the sector. Effective project management in health is becoming very important in achieving these goals, particularly in finding out if health systems are sustainable and fair in relation to access.  

The role of project management in healthcare 

In healthcare, project management steps in to apply knowledge, skills and techniques to project activities to meet given health objectives. Whether it’s the building of new healthcare facilities, the implementation of electronic health record systems, or vaccination campaigns, project management serves as the engine to drive these programs.  

The projects can be complex and multi stakeholder-driven, with extensive investment in a heavy regulatory environment, hence demanding and strict management. Moreover, such projects usually are time-critical, involve human lives, and need extreme care in planning, risk management and adaptation.  

Aligning health care projects with the Sustainable Development Goals 

Improving health infrastructure (SDG 3.8 & 9)  

Quality health infrastructure is the hallmark of realising UHC. Through healthcare project management, such facilities are planned for and designed not only to be state-of-the-art but also to be sustainable and resilient: energy-efficient, using sustainable materials and designed to withstand climate-related challenges.  

Promoting health equity (SDG 3.1, 3.2 & 3.4)  

Reduction in health inequality is at the core of SDGs. To this end, efficient project management works towards the inclusion of projects relating to healthcare, targeting underserved populations and tackling social determinants of health. For instance, maternal and child health projects, mental health initiatives and management of chronic diseases have to be executed with the aspirations and concerns of the vulnerable groups regarding outcome inequalities in health.  

Enhancing technological innovation: SDG 9  

These SDGs are realised through advances in health technologies — in particular, telemedicine and health information systems. This involves managing projects where new technologies are introduced, training health workers and ensures the technology meets the needs of the population.  

Environmental sustainability in healthcare projects (SDG 6,7,12 &13)  

Every healthcare project should be designed and integrated to address the environmental sustainability aspect. This will involve management of the environmental impact caused by health facilities, promotion of renewable sources of energy and responsible waste management. Through this approach, the managers of the projects are able to incorporate green practices into design and execution in relation to meeting the set SDG targets on clean energy, responsible consumption and climate action.  

Challenges and solutions 

Some of the challenges to aligning healthcare projects with the SDGs relate to resource constraints, competing priorities and intricacies of measuring impact. Still, such can be overcome by effective project management in a number of ways, including:  

• Incorporate targets of SDGs into the design of the projects: SDG targets shall be built into the project lifecycle — from planning to evaluation — so that it’s sure to work hand in hand with global sustainable development objectives.  
• Multisectoral collaboration : Quite often, healthcare projects involve sectors working collaboratively. Project managers could facilitate partnerships between governments, NGOs, the private sector and communities to pool resources and expertise.  
• Data-driven decisions : For tracking progress toward attaining the targets set by the SDGs, there is a need for abundant data. It’s important that project managers prioritise the collection, analysis and eventual use of data to make decisions leading up to the project and demonstrate the impact.  

Healthcare project management is one of the keys to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s in these areas that, with regard to the management of project objectives in relation to SDGs on health, infrastructure and sustainability, project managers are well-suited to lead towards a healthier, fairer and more sustainable world. The Association for Project Management has a leading role in ensuring that professionals are empowered to spearhead such efforts and are furnished with the tools, frameworks and knowledge to make a way through the complexities of healthcare projects in a sustainable manner. As we go forward towards 2030, there is no doubt that incorporating the SDGs into health project management will make health interventions more effective and assure long-term development goals.  

You may also be interested in:

• What is sustainability in project management?
• Global research prompts call for project teams to integrate sustainability into decision-making
• How to put sustainability at the heart of your work

Preet is a distinguished Public Health Leader with expertise in addressing pandemic, public health emergencies, community health needs, health disparities, and social determinants of health. She is passionate about serving medically underserved, marginalized and vulnerable communities through implementation of public health programs to advance health equity.  Her work has been recognized by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene through the acknowledgement of her role in advancing health equity and preventing COVID-19 in New York City through the Public Health Corps. She has also been recognized as one of the Top 25 Emerging Leaders by Modern Healthcare for significant contributions to the culture of innovation and transformation in the field of healthcare. 

She can be reached via email at [email protected] . You can also find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/preetkukreja .

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WHO calls for adolescent responsive health systems, emphasizes on triple dividend benefit

The World Health Organization urged countries in South-East Asia Region to ensure health systems are responsive to the unique needs of adolescents, highlighting its ‘triple dividend’ benefit – immediate, future, and intergenerational.

“Adolescence, from 10 to 19 years of age, is a time of distinctive development - cognitive, social, physical, emotional, and sexual. Adolescents require special attention in national health and development policies, due to their unique needs,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia in her address to the ongoing three-day ‘Regional Meeting to Achieve Universal Health Coverage for Adolescent Population through Adolescent Responsive Health Systems,’ here.

Investments in adolescent health bring triple dividend -  immediate benefit through health promoting positive behaviors and by prevention, early detection, treatment, and rehabilitation.  Future benefit by helping inculcate healthy lifestyles resulting in reduction in harmful behaviors and morbidity later in adulthood, and intergenerational benefit by promoting healthy practices during adolescence and preventing risk factors for diseases, the Regional Director said.

There is strong evidence of high cost-effectiveness and benefit cost ratios from investing in adolescent health and well-being – for every dollar invested in adolescent health, there is an estimated 5-10 times return from health, social and economic benefits.

Nearly 670 adolescents die in WHO South-East Asia Region every day.  There is a high burden of morbidity due to many causes, ranging from adolescent pregnancy, mental health, nutrition, noncommunicable diseases, self-harm, and more.

While most adolescent health issues are preventable or treatable, there is ample evidence that adolescents face multiple barriers in accessing health care and information, and these challenges were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past decade, our region has observed significant political, technical, and programmatic advances to prioritize adolescent health and well-being. This has led to favorable policies, and national programs and strategies on adolescent health, including school health. However, funding, lack of accountability, fragmented implementation with poor coverage and quality, and unavailability of quality disaggregated data continue to be among the key challenges, the Regional Director said.

“Our health systems have not achieved the same level of ‘adolescent-centricity’ as other age groups.  They, along with the health service delivery platforms, are primarily designed for disease management or for other specific age groups such as mothers, children or adults”, the Regional Director said.

Efforts at the institutionalizing adolescent-friendly services have primarily focused on individual facilities, rather than on institutionalizing adolescent-friendly elements into health systems. They have prioritized sexual and reproductive health, and curative services, rather than comprehensive packages of services which include mental health, non-communicable diseases, prevention of violence, and such, she said.

“Designing and creating adolescent-responsive health systems is vital. There is also a need to incorporate the views of adolescents and their families in designing and implementing these health services. We need to ensure their access to high-quality, inclusive, and respectful health services. Adolescents should be able to avail these services anywhere they choose, and without any restrictions, financial or otherwise. This will also strengthen comprehensive primary health care, moving us closer to our Universal Health Coverage goals,” Wazed said.

The Regional Director reiterated WHO’s commitment to investing in the health of women, girls, adolescents, and vulnerable populations, which is one of the five tactical approaches for a healthier, more equitable and sustainable WHO South-East Asia Region.

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