Human Development and Sustainability

Abstract

This article reviews existing linkages between the two broad concepts of human development and sustainability and discusses ways in which the often separate literatures can learn from each other. It proposes a practical way in which the measurements of human development and sustainability can be linked with each other. Empirical results for both a weak and a strong sustainability indicator are presented for the time period 1980–2006. The most important policy conclusion derived from these results is that countries of high to very high human development face the double task of achieving strong sustainability by severing the link between high human development and strongly unsustainable carbon emissions and helping other countries, particularly those with low levels of human development, to achieve weak sustainability in the first place and strong sustainability eventually.

Keywords:

• Environment
• Human development
• Sustainability
• Well-being
• Economic development

Notes

Natural capital encompasses everything in nature that provides human beings with well-being, from natural resources to environmental amenities and the pollution absorptive capacity of the environment. Man-made or manufactured capital refers to the physical means of production (factories, machineries, etc.) and infrastructure. Human capital covers knowledge and skills.

Morse (2003) similarly discusses the idea of linking the HDI to the EF.

HDI data taken from UNDP (2010) , GS data taken from World Bank (2009a); and data on EFs based on the 2008 edition of the National Footprint Account of the Global Footprint Network, kindly provided by Nic Marks from the New Economics Foundation, London, complemented by information online [www.footprintnetwork.org] and taken from WWF (2008).

Data taken from the World Development Indicators Online Database, [http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Neumayer

Eric Neumayer is Professor of Environment & Development at London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK