Strengths And Weaknesses Of Sustainable Development

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Sustainable development is a model that aims to link the idea of what is to be sustained, with what is to be developed, and focuses on three pillars, economics, social and environmental (Kates, Parris, and Leiserowitz, 2005; pp. 3). As a holistic approach it seeks to develop the three pillars, on a local, regional and global level. This paper will analyse the concept of sustainable development and the strengths and weaknesses of this approach will be discussed. Firstly, a background of this model will be presented, which will explore the three pillars. Secondly, the strengths and weaknesses will be evaluated, and lastly, a brief contrast will be provided of the opinions of sustainable development between the Global North and Global South. The conclusion conveyed at the end of this paper, will be that sustainable development is a concept with weaknesses however, the strengths outweigh them.
To begin with, the concept of sustainable development famously culminated in 1987 with the United Nations 'Commission on Environment and Development ' also known as the 'Brundtland Report ' (Everard & Longhurt, 2017; pp. 1244). The article introduced, the most widely known definition of Sustainable development as "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).
Furthermore, the three pillars of sustainable development, economics, social and