Environmental Development: Factors That Influence Sustainable Development

Sustainable development has been said to be the ability to use the environment’s resources in a way that they are not destroyed and can still be used by future generations. Meaning we have to live our lives (using resources such as water, electricity and food) in a way that our children and grandchildren will have the same chance at those resources. A broader explanation of sustainable development is given on the Brundtland report. According to it;

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

 The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority

There are many factors that influence sustainable development. Others promoting it and others hindering it. This essay will discuss factors that influence and promote sustainable development.

Development practitioners use different methods to ensure that sustainable development takes place. However, there are still many factors that influence sustainable development. These include amongst many others;

• Communication for development

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These also serve as threats to sustainable development.

Moreover, Technical changes such as the increased automobile fuel efficiency and other recent developments of electric cars are only two among many examples of how technical change can help reduce environmental impacts.

In conclusion, countries need to find ways to use resources effectively to be able to preserve them. If necessary, resources can be processed to accumulate capital that can be used to help prevent the overuse of resources. ‘For countries dependant on non-renewable natural capital, transforming natural capital to other forms of wealth, is the path to sustainable development . For many developing countries fortunate enough to have large endowments of natural resources, it is precisely the failure to make this transformation that threatens the sustainability of their development paths. For example, South Africa has an abundance of Gold as a natural resource which has dominated its economy for years. However, South Africa still remains a poor country despite having this resource due to the fact that it cannot not process the resource into intangible capital on its own due to lack of skilled labour. In addition, educating people and learning to be independent of foreign aid is another way to sustainable development