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Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are a central instrument in international development cooperation and of key importance in guiding donors' policies towards southern recipients. However, many aspects of the PRSP have been criticised by a variety of development stakeholders. A checklist of 85 questions has been developed to analyse the inclusion of aspects of sustainable development in PRSPs and to point to sustainability challenges and opportunities. It thus facilitates targeted advice and quality improvements. The checklist was applied to a selection of 12 PRSPs of developing countries. The results reveal an insufficient integration of the ecosystem services concept, of biodiversity and of climate issues. Property rights, gender issues, water and energy are as a rule well elaborated. PRSPs show significant variation in the integration of environmental sustainability issues. Sustainability assessments can contribute to significant improvements between first and second generation PRSPs provided the assessments are supported by a strong institutional framework and a dedicated political commitment towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the circular economy is emerging as a strategy for sustainable development. What is important in promoting the circular economy is to assess its current level and take measures for assessment. This paper discusses some methodological issues in comparing and assessing the efforts for the circular economy at the international level. To this end, the authors explain the theoretical premise related to the assessment of efforts for the circular economy, establish an indicator system for assessing the efforts for the circular economy, and suggest a method for comprehensively assessing the efforts for the circular economy by country. The conclusions are that (a) the comparative evaluation of activities related to the circular economy by country requires a unified standard or category that can cover these activities, including all factors that meet sustainable development; the outcome, process, and guarantee of the circular economy, and this can be the circular economy effort and (b) the circular economy effort of a given country must synthetically be assessed by using the indicators capable of showing all aspects. These conclusions may contribute to establishing a new theoretical foundation that can include various aspects of the circular economy activities and to setting a practical and methodological foundation for evaluating each country's various activities related to the circular economy at the international level and can serve as a policy basis for identifying the weak and strong aspects of circular economy activities at the domestic or international level and establishing technological and economic measures to strengthen the weak aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China now faces an increasingly aging society which may exert economic pressure in the long run. This study illustrates the spatial pattern and evolution of population aging and economic development in China. The coupling coordination degree of population aging and economic development at the national and provincial levels are calculated and demonstrated, and the spatial patterns and characteristics are investigated. Methods: This paper presents a coupling analysis of the elderly population rate (EPR) and per capita Gross Regional Product (GRPpc) in China by using the coupling and coordination model. Further, the spatial pattern and evolution of population aging and economic development are investigated based on the standard deviational ellipse. The collected data is at the level of provincial administrative units in mainland China covering the period 2002 to 2020. Results: The results reveal the spatial difference in the coupling and coordination degree between EPR and GRPpc across provinces. The eastern coastal areas are higher than the central and western regions of China. The orientation and directions of EPR are more than GRPpc, indicating that the polarization in population aging is more severe than economic development. Significant positive correlations between coupling coordination degree and sustainable competitiveness are detected. Conclusions: Policymakers should fully consider regional differences and sustainable development in policy formulation of China. The western and northeastern provinces should be given priority in the regional sustainable development plan. At the same time, the coordination between population aging and economic development also requires to be examined especially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While promoting the economic growth, energy has also brought pollution problems to the world environment, which has gradually become a bottleneck impeding sustainable economic development. In view of the rapid evolution of urbanization and industrialization, economic growth is increasingly dependent on the energy consumption, the development of the two is difficult to coordinate, and the internal contradictions are becoming increasingly serious, which hinders the sustainable development of economic growth. This study establishes the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth according to the energy Kuznets curve and studies the future trend of China's sustainable development through the comparative analysis of the energy Kuznets curve of the United States and Germany. The results show that, at the turning point of energy consumption, China's energy economic rate is higher than that of Germany and the United States. In addition, in terms of urbanization rate and industrial structure, although China's tertiary industry has made a breakthrough, it is still lower than that of the United States and Germany, but the level of urbanization rate has made significant progress. In short, China has obvious advantages in future economic development and has a late developing advantage compared with the United States and Germany. This paper makes an empirical analysis of the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in OECD countries and finds out the turning point of energy consumption, so as to provide a theoretical basis for coordinating China's energy consumption and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper clarifies the conditions and factors of the development of the institutional environment through modern interdisciplinary analysis. The authors revise the studies of the problem under consideration in the history of science and reveal the decisive role of religion in the development of national business cultures. The study highlights the fundamental postulates, i.e. the canons of theology, and argues for the need to consider them in the context of the analysis of national business cultures. The authors put forward and prove theoretical and methodological principles of the determinant influence of national business cultures and religion on the development of countries (the socio-economic phenomenon of the "economic miracle"). The content of the category "Polish economic miracle" is revealed through analysis of the influence of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism on other "economic miracles" known from history. The authors conclude that Catholicism currently encourages entrepreneurial initiative of both individuals and organisations, which contributes to the sustainable economic development of countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to analyse the correlation between the level of economic growth of a country and its rural development. The phrase sustainable development combines the economic growth and the preservation and improvement of environmental and human health, preservation of social justice and assurance of democratic environment in social life. Therefore, the sustainable economic growth provides for the meeting of current consumption requirements without compromising or prejudicing those of the future generations. By adding the requirements regarding environmental protection and preservation of natural resources to economic growth we may speak of a proper sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has become one of the burning issues on a global, local and individual levels as a result of climate changes, pollution, rapid development and changes in the global information, economic, industrial and business sectors and value systems. In this sense, education for sustainable development, as part of lifelong learning, has become one of the most important strategic and educational policy issues in Serbia. The aim of this paper is to highlight the potential of geography as a school subject, with special reference to the role of the subject matter of geoheritage and geodiversity in education for sustainable development. The aim of pointing the benefits of integrated and out-of-classroom approaches in teaching geography, which favour an active, experiential and exploratory approach to learning about geodiversity and geoheritage, is that students can acquire competencies in sustainable development. As outcomes of geography classes, competencies also represent a basis for raising awareness and increasing accountability and responsibility in individuals for preserving geoheritage and geodiversity as part of the Serbian national treasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The semi-annual European Environment Sustainable Conference in Aalborg, Denmark brought together from primarily Europe, but also other parts of the world. The Conference focused on sustainability but one panel focused on practical applications for public policy and private industry. The papers from this panel are presented in this special issue of the journal. They cover topics ranging from corporate sustainable programs to government plans including "feed in laws". Some papers are more academic oriented but clearly derived from practical political experiences such as those of the California energy crisis. These theories argue the need for "agile energy systems" whereby regions, cities and communities must have combinations of on-site or distributed energy generation like combined heat and power (CPH) along with central grid power generation. Finally, there is a clear message in all the papers that "market forces" alone do not develop, monitor or even provide "level playing fields" for communities. In short, there needs to be continuous "government" or public involvement in the sustainable communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality in Indian cities, as these are the two predominant constituents of inequality in Indian socio-economic scenario. This study uses a bivariate cointegration based error correction model for assessing the causal association between the two inequality parameters, which are derived by using Theil's second measure. Given the sustainable development objective set by the government of India, interaction between these two parameters may prove out to be significant for achievement of this objective. It has been hypothesized that nature of this interaction varies largely based on the nature of the cities, i.e. semi-urban, urban, and metropolitan. The analysis has been done on the full and segregated dataset to visualize how the interaction changes with the nature of the cities. For analysis purpose, data for 139 Indian cities for the period of 2001-2013 have been selected. From the data of income, population, and energy consumption, two parameters of this study have been designed by using Theil's second measure. The analysis starts with checking the cross sectional dependence for both of the parameters. Subsequently, the stationarity of the data has been checked by using first generation unit root tests. Then, by employing the cointegration and error correction framework, the long run causal association has been assessed. For checking the short run causal association, Granger causality method has been applied. The data for this study have been collected form Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, Central Statistical Organization, India, and Census, India. Major findings of this study are, (a) for both the parameters and three segments, cross sections are independent, (b) the parameters are stationary at first difference, (c) there is long run cointegration relationship between them, and (d) the causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional for the case of semi-urban cities, and it is bidirectional for the case of metropolitan and urban cities. For full dataset, causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional. The Theil indices calculated for both the parameters show the trends of rising inequality for all the cities taken together. However, no significant trend was visualized for the individual strata of cities, for both of the parameters under consideration. This study summarizes that the economic growth achieved by India is not sustainable in nature. It can be achieved only by considering an inclusive growth framework, where social development will complement the growth objectives. Therefore, the fossil-fuel based economic growth agenda needs reconsideration, viewing the social dimensions of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article devoted to analysis of sustainable development indicators (SDI) evolution and peculiarities of designing the set of SDI for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other countries. The paper provides an overview of evolution and application experience of sustainability measuring practice. Researchers analyze the directions of measurement approach progress. Modern trends of indicators' using are explored. Ways of overcoming the lack of harmonization in variety of conceptual and organizational frameworks which are used by different countries are viewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I formalize the idea of sustainable development in terms of intergenerational well-being. I then sketch an argument that has recently been put forward formally to demonstrate that intergenerational well-being increases over time if and only if a comprehensive measure of wealth per capita increases. The measure of wealth includes not only manufactured capital, knowledge and human capital (education and health), but also natural capital (e.g. ecosystems). I show that a country's comprehensive wealth per capita can decline even while gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increases and the UN Human Development Index records an improvement. I then use some rough and ready data from the world's poorest countries and regions to show that during the period 1970–2000 wealth per capita declined in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, even though the Human Development Index (HDI) showed an improvement everywhere and GDP per capita increased in all places (except in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was a slight decline). I conclude that, as none of the development indicators currently in use is able to reveal whether development has been, or is expected to be, sustainable, national statistical offices and international organizations should now routinely estimate the (comprehensive) wealth of nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]