The war against sustainable development theory: Public interest as the ethical order for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

The concept of environmentally sustainable development (ESD) has its origins in 1987, with the publication of the World Commission on Environment and Development's (WCED) landmark report, Our Common Future. Drawing on earlier research I have done, I re-evaluate the ongoing challenges ESD faces as a theory of development given fractious debates about development from opposing interests. My original research identified a substantial divide in support for a WCED-styled theory of sustainable development and, alternatively, for that promulgated by business-as-usual economic growth advocates. I showed that the developmental changes advocated by the WCED would be vigorously opposed or resisted by vested interests. Some 30 years later, opposition and resistance continue. The purpose of this commentary is to examine aspects of this divide with regard to prospects for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. I aim to discuss prospects for implementing the SDGs by that year because the goals provide a context and potential measure of how sustainable development will fare as a theory. Three questions are posed to examine different attitudes to economic, social, and environmental policy fields. Thereafter, I conclude that environmental foundations of development address the agency of polluter pays, resource user pays, precautionary principle, and environmental standards regulation; economic foundations address economic growth, productivity, and competitiveness; and social foundations address social inclusion via human rights. I argue that all need to be systematically integrated into policy making for development to be sustainable; this means making the environmental foundations of sustainable development operational by incorporating them in the decision centres of business strategy and public policy. Measuring performance to address SDGs provides a sound place to start operationalising this integration process.