Exploring the care for the current poor and future generations within a sustainable development framework

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the question: How can we meaningfully analyze the combination of care for the current poor and future generations within a sustainable development framework? The relevance of this question lies in the fact that sustainable development has numerous definitions, which makes it a vague concept. To be able to use sustainable development in policy-making, a conceptual understanding of the term is required. Therefore, I will focus on the widely accepted definition of sustainable development adopted from the United Nations report Our Common Future: "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the world's poor without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WCED chapter 2 §1). The definition contains two concepts. The first is the concept of "needs". Needs are "relative", which means they include both material and non-material aspects. Furthermore, they are universal and are therefore applicable to people living today and to those who will live in the future. The second concept is the idea of limitations. This is about the carrying capacity of the Earth and the position of technology in it.

If we want to analyze the care for both the current poor and future generations a balance is needed. This does not necessarily require us to take a step back in our consumption patterns, but it requires us to analyze possible different solutions to problems, without compromising future generations to meet their needs. If we do have to limit our actions the sufficientarian approach can be a good guide. It requires that people, those living now and in the future, do not fall below a normatively defined line. People fall below it if their needs are not being met. Sufficientarianism gives us a grip in policy-making and brings the conceptual aspects down to a level of practical implementation. It is therefore the right theory to analyze the care for our generation and those to come.