Gain The Age Of Sustainable Development By Jeffrey D. Sachs Expressed As E-Text

must read for the SDGs accepted by the UN General Assembly in September, Jeff is slightly off on the scientific parts, but you can learn the science elsewhere, however you cannot find a more concise explanation of the basics of the Sustainable Development Goals elsewhere.
. . The Age of Sustainable Development is the most comprehensive overview of humanity's greatest challenge how mankind can exist in harmony with Earth's natural systems while solving the many severe problems facing

humanity today, as defined by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
Despite the immense challenge of achieving such goals in spite of a grossly unsustainable status quo, UN advisor and supereconomist Jeffrey Sachs is dogmatically optimistic that humanity is capable of saving our planet and ourselves if we collectively work towards doing so.


This is the ultimate primer on Sustainable Development Sachs explains the history of global development, the challenge of extreme poverty, planetary boundaries, food security, health issues, and so much more in neatly laid out sections with plenty of charts, photographs and reallife case studies that blend the economics and history with practical action and advice.


As someone who has been heavily involved in addressing global health and development issues, Sachs offers tremendous insight into the successes and failures of various efforts to overcome developmental challenges.
He is also utterly frank in humanity's devastation on the planetary systems, notably the rapid decline in global biodiversity, the realities of anthropogenic climate change, natural resource depletion, and more.
It's a hardhitting reality check on a plethora of challenges facing humanity which dispels many myths and misunderstandings surrounding these issues,

I have but one question following the completion of The Age of Sustainable Development: Is sustainable development truly attainable under our current global economic system Sachs seems to think so, claiming that continued indefinite global economic growth can alleviate poverty and continuously improve wellbeing for both developed and developing nations, while simultaneously achieving environmental sustainability through efficient resource management, environmental regulation, and clean energy utilization.
. . while also adapting to and mitigating climate change through collective global efforts,

While Sachs doesn't directly address the systematic unsustainability of continuous economic growth, nor that of the global economic system, he does hint at it from time to time, notably one passage that suggests the real barrier to achieving environmental sustainability will require much more than regulatory tweaks, global cooperation and cleanenergyforall:

PageV.
International Dynamics

The most important point to emphasize time and again is that the pressures of the global economy are so strong that even when treaties or regulations are put in place, vested interests often give a powerful counterforce to these measures, and control mechanisms are often at the mercy of illegal activities, bribery, corruption, and other limits of enforcement.
The weight, force, and momentum of the world economy are often so powerful that the world economy runs roughshod over attempts at regulation, "

Herein lies this exceptional The Age of Sustainable Development's overlooked barrier to sustainable development the current global economic system of "development" itself, If humankind is to actually coexist within our planet's natural systems without damaging them beyond repair, alternative forms of socioeconomic structuring and developmental strategies need be explored in tandem with the many lessons and solutions presented by Sachs.


In short, The Age of Sustainable Development is THE classic text for an introduction to sustainable development and how to address the greatest problems of our time.
I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, I met the author today,

this book address the global and humanitarian issues of today's world and showing pass ways and diagnoses of problems, this book whiteout simplification and correctly embracing complexity of the world, is also optimistic about the future and have hope in fate of humanity.


but I met him today at a full QampA after his lecture and I dare say, he was rather worried about the future and claimed age of Trumps might mislead us our roadmaps and goals of sustainable development such as end of absolute poverty, agricultural revolution and so forth.


regardless he is a very interesting character still tries to find new ways and ideas to help people, educate the society considering his busy life at the university and UN.
This book is so informative, easy to digest and has an awesome amount of graphical content in it to supplement the reading, Definitely recommend reading. I would also highly recommend taking the supplemental online course offered on coursera, Theres a great website and app interface, and the course is run by Jeffrey Sachs himself!! Overall, the book is quite thorough in looking at sustainable development from an economist's point of view.
However, noted that the millennial project directed by the author was a failure, prompting the optimists to consider the practicality and reality when it comes to a socalled sustainable development.
Escrito en el, presenta un panorama de los grandes retos para cambiar la forma tradicional de hacer las cosas BAU, Business as usual las cuales nos dirigen a superar los limites planetarios y ponen en riesgo la vida como la conocemos hoy por una de desarrollo sostenible, definida como un proceso ambientalmente sostenible, socialmente incluyente y económicamente productivo, que logre un planeta seguro, justo y próspero.


Su confianza en lograrlo se basa principalmente en la tecnología y la buena gobernanza, las cuales deberán encontrar formas innovadoras, contextuales, dinámicas, participativas y colaborativas para actuar de forma “práctica y gradual” y superar así la pobreza extrema, asegurar la salud y educación básica para todos en especial para las mujeres avanzar en una segunda revolución verde para lograr la seguridad alimentaria, vivir en ciudades sostenibles y resilientes, descarbonizar y aumentar la eficiencia del sistema energético, reducir los gases de efecto invernadero y estar por debajo deCº al, y finalmente conservar la biodiversidad y regenerar los ecosistemas.


Todo esto es presentado como marco previo a la definición de los ODS Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenibles, aprobados un año después de escrito el libro por la ONU y cuyo autor fue uno de sus líderes.


El cuestionamiento es si aún hay confianza en la tecnología para seguir creciendo económica y demográficamente, y en especial ante el avance hacia los límites planetariosaños después de escrito el libro llegamos a losMM de habitantes tres años antes de lo que el libro proponía, o si debemos ver la “prosperidad sin crecimiento” planteada por Jackson en, como la última salida y hacer un cambio aún más radical en nuestros comportamientos y consumos.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development, In this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and politicaleconomic injustice: sustainable development.


Sachs offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action, Based on Sachs's twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretarygeneral on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, "The Age of Sustainable Development" is a landmark publication and clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.
I approached The Age of Sustainable Development with a fair amount of skepticism but Sachs won me over with his lucid writing and comprehensive view of the daunting challenges ahead.
Thankfully, Sachs is not a doomer but approaches what we must do with a realistic analysis of what it will take to avert global catastrophe.
Difficult, yes impossible, no. We have no choice but to try, It has to be one of the textbooks of general education, Excellent, important, empowering. Sachs lays down pure facts with stats and data visualizations portraying our changing world in the context of historical and presentday social, cultural and economical development.
He's insights and ideas shared within The Age of Sustainable Development are undeniably inspiring, intelligent and impactful, This book is for everyone and everyone should read this book, Released coincidentally with the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of Resolution/, One of the most defining books of our age Its a brisk and light read energy politics through the eyes of a functional government expert.
Here are many otherwise unremarkable threads of discussion tied loosely around notions of sustainable development as a socialpolitical construct and less a presentation of an economic development roadmap: i.
e. development is loosely tackled in three broad sweeps,through addressing issues around economic development,social inclusion andlongterm sustainability, The ligature around the many threads of ideas however often had me confused the discussions around policy approaches through the cycle I found to be less specific but then we are encouraged to adhere to ethical thinking as best we can.
I kept having to ask myself, what specifically in his book might we consider as our societies objectives and what therefore might serve as our societal constraints, under his arguments.
Eventually we are lead to conclude that Jeffreys goal is simply to set a stage, whilst leaving the more rigorous questions around policy implementation to the future governments.
For instance the chapter where the author makes a giant leap from initially framing a discussion around the UN Millennium Development Goals MDGs to then instructively presenting his seductive case for the UN Development Goals SDGs UN Resolution/, where his argument there are that much of the fervor directed at discussions around tackling a few fundamental development imperatives for lesser resource limited settings may just as well spur much needed discussion in areas of pressing global concern through adopting ethical thinking.
But surprisingly by the end I was wholly convinced that there is indeed an immediate need for action and that yet the most significant piece of a policy agenda may simply require an understanding of a few fundamental issues.
Outstanding information and very readable format encompassing a very wide breadth of information and disciplines, This comprehensive review of the planets health as a function of metrics that essentially capture all phases of one's quality of life from education to deforestation, biodiversity, and social mobility as examples.
The author is an outstanding writer supported by superior graphics illustrating each subject area with the result being an entertaining education regarding absolutely critical subjects impacting our lives.
You can debate the solutions proposed, but the evidence supporting the reality we face as a species is incontrovertible,
One of the strongest points of this great book is its panoramic overview and holistic approach to sustainable development, At the same time, this is also one of its main weaknesses: Trying to cover so much in just one book inevitably leads to lack of detail.
The result: This book is a great but occasionally too basic introduction to sustainable development,

But I am getting ahead of myself, First, some of what I think are the main points of the book,

Our planet faces several existential threats that are often interconnected, Achieving sustainable development, and solving problems such as climate change, extreme poverty, loss of biodiversity and inequality, will require complicated solutions and hard decisions, Therefore Jeffrey Sachs refreshingly urges us to embrace complexity and shy away from ''one size fits all'' solutions that supposedly can be applied in all circumstances to all countries.
His criticism of such intellectually lazy solutions and the international organizations that have often proposed them is similar to Joseph Stiglitz' criticism of the IMF in ''Globalization and its discontents''.


According to Sachs, sustainable development is both an analytical tool and a way to set goals for a better future, In his view, sustainable development hasobjectives:
Economic growth
Social Inclusion
Environmental protection
Good governance
The last objective, good governance, is in fact a facilitator for the first three and applies not only to governments but also to businesses.


The importance of economic growth, the first objective of sustainable development, for helping poor countries was already pointed out by Paul Collier in ''The Bottom Billion''.
Sachs also makes this point and points out that there aretypes of economic growth:
Endogenous growth: This is economic growth that ''comes from within''.
It is most often caused by technological and social innovations, and the countries that experience this kind of growth tend to be the technological leaders.

Catchup growth: This type of growth ''comes from the outside'', ''The technologies that fuel catchup growth come from outside the economy engaged in rapid catching up, The essence of the strategy is to import technologies from abroad rather than to develop them at home'' pag,

Sachs describes endogenous growth using the theory of Kondratiev waves, Since Sachs seems to think that catchup growth is more applicable to poor countries, his description of endogenous growth and the Kondratiev waves leaves the reader with many questions, mostly regarding how the Kondratiev waves work: Why do these waves last aroundyears What causes their decline This is one example where Sachs' book is lacking details.
In ''Postcapitalism'', Paul Mason gives a more detailed description of Kondratiev waves,

More importantly, Sachs seems to prefer catchup growth for developing countries and doesn't ask how endogenous growth could be promoted in these countries.
Only considering catchup growth for poor countries may be an unnecessary limitation of the available solutions, An example of efforts to innovation in a country that is not a traditional technological leader is Startup Chile sitelink startupchile. org/.

Factors that facilitate catchup growth:
Proximity to a technological leader: E, g. the first countries to follow England's example in the early days of the Industrial Revolution were its European neighbours,
Favourable agricultural conditions: High farm yields can free up labour for work in industry and services,
Energy resources: ''While it is possible to export goods and import primary energy in return as South Korea and Japan do, it is generally very hard to get that process started in a place without any domestic lowcost sources of primary energy'' pag.

A physical environment conducive to human health: A diseaseridden environment can be an obstacle to economic growth, for instance because investors may be afraid workers will be sick often.

Politics: Economic growth requires good governance, solid and inclusive institutions, Chaos, violence, corruption can seriously limit the potential for growth,

As said, Sachs recommends catchup growth for poor countries, Before it is decided how catchup growth can be implemented in these countries, it is important to make a countryspecific diagnosis which Sachs calls a ''differential diagnosis''.
Part of that diagnosis is an analysis of the causes of poverty, For this analysis, Sachs proposes a poverty checklist pag:

, Poverty trap: A country may be too poor to make the basic investments to get out of poverty and get on the ladder of economic growth.

. Bad economic policies: A country may have an honest government that unfortunately chooses wrong or inadequate policies, such as choosing central planning when a market economy would be better.

. Financial insolvency: A history of overspending, overborrowing and bankruptcy may limit a country in making the necessary investments for economic growth
, Geography: Adverse geographical conditions include: Being landlocked, high in the mountains, having endemic disease burden, vulnerability to natural disasters,
. Poor governance: Signs of poor governance are extreme corruption, inefficiency and incompetence,
. Cultural barriers: A frequent example is the discrimination against women and girls, Sachs recommends: ''For success in the twentyfirst century, don't try to develop with only half of your citizenry, but take the lesson from a country that is mobilizing all of its citizens'' pagsuch as Rwanda, where women play an important part in politics.

. Geopolitics: A country's political and security relations with its neighbours, foes and allies,

So Sachs gives several explanations for why a country may be poor, and building on that he warns against ''a misguided desire for overly simplistic explanations of complex economic dynamics''.
He goes on to return the criticism he received from Acemoglu and Robinson in their book ''Why nations fail'': ''In many places one will read that economic growth depends on 'economic freedom', or on 'inclusive institutions', or on 'controlling corruption'.
Factors like economic freedom, political institutions, and corruption may play a role, but they certainly do not play the only role, or even the main role, in many places and times of history.
These individual factors taken alone neither explain the pattern of development across the globe and over time, nor do they help us predict future development'' pag.


Despite these remarks and his insistence that poverty may have many causes, Sachs' explanation of choice for lack of economic growth seems to be geography.
Geographical disadvantages can come in many forms: ''Being landlocked makes economic growth more difficult'' page, because international trade is significantly more difficult for landlocked countries.
''Geography shapes many things about an economy, including the productivity of farms, the burden of infectious disease, the cost of trade, and the access to energy resources'' pag.
''Small island economies can be quite vulnerable, They are subject to extreme climate catastrophes and often relatively isolated with high shipping costs to major ports'' pag, ''There are still a few places where modern economic growth has not yet reached, These are generally places facing great geographical difficulties'' pag, In ''A further look at geography'' pag, Sachs goes into more detail to make his case for geographical conditions as paramount determinants of economic development.


The next objective of sustainable development is social inclusion, This involves the distribution of wellbeing, Sachs noteskinds of concerns about the distribution of wellbeing pag:
, Extreme poverty: Are some people still exceedingly poor in the midst of plenty
, Inequality: Are the gaps between the rich and the poor very wide
, Social mobility: Can a poor person today hope to achieve economic success in the future
, Discrimination: Are some individuals such as women, racial minorities, religious minorities, or indigenous populations disadvantaged by their identity within a group
, Social cohesion: Is the society riven by distrust, animosity, cynicism, and the absence of a shared moral code

The importance of social inclusion is both obvious and empirically verifiable: ''More equal societies end up with greater intergenerational mobility'' pag.
Sachs points out that countries that are relatively equal in income distribution tend to have high social mobility examples are Scandinavian countries, while ''the United States today, a country that once prided itself as the 'land of opportunity', but now is a society of high inequality and low social mobility'' pag.

Also, people tend to be happier in more equal societies, and democracy tends to function better in countries with a solid middle class,

The third objective of sustainable development is environmental protection, This brings us to one of the main questions posed in this book: ''How to reconcile the continued growth of the world economy and the sustainability of the Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity'' pag.
The answer is given just a few pages later: ''In order to reconcile the growth that we would like to see with the ecological realities of the planet Earth, we are going to need the world economy to develop in a fundamentally different way in the future'' pag.


Sachs summarizes those ecological realities as nine planetary boundaries:
Climate change
Ocean acidification
Stratospheric ozone depletion
Biochemical flows: Nitrogen cycle and Phosphorus cycle
Global fresh water use
Change in land use
Biodiversity loss
Atmospheric aerosol loading
Chemical pollution

Environmental sustainability is a very broad subject, and Sachs touches on many issues.
I will focus on justof those issues, which I think are among the most important: Green House Gas GHG emissions and population growth,

GHG emissions, mostly COand CH, not only cause global warming, but also result in increased ocean acidification, One of the many insightful graphs in this book is,pag, which shows the concentration of COin the atmosphere during the last,years. The graph shows that for this entire period, the COconcentration varied betweenandparts per million ppm, However, since, COconcentration has broken away from that,years old bandwidth, and now stands atppm, We are well on our way to in heat up our planet into unknown and unpredictable new climates,

The solution is as easy as it is urgent: A drastic reduction of GHG emissions is required, Sachs points out that we have crossed the point where only reducing GHG emissions is enough: We now need a double approach to both mitigate climate change and adapt to it, because some adverse effects of climate change are now inevitable.


Mitigation of climate change can be achieved most quickly by reducing COemissions, the most important GHG, A good first draft for a mitigation strategy includes the following:
Energy efficiency: Achieve much greater output per unit of energy input, E. g. much can be saved in heating, cooling and ventilation of buildings,
Decarbonization: Reduce the COemissions, This involves dramatically increasing the amount of electricity generated by zeroemission energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric,
Fuel switching: Change from direct use of fossil fuels to electricity based on clean primaryenergy sources,

Population growth will have a major impact on all our efforts to achieve sustainable development, Figure.pagshows the scary scenario of business as usual: At current fertility rates, the world population will have ballooned to almostbillion by, Vital resources such as water will become scarcer as the effects of climate change take hold, and those scarce resources will have to be divided among more and more people: a recipe for disaster.
Reducing fertility rates seems crucial for keeping sustainable development manageable,

How can fertility rates be reduced First, Sachs points out that prosperity tends to lead to lower fertility rates: ''richer households choose to have fewer children, so much so that populations are already stabilizing or even declining in some of the world's richest places'' pag.
Fertility rates are highest in poor regions, especially subSaharan Africa, Bringing prosperity would probably reduce fertility rates there also, In the meantime, Sachs proposes several ways to reduce fertility rates through voluntary means pag:
Ensure that girls are enabled to stay in school at least through high school diploma level, in order to discourage child marriages.

Invest in child survival, Convince each family that it is safe to have fewer children,
Make family planning and contraceptives available and free,
Encourage women to participate in the labour force, ''When women are working outside the home, the fertility rates are much lower'' pag,
Funnily enough: Television! ''When television broadcasting arrives in a poor area, fertility rates come down, often quickly'' pag,

In this book, sustainable development is often driven by regulations and incentives by national governments and international organizations like the United Nations, This sometimes excessive focus on governmental topdown approaches makes one wonder what the role is of free markets in sustainable development, In ''The price of civilization'', Sachs already showed he was in favour of social democracy and a mixed economy, with roles for both government and free markets.
Here he proposes regulating markets, since completely unfettered free markets will be not be able to make sure that growth is sustainable, mainly forreasons:
Externalities.

Lack of intergenerational responsibilities,
The externalities are on a global scale: ''Highincome countries tend to have the largest GHG emissions per capita, while poor countries are often great victims of humaninduced climate change without themselves having contributed much to the crisis'' pag.
One way to solve the issue of externalities is to make the polluters pay, ''COimposes high costs on society including future generations, but those who emit the COdo not pay for the social costs that they impose'' pag.
The most straightforward solution would be imposing a carbon tax, Other solutions include a permit system and feedin tariffs, However, Sachs clearly prefers the carbon tax option,

That topdown, government oriented approach does raise another question: Who will pay for it all Massive investments will be needed to stop the vicious circle of disease and poverty.
Sachs' most frequent solution is Official Development Assistance ODA, basically financial aid and donations by developed countries, Will these countries always be willing to pay Especially times of crises crisis, this is doubtful, Starting on page, Sachs offersrecommended steps to health for all, In most cases, these recommendations involve throwing money at the problem, Part of the solutions may require specifying where that money will come from, This is usually lacking in Sachs analysis,

This book gives an impressive overview of was sustainable development is and what it can achieve, Sachs' focus on decent analysis, his embrace of complexity, acceptance of multiple causes of difficult issues and rejection of onesize fits all solutions are refreshing.
His optimism is powerful though occasionally over the top, for instance when he says on pagethat there are a few remaining pockets of poverty, and on the same page indicates that.
billion people live on US,per day. I would say.billion people are not a few remaining pockets of poverty,

With its wide scope and holistic approach, this book is a great introduction to sustainable development, At the same time, this also the The Age of Sustainable Development's weakness: Covering so many topics in one book results in a sometimes too basic introduction, The result is that although it is wonderful to read through this holistic approach, on many occasions I couldn't help but notice that most of what I was reading was not surprising new knowledge to me.


One thing I thought was lacking, The book ends with a description of the sustainable development goals SDG, Also here there is a strong focus on a topdown approach, What I thought was missing was some suggestions what the average reader of this book, who has an ordinary day job, can do to contribute to the SDGs.


Despite these small criticisms, the book is well worth the read,

And perhaps on the last pages, quoting JFK, Sachs does give a suggestion of what you and I can do: Start by asking 'Why not'

''This is an extraordinary country.
George Bernard Shaw, speaking as an Irishman, summed up an approach to life: Other people, he said ''see things and, . . say 'Why' But I dream things that never were and I say: 'Why not', It is that quality of the Irish that remarkable combination of hope, confidence and imagination that is needed more than ever today, The problems of the world can not possibly be solved by sceptics and cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities, We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not, ''

John Kennedy, mid,

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