Sustainable development concerns strategies that help to solve environmental and social issues. While traditional solutions contribute to one party by doing damage to the other, sustainable development is friendly for all living beings. The idea of sustainable development appeared decades ago, and the Earth Summit in Brazil, 1992, introduced sustainability as a lifestyle of the future. Sustainability covers several global issues such as conservation of energy, improving biodiversity, agriculture, and combating poverty, which make it difficult to achieve.
Sustainable development is partially reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. Since September 2000, the global community aimed mainly at the reduction of poverty to succeed with these goals. According to World Economic and Social Survey issued by the UN in 2013, the number of extremely poor people in the developing countries fell from 47 to 22 percent between 1990 and 2010. Nevertheless, these results have not met expectations that should have been reached by 2015.
Apparently, strategies built to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals did not contribute to sustainable development much. Climate change still forces us to use natural resources and ecosystems wisely. Food security leaves much to be desired because people struggle to find some food and fresh water in the poorest areas without infrastructure. Epidemics make up another threat for them; mortality from malaria and other diseases is high and treatment is scarce.
Energy security is a problem even for developed nations. Fossil fuels may be exhausted soon, and nuclear energy causes deep concerns of environmentalists. The world has never consumed so much energy as it does lately, which means that only full switch to alternative sources of energy can reverse consequences of rush industrial development.