Blue Planet Prize Story

Introduction: Harmony of economy, environment, and society

Today's society is facing wide-ranging issues, including poverty, inequality, climate change, and pandemics. These are all caused by interrelated factors regarding the environment, society, and economy. We must address these issues all together.
In order to solve these problems, we are now working on sustainable development. Our Common Future, commonly called the Brundtland Report, released by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) in 1987, defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Sustainable development means to make the world better not only for the present, but also for future generations.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015, contain 17 targets, set to be achieved by 2030. These include goals regarding the environment, society, and economy. You may have read about it and thought about what you can do, or you may already have done something about it.

Professor Mohan Munasinghe, a development economist, has pointed out that these issues have been known about for a long time. We have been aware of these issues for decades, but we have not been able to make any progress yet. Professor Munasinghe has long been worried about and has worked diligently for the realization of sustainable development.
To this end, he has put forward important concepts to harmonize the environment, society, and economy, and his ideas have been incorporated into one of the SDGs.

Prof. Mohan Munasinghe

Contents

1. Studying multidisciplinary fields in different countries

2. Principles for the realization of sustainable development

3. Different pathways for rich countries and poor countries to take

4. Responsible consumption by the rich (People in developed countries)