Sustainable Development Pathways: Foundations and Frontiers

Rao, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1888-5292 (2012). Sustainable Development Pathways: Foundations and Frontiers. In: Worlds Within Reach: From Science To Policy - IIASA 40th Anniversary Conference, 24-26 October 2012, Hofburg Congress Center, Vienna and IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria.

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Abstract

Raising the living standards of billions of people in present and future generations while also responsibly utilizing earth’s systems requires unprecedented levels of resource mobilization, global cooperation, and ‘leapfrogging’ over historical pathways of resource and technology use. From relatively low per capita levels of resource use and consumption today, developing economies are growing rapidly. This growth depends on a foundation of shared but limited natural resources - such as land, water and the atmosphere - and shared human-made infrastructure, such as water, energy, roads, and communications. The scale of the required investments presents both a daunting challenge – to avoid locking economies into unsustainable pathways – and significant scope to change course. Meeting the infrastructure gap sustainably requires innovation in how we can better utilize, share, govern and grow infrastructure to meet development needs within these natural limits. Scientific research contributes to developing such sustainable pathways at many levels, including understanding poverty and urbanization, their relation to energy and resource use, developing appropriate technologies, finding synergies between development and environmental goals, and assessing policy impacts under different evaluation criteria. This talk will highlight some research directions in these areas.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Other)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	IIASA 40th Anniversary Conference
Research Programs:	Energy (ENE)
Depositing User:	Michaela Rossini
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2016 16:14
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 17:26
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/12193

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