Page 106 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.70, # 2, 2013, pp. 99-112

important to adopt an inclusive and multidimensional approach to policy making, looking also at

the social dimensions such as gender inequality.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its report

“Sustainable Development: Critical Issues” (2001) has also identified some of the conceptual
and practical barriers standing in the way of progress. Attaining path of sustainable development

requires:

elimination of negative externalities that are responsible for natural resources depletion
and environmental degradation;

securing public goods that are essential for economic development, such as those
provided by well-functioning ecosystems, cohesive society;

retaining the flexibility to respond to future shocks, even if their probability, size and

location cannot be assessed with certainty.
Sustainable development also underscores the importance of taking a longer-term

perspective about the consequences of today’s activities, and of global cooperation among

countries to reach viable solutions.
It is true, that strong economic growth driven by technology advances and by increasing

integration between countries has lifted the economic and social well-being of billions of
individuals. But many individuals and countries have remained at the margin of this process,

failing to share the benefits of economic growth.
Further, because of inappropriate incentives to consumers and producers, the higher scale

of economic activity has often led to pressures on the local and global environment, interfering

with the climate system and leading to biodiversity loss, water scarcity and over-exploitation of
marine resources.

However, despite the importance of „de-coupling“ economic growth from environmental

preassures, the implementation of effective policies is made more difficult by the existance of
many unsatisified social needs. Pressing problems of social exclusion, poverty and unemployment

are reducing attention paid to environemntal problems. In many countries — rich and poor — this
is often because of a perception that sustainability is expensive to implement and ultimately a

brake on development. Poor countries for their part usually lack the physical infrastructure, ideas
and human capacity to integrate sustainability into their development planning. Besides, they are

often quite skeptical about rich countries’ real commitment to sustainable development and

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