Weak and strong sustainability
Topic: Environment and Sustainable Development · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
These are two views on how much nature we must keep for future generations.
- Weak sustainability comes from the Solow-Hartwick approach. It says man-made capital, such as machines, roads and skills, can replace natural capital. Using up a resource is fine if the income from it, called resource rents, is invested in other capital.
- Strong sustainability says some critical natural capital, such as the ozone layer or aquifers, has no substitute. It must be preserved whatever the income it could earn.
Example
A state earns revenue from mining coal and spends it on schools and hospitals. Under weak sustainability, total wealth has not fallen. Now suppose a state drains an aquifer to grow more paddy. Strong sustainability says this fails the test, because no factory can replace that groundwater.
Don't confuse with
- Renewable and non-renewable resources: that split is about whether a resource regenerates. Weak versus strong sustainability is about whether natural capital can be replaced by man-made capital.
Related concepts
- Sustainable development
- Plimsoll line of the economy
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Environmental Kuznets curve
- Pollution haven hypothesis
- Environmental decoupling
- Rebound effect
- Green growth
- Green economy
- Degrowth