IB ESS SL1.3 SustainabilityPaper 1 & 2Core idea~12 min read
Sustainable Development and the SDGs
Sustainability on its own says “do not run the stocks down”. Sustainable development adds a much harder condition: do that while still lifting billions of people out of poverty. The two halves pull against each other, and the whole argument is about how to hold them together.
📚 What you need to know
Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without stopping future generations from meeting theirs. This is the Brundtland definition, from a 1987 UN report.
It relies on intragenerational equity (fairness between people alive now) and intergenerational equity (fairness towards people not born yet).
The UN Sustainable Development Goals were agreed in 2015 as part of Agenda 2030: 17 goals and 169 targets, to be met by 2030.
The goals cover all three pillars, and can be arranged so the economy sits inside society, which sits inside the biosphere.
Strengths: shared language, measurable targets, global agreement.
Criticisms: goals can conflict with each other, they are not legally binding, and progress is uneven.
Development means more than income — health, education, rights and opportunity all count.
What sustainable development means
DefinitionSustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
That wording comes from the Brundtland Report, published by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, and it is still the definition examiners expect.
Notice what it does not say. It does not say stop developing. It says develop in a way that does not use up the options of people who are not here yet to argue about it.
Everything difficult about sustainable development comes from the fact that one circle makes all the decisions and the other one lives with them.
Two kinds of fairness
Intragenerational equity — fairness between people alive at the same time. A country in poverty has as much right to develop as one that got rich by burning coal for two centuries.
Intergenerational equity — fairness between generations. Leaving future people a stripped, polluted planet is taking something from them without asking.
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Easy way to remember it
Intra = inside, so inside one generation. Inter = between, so between generations. Same trick as intranet and international.
The Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, all UN member states agreed Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, broken down into 169 targets with a deadline of 2030. They replaced the earlier Millennium Development Goals and, unlike them, apply to every country rather than only the poorest.
Group
Goals
What they are about
Biosphere
6, 13, 14, 15
Clean water, climate action, life below water, life on land
Decent work, industry and infrastructure, reduced inequality, responsible consumption
Partnership
17
Cooperation, funding and shared data to deliver all the others
This stacking is an argument, not just a diagram. It says the economy is not a separate thing that trades off against nature — it is contained by it.
Do the SDGs work?
This is the part examiners actually want, because it needs judgement rather than recall.
Strengths
Criticisms
Agreed by every UN member state, so there is a shared global language for the problem
They are not legally binding, so a country that misses them faces no penalty
Targets are specific and measurable, so progress can be tracked and compared
Some goals pull against each other, such as economic growth against reduced consumption
They cover all three pillars, not just the environment
Progress is very uneven between countries and between goals
They apply to rich and poor countries alike
Data is missing or unreliable in many of the places that need it most
They give campaigners and businesses something concrete to point at
Organisations can claim to support a goal without changing much, which weakens the whole idea
The strongest answers name a specific conflict. Goal 8 wants sustained economic growth; goal 12 wants responsible consumption and production; goal 13 wants urgent climate action. Delivering all three at once is not impossible, but it is not automatic either, and pretending otherwise is where a lot of sustainability talk goes wrong.
Development is not just money. A country can raise average income while life expectancy, literacy and equality stay flat. That is why development is measured with things like health and education alongside income, and why goal 10 — reduced inequality — sits in the list at all.
Worked examples
WE 1
Define and unpack sustainable development
Outline what is meant by sustainable development. (3 marks)
Point 1: the definition
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Point 2: intergenerational equity
It requires fairness towards people not yet born, who cannot take part in decisions made today.
Point 3: intragenerational equity
It also requires fairness between people alive now, so poorer countries are not asked to stay poor.
Develop, but do not spend the future’s sharenaming both kinds of equity turns a definition into a three-mark answer
WE 2
Explain a conflict between goals
Explain how two of the Sustainable Development Goals may conflict with each other. (3 marks)
Point 1: name the goals
Goal 8 aims for sustained economic growth and decent work; goal 13 calls for urgent climate action.
Point 2: the conflict
Growth of the usual kind increases energy use, resource extraction and greenhouse gas emissions, which works against climate action.
Point 3: the resolution
The conflict eases only if growth is decoupled from resource use, through renewable energy and circular design — which is difficult and not guaranteed.
The goals are agreed together but do not automatically fit togetherpick a pair you can explain fully; a vague “they sometimes clash” earns one mark at most
WE 3
Evaluate the SDGs
Evaluate the usefulness of the Sustainable Development Goals in achieving sustainability. (4 marks)
Strength 1
They were agreed by all UN member states, giving a shared global framework and a common language.
Strength 2
The 169 targets are measurable, so progress can be monitored and countries compared.
Limitation 1
They are not legally binding, so there is no consequence for missing them.
Limitation 2
Goals can conflict, data is patchy, and organisations can claim support without real change.
Judgement
Valuable for setting direction and measuring progress, but not sufficient on their own without enforcement.
A good map, but nobody has to follow itevery evaluate question needs that final judgement line
💡 Exam tips
Learn the Brundtland definition properly. Half-remembered versions lose the mark.
