Sustainable Development: Goals, Critics, and Realities

The concept of development has undergone a transformation from periods emphasizing economic growth to discussions where social and political factors are also considered as criteria for development. Specifically, increasing awareness of environmental degradation caused by industrialization since the second half of the 20th century has given rise to the sustainable development paradigm. Although sustainable development, first defined in the 1987 Brundtland Report, does not provide a fully developed theoretical framework, it is presented as an alternative approach to the development models that harm the environment and cause social problems such as poverty, hunger, and inequalities by bringing together the fields of economy, society, and environment. After the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were accepted in 2000 by the United Nations, the 2030 Agenda and 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted in 2015. With the emergence of the sustainable development understanding, criticisms have also intensified. This paper discusses the criticisms of the concept of sustainable development under three headings of criticisms regarding its definition, economic objectives continuing to be a priority, and not presenting the necessary concrete methods while ignoring the differences between countries. In conclusion, it is argued that the discourse of sustainable development has facilitated the reproduction of neoliberal power structures rising since the early 1980s without encountering significant opposition on a global scale and puts emphasis on the need for a radical change in the perspective of nature as well as the understanding of development.