Development Economics: An Outline (Rozwoj zrownowazony a ekonomia zrownowazonego rozwoju – zarys problematyki)

Abstract

The concept of sustainable development, and thus the evolution of the economics of sustainable development, became the subject of increased interest of researchers and businesses after the first UN Conference in Stockholm in 1972, and then after the second Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro two decades later. It is at the second Earth Summit with its “Environment and Development” motto, which was attended officially by 172 countries and approximately 2400 representatives of non-governmental organisations, where unsustainable consumption and production were recognised as the most important causes of growing global development problems. Attempts were made to find models of sustainable and stable economic development that took into account the protection of ecosystems from overexploitation and determinants of ecological human activity. It was no accident that this process coincided with the progress of economics of sustainable development. This article aims at providing an insight into economics of sustainable development and presenting its historical roots. The issues herein do not describe its whole range, but only selected elements. The structure of this article is as follows. The first part focuses on the origins, concept and principles, objectives and orders of sustainable development. Further, the concept and assumptions of sustainable development economics and homo sustinens as the basic underlying notion are discussed.