The role of technology in sustainable development

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Abstract
The inability of governments represented at the 1992 Earth Summit to reach a consensus on reducing either population growth or consumption, and the political need for the concept of sustainable development to accommodate economic growth, mean that the achievement of sustainable development will depend on our ability to reduce the environmental impact of resource use through technological change. This will require the redesign of our technological systems and not merely the application of technological fixes that are seldom satisfactory in the long term. Past attempts by the appropriate technology movement to affect such a redesign neglected the social dimensions of technological change. Modern advocates of sustainable development will similarly fail unless they recognize the need for fundamental social change and a shift in priorities.

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