The age of sustainable development / Jeffrey D. Sachs ; [foreword by Ban Ki-Moon].

Includes bibliographical references (pages 513-519) and index.

What is sustainable development? -- An introduction to economic growth -- Continuing poverty in the midst of plenty -- Global environmental threats caused by economic development -- Pathways to sustainable development -- Incomes around the world -- Urban-rural inequality -- Income inequality within countries -- Measuring wellbeing -- Convergence or divergence? -- The age of modern economic growth -- The Industrial Revolution begins in England -- The great waves of technological change -- The diffusion of economic growth -- Economic development since World War II : the making of globalization -- The idea of clinical economics -- A further look at geography : transport, energy, disease, and crops -- The role of culture : demography, education, and gender -- The role of politics -- Which countries are still stuck in poverty -- The reasons to believe that extreme poverty can be ended -- Strategies to end extreme poverty -- South Asia : the continuing challenge of food supply -- A closer look at official development assistance -- Designing practical interventions : the case of the millennium villages -- Planetary boundaries -- Growth dynamics -- The case of energy -- The case of food -- Population dynamics and sustainable development -- Economic growth within planetary boundaries -- The ethics of wealth, poverty, and inequality -- United Nations declarations, covenants, and the MDGs -- Divided societies -- Forces of widening inequalities -- Gender inequality -- Life cycle approach to human development -- Early childhood development -- The rising returns of education and the supply response -- Social mobility -- The role of higher education in technological advance -- Universal health coverage -- Poverty and disease -- Designing and financing primary health systems in low-income countries -- Ten recommended steps to health for all in the poorest countries -- The continuing challenges of health coverage in the high-income countries.

Sustainable food supply and the end of hunger -- Farm systems, ecology, and food security -- How environmental change threatens the food system -- How the food system threatens the environment -- Toward a sustainable global food supply -- The patterns of urbanization around the world -- What makes a city sustainable, green, and resilient? -- Smart infrastructure -- Urban resilience -- Planning sustainable development -- The basic science of climate change -- The consequences of human-induced climate change -- Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius -- Adaptation -- The politics of carbon dioxide mitigation -- What is biodiversity? -- Biodiversity under threat -- Oceans and fisheries -- Deforestation -- International dynamics -- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- Goal-based development -- Financing for sustainable development -- Principles of good governance -- Is sustainable development feasible?

Jeffrey D. Sachs is one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development. In this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice: sustainable development. Sachs offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action. Based on Sachs's twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, The Age of Sustainable Development is a landmark publication and clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.