Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions:
Achieving Sustainable Development
According to Herman Daly, a leading environmental economist, to achieve sustainable development, the following needs to be done (i) limiting the human population to a level within the carrying capacity of the environment. (ii) technological progress should be input efficient and not input consuming (iii) renewable resources should be extracted on a sustainable basis, that is, rate of extraction should not exceed rate of regeneration (iv) for non-renewable resources rate of depletion should not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes and (v) inefficiencies arising from pollution should be corrected. In 2015, the UN formulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
What is meant by the term ‘sustainable development’?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs.
Growth that uses up resources and damages the environment can raise living standards today while leaving the cost to those who come later. Sustainable development rules this out: it is development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. Both halves count: present needs are met, and the future’s capacity is left intact.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) Development that meets the needs of the future generation but compromising the ability of the present generation to meet their own needs. — Incorrect. This reverses the two generations. The definition does not ask the present generation to give up its own needs.
Option (3) Development that meets the needs of the present generation. — Incorrect. This leaves out the whole point of the definition, the needs of the future generation.
Option (4) Development that meets the needs of the present generation but compromises the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. — Incorrect. This describes the opposite of sustainable development: growth that uses up resources at the cost of the generations to come.
Note 1: The passage comes from the Environment and Sustainable Development chapter of the NCERT book, lightly trimmed. Go through every paragraph of that chapter, boxes included; the names and numbers this passage asks about are printed there.
Note 2: A same/similar question was asked in CUET (UG) in the papers below.
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| 11-05 S1* 12-05 S1 | – | – | – | – |
* A similar question.
NCERT (2025-26): “7.4 Sustainable Development Environment and economy are interdependent and need each other. Hence, development that ignores its repercussions on the environment will destroy the environment that sustains life forms. What is needed is sustainable development: development that will allow all future generations to have a potential average quality of life that is at least as high as that which is being enjoyed by the current generation. The concept of sustainable development was emphasised by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which defined it as: ‘Development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs’. Read the definition again. You will notice that the term ‘need’ and the phrase ‘future generations’ in the definition are the catch phrases.… …The Brundtland Commission emphasises on protecting the future generation. This is in line with the argument of the environmentalists who emphasise that we have a moral obligation to hand over the planet earth in good order to the future generation; that is, the present generation should bequeath a better environment to the future generation.…” |