Well....

This is a very exciting question....and in my opinion...it could be answered in many ways..

From my point of view....first of all sustainable development must be seen as resource use practice: nature provides enough energy but humans have to re-design deeply the way to use it (and raw materials too off course). In the "business as usual"...this doesn't happens and we live in a very inefficient society.

From a philosophical point of view....we have only this planet...It's our interest to preserve it, our house, the only one we have. From this point of view...sd is an investment for our future and for the future of our children: politicians and companies are too much shortsighted...who really cares about the generations are yet to come??

market failure policy failure and community practice failure at the community level are most of the times interrelated as it depends from the actors that engage with intervention like politicians, citizens and entrepreneurs. so finding the root of the problem in order to address sd in the long term and in the short term we need to observe the situation in a systematic way and see where stakeholder applications have a large environmental  impact on the community and address that in a sustainable way. for instance in the agriculture  sector when economic resiliency is lost and we have environmental deterioration  at the community level like, poverty enlargement and significant biodiversity loss  due to  inappropriate measures like ,    inefficiency in production etc. and agro-ecosystem depletion etc.  we need to propose as actors of  environmental  governance( depending from who we are)  alternative means for community enhancement and sustainability  so as either  public investments for sd or  public private cooperation and engagement or even   private means like social license and acceptance or even private cooperation will re-structure the tragedy that appears. its a situation where you tackle and  control  the problem  in order to fit it within well acceptable ecological or economic limits defined by communal capacity

This is an interesting and provoking question.

market failure, policy failure or community practice failure? without a correct diagnosis of problem, we cannot have a correct answer.

I think we need to look at it as an integrated and connected. The failure to address what are  the root of the problem, at the conceptual or implementation level.

For example, the plastic tax application affects the industry, government and consumers on the implementation. the reaction from the consumers may results the strategic behavior  which create new issues that need creative approach from the implementator, government vis-a-vis businesses. So it becomes the practice failure though its a very nice at conceptual level, polluter pays principle (PPP). It may need case study base and contextualization in analyzing and solve the problem.

   Sustainable Development is neither an investment nor a subsidy. It is more about awareness and cognition toward its three interconnected factors: environmental, which can be perceived as a resource use practice, social, and economic.

   The major issues that led to the emergence of this concept, sustainable development, are well recognized. For example, the excessive use of natural resources to meet present's needs results in, whether in the short or long term, a lack of these resources which, as a result, compromises the future generation's ability to meet their own needs.

   Addressing the issue, specialists have to diagnose it on three levels: on the individual level, country level, and global level. Each country has to approach achieving sustainable development by legislating new regulations that limit all irregular behaviors that affect sustainability. For example, by adopting ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) which contributes to the awareness of individuals.

Sustainable development is neither a subsidy, an investment or resource use practice but  an approach or phenomenon which provides insights into the structure and behavioural patterns of a system. this implies that the natural and human environments make up a holistic system; comprising of individual components that are interrelated, affecting each other and therefore the whole. So an approach That helps to reveal the root causes of challenges rather than symptoms of the root challenges will bring harmony and helps plan the future, reduce risk, anticipate delays, and prevent unintended consequences.

sustainable development is a use practice of resources. it is not a subsidy or investment. because, sustainable development guides the present generation to use the resources by considering the availability for the future generation. so SD aims at resource use practice.

Answer posted by Ehab Abudheibeh is absolutely right.Any technology/practice/policy should address 3 things; economically viable,Environmentally safe and socially/culturally acceptable, 

If so the effect or outcome of technology/practice/policy /resource/investment/subsidy is long lasting .

Fayyaz Sir

Sustainable development is an approach or a way for looking at the possibility and prospects of human existence and comfortable living along the time trajectory. It comes out of an urgent necessity. Hence, I, for me, would suppose the efforts at sustainable development the necessary but not the sufficient condition for human survival down the stream.

Viewed that way, sustainable development is, and is not, at the same time, just a subsidy or an investment. In fact, it is a strategy for resource use.

For the humanity as a whole and the community of the economies as well, sustainable development is an investment like any investment aimed at future streams of benefits, to ensure the future of our off springs! The problem of free riders, however, requires policy interventions and a background perspective for that intervention at the target level.

Thanks.

Dear All, I want to thank you for your very thought provoking answers. I raised this question because in the current debate on Sustainable Development Goals nobody talks about sustainable development means i.e. what needs to be done to deal with market and price distortions,as well as encroachment of community space by corporate or state sector (market failure); what steps are missing  in policy domain to deal with over harvesting of resources, depletion of non renewables, and expropriation of community assets (policy failure) and why community cannot re-appropriate it space   and restore sustainable use. SDG only recommends subsidies in terms of foreign aid from those who are responsible for violation of sustainable norms in the first place. Subsidies also create only show cases of unsustainable micro projects at community level for short term, Professionals unable to explain the failure of their targets find refuge in creating new set of indicators - e.g. moving from MDGs to SDGS without pointing out where investments need to be made for market and policy reform to alter the existing irrational, myopic  and greed base economic discourse. Can we have a new economic paradigm which talks of sustainable consumption, maximization of public good instead of private good and community economy as a power sector in competition with private and public sector and define the guiding principles of community economics and measures required to protect its space.