ABSTRACT
Needs and limits are the cornerstones of sustainable development. Sustainable development is, according to the famous definition by the Brundtland Commission, ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987). Development is supposedly sustainable if it fulfils the requirements of intra-and intergenerational justice. This definition is probably one of the most quoted sentences on sustainable development. In order to understand the goal of sustainable development, particularly in relation to scarcity, it is important to also take into account the words that follow the definition. Sustainable development, we read, contains within it two key concepts: needs and limitations. In other words, sustainable development is about ends (in other words, meeting the needs of people living today and future generations) and limited means (namely, the environment, technology, institutions). In economic terms: sustainable development is about fferent
