Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
IsThis

GENERAL

The Claim

Sustainable development means meeting present economic and social needs without undermining the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The Short Version

The claim captures the core idea of sustainable development but not its standard definition. Authoritative UN sources define it as meeting “the needs of the present” without compromising future generations, not specifically “economic and social needs.” That added qualifier narrows the concept and downplays the environmental dimension, so the statement is partly right but materially incomplete.

Caveats

  • The wording is not the canonical Brundtland definition; it inserts “economic and social,” which authoritative sources do not.
  • The added qualifier narrows “present needs” and can mislead readers into overlooking environmental needs and constraints.
  • This is better treated as a partial paraphrase than as an exact definition of sustainable development.

The Receipts

  1. The Sustainable Development Goals

    United Nations

  2. Frequently Asked Questions

    UNEP

  3. Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development

    UN Documents

  4. UN World Commission on Environment and Development, ed. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future

    Environment & Society Portal

  5. Sustainable development - Glossary

    UNESCO

  6. Sustainability - the United Nations

    United Nations

  7. What is Sustainable Development? | Environment and Ecology Bureau

    Environment and Ecology Bureau

  8. Sustainable development - EUR-Lex - European Union

    EUR-Lex

  9. Brundtland Report: Our common future

    Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE), Switzerland

  10. Placing Future Generations at the Heart of Sustainable Development

    IISD SDG Knowledge Hub

+ 18 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Sustainable Development