Asia’s headlong charge for growth brought spectacular economic gains over the past decades, but came at the cost of catastrophic environmental impacts. The question of how to sustain this growth is foremost on the minds of many governments in these precarious times, marked by slipping growth in the People’s Republic of China causing global concern. The wrong response would be simply to return to the policies of the past. Encouragingly, there is talk of sustainable economic growth – rather than growth at any cost. Global initiatives being readied for a new development agenda for the next 15 years and action on climate change should provide a sturdy framework for policy actions to help sustain socio-economic progress. This month sees the launch in New York of the Sustainable Development Goals by member countries of the United Nations, an initiative that is far broader and more ambitious than the Millennium Development Goals...

— blogs.adb.org/blog