Governing the Transition toward Sustainable Economies while Reconciling Human Development, Social Equity and Ecological Limits

The transition toward sustainable economies raises a central development question: how can environmental objectives be achieved without reinforcing poverty, inequality and unequal access to the conditions required for human development? This paper reviews the literature on the interactions between climate vulnerability, income distribution, ecological constraints, energy access, sustainable development and transition governance. The evidence shows that environmental degradation and climate shocks disproportionately affect poorer households because of differences in exposure, assets, employment, housing conditions and adaptive capacity. At the same time, responsibility for emissions and resource consumption is strongly concentrated among higher-income groups, suggesting that poverty eradication is compatible with ambitious decarbonization when mitigation efforts are distributed according to capacity and responsibility. The literature further indicates that high levels of human well-being do not necessarily require continuously rising resource consumption when public services, efficient provisioning systems and equitable institutions are available. However, carbon pricing, energy transition and structural transformation may generate important distributional effects across households, workers, sectors and regions. Sustainable transition therefore requires coordinated policies combining environmental regulation, redistribution, social protection, energy access, institutional capacity and employment adjustment. The paper concludes that environmental sustainability and human development should be treated as mutually dependent objectives rather than separate policy domains.