Global South & Sustainable Development Discourse

Mihajlo Jakovljevic; Xufeng Zhu; Alexandra Middleton; Monika Kochar; Arcadio Cerda Urutia

doi:10.53941/gssd.2026.100010

Abstract

Historical events leading to establishment of the Global South—Global North polarity in world affairs, took place during the Colonial Era. After almost three decades of accelerated globalization, in recent years, we witnessed its substantial slowing down. Hyperconnected, globally integrated economic systems established since the early 1990s, are giving place to a far more fragmented world of the late 2020s. The sustainable development concept has become increasingly prominent in the world’s development discourse over the last half-century. The ultimate challenge of sacrifice of modern-day nations to respect sustainable development related self-imposed limitations, relates to the need to transform the entire economic model primarily for the sake of the future generations. The purpose is to create long-term growth balancing natural resource consumption to ensure a viable planet for our descendants to come. Although underlying theoretical concepts originated in the North, the Global South has unique circumstances ranging from quite large populations to persistent epidemiological burden of infectious diseases, rapidly growing but insufficient transportation networks, brain drain on a scale unseen in the North and so on. We witness substantially different landscape and governance issues having a profound and long-lasting impact on the sustainable development challenge as well. This article examines the evolving challenges and opportunities of the Global South, aiming to rethink sustainability in a global context and to identify pathways for research, policy, and practice that foster equitable and sustainable futures. A strong unmet need is integration of social justice systems into environmental sustainability. Urban sustainability remains of utmost importance since 90% of forecasted population growth between 2018 and 2050 will happen in cities of the Global South. Despite Global North economies being responsible for the majority of cumulative carbon emissions since 1850, low-and-middle-income countries struggle with consequences of climate change such as intense heatwaves, droughts, floods, and wildfires substantially affecting agriculture and crops harvest. Regardless of difficulties, there are exceptional success stories in renewable energy with some of the GS countries becoming global leaders in wind turbines and solar panels manufacturing and export. There is a growing need across these countries to mobilise domestic financial resources through the capacities of the local banking systems and capital markets and channel them into sustainability related domestic investments. Ability to lead Emerging BRICS+ economies to meet UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Climate Accords, will likely remain well ahead of most Global South nations.

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