Moscow Club for Sustainable Development

«The purpose of the Sustainable Development Consortium is to unite the efforts of representatives of various directions and sectors of society to ensure the implementation of sustainable development ideas (especially since, as experience shows, the organization of the process turns out to be a difficult task). This involves setting priorities and directions of action, providing the necessary information support, sharing experiences and coordination. This is exactly how the work of the Consortium is built. Among the first results are the preparation of training materials, generalization of regional experience, and holding thematic meetings. Among the promising tasks is the implementation of joint developments and projects.».

Scientific director of the Consortium,
V.M. Zakharov

«The Moscow Club for Sustainable Development is an association of representatives of the expert community who consider the concept of sustainable development as a priority of modern development. Among them are environmentalists and economists, political scientists, representatives of science, education and culture. The purpose of the Club is to identify nodal problems and determination of ways to solve them. To organize a discussion with installation messages, both Club members and and invited experts. The result of the first stage of work was the Appeal of the Moscow Club for Sustainable Development and The publication "Sustainable development: a new worldview (priorities in the field of education". On the agenda today discussion of the topic "Sustainable development: the biosphere and man". Among the promising areas is "Ecology and culture", "A broad movement in support of sustainable development (including representatives of government, business and to the public)". We hope that the results of the Club's work can be useful in determining priorities directions of action on the way to sustainable development.»

Co-chairs of the Club
V.M. Zakharov, A.V. Semenov

The appeal of the Moscow Club for Sustainable Development

The concept of sustainable development is an awareness of the need to integrate our ever–increasing activity into the natural possibilities of the planet (this is noted in international and national strategic documents, including the Concept of the Transition of the Russian Federation to Sustainable Development). "Taking care of the Land" to ensure the sustainability of the development process is not a subject for discussion, it is an imperative. The subject of discussion may be the very definition of development, which should not be limited to ensuring the growth of consumption, the development of culture is not so often heard among the priorities. The implementation of the Concept involves taking into account key points in a number of areas, including ecology, economy, society and culture.

Consideration of environmental aspects determines the need to ensure the health of biosystems (from the body to the biosphere) as an indispensable condition for each sustainable development goal, bearing in mind that the development of society presents not only risks, but also new opportunities for homeostatic mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of the biosphere.

Such mechanisms in the field of economics meet the growing needs against the background of a prosperous state of ecosystems, based on the policy of double gain (social and environmental effects of any project) and the principle of decoupling (mismatch of economic growth processes and negative environmental impact).

The existing "failures" of the market economy are determined by the lack of demand from consumers (including society and the state). An urgent task is to form the priority of public interests in the field of ensuring the harmony of man and nature and delegating power to the need for its implementation.

The success of forming such a request is determined by a culture that can ensure social responsibility of representatives of all sectors of society on the basis of personal interest. All this determines the development of the education and enlightenment system aimed at the formation of culture as a key priority.

In fact, modern ideas about ecology and sustainable development are a survival strategy involving the transformation of consciousness, the formation of a worldview and a new methodological approach that determines the priorities of any type of activity.

The composition of the club

Alexander Vyacheslavovich Semenov (Co-chairman)

Witte Moscow State University

Vladimir Mikhailovich Zakharov (Co-Chairman)

N.K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Natalia Alexandrovna Zakharova (coordinator)

N.K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Ilya Evgenievich Trofimov (coordinator)

N.K. Koltsov Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Andrey Alekseevich Avramenko

Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Sergey Nikolaevich Bobylev

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Viktor Ivanovich Danilov-Danilyan

Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Artur Leonovich Demchuk

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Arbatov Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Vladimir Alexandrovich Evstafyev

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Dmitry Sergeyevich Ermakov

Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

Andrey Stanislavovich Zaitsev