Handbook of sustainable development This timely and important Handbook takes stock of progress made in our understanding of what sustainable development actually is and how it can be measured and achieved. This Handbook demonstrates the well established body of thinking on sustainable development which now exists and its tighter focus today on limits to current economic growth patterns. But while there have been lots of big global debates on planetary boundaries and thresholds for critical resources there has been little progress on the ground and in getting the politics right. Contributing authors show that many of the models we use to understand and manage relations between planet people and profit are hopelessly mis specified. But better tools exist such as sustainability indicators national environmental accounts and the ecological footprint to help bridge this gap. (Camilla Toulmin International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) UK). There is now wide recognition that current patterns of economic development are already putting great strains on resources environment and the climate and that if continued the consequences could undermine or reverse past development gains and possibly lead to catastrophe. In other words our current paths are unsustainable. This Handbook provides a very thorough thoughtful and valuable contribution to our understanding of the possible meanings of sustainable development how it can be understood and calibrated and characteristics of and choices around alternative paths. This is a subject that should be at the centre of the study of development and encompasses many disciplines. And it should be a subject that commands the attention of all those who think carefully about our future well being; they will find this Handbook fascinating and essential reading. (Lord Nicholas Stern London School of Economics and Political Science UK.)