Sustainable development: Notions, numbers, and narratives

This article contributes to the theoretical knowledge of sustainable development operationalized in a sustainable development space based on three sustainable development imperatives: needs, justice, and limits. The space is constituted by six primary goals with associated key indicators and thresholds. Moreover, the article contributes to empirical knowledge about where different countries are in relation to this space based on data from 144 countries by using cluster analyses. The analyses show that no country is currently in the sustainable development space, but that sustainable development is possible. Finally, the article contributes to the growing literature on the use of narratives as important elements in change processes in general and sustainable development in particular. We present four big sustainable development narratives: “the right to education for all,” “leave no one behind,” “a carbon‐free energy system,” and “make room for nature.” These narratives are fundamental in the sense that they are a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.