Abstract. The concept of sustainability nowadays means different things to different people, and a large part of humanity around the world still live without access to basic necessities. Sustainable development is often an over-used word, but goes to the heart of tackling a number of inter-related global issues such as poverty, inequality, hunger and envirnomental degradation. In theory, development that is not sustainable and not damaging to the planet is very possible. Of course though, in reality there are a lot of politics and challenges involved. Most international actors are still not sufficietly focused on the future implications of theses challenges both individually and collectively. As a common concept, the sustainable development covers three major approaches: economic, environmental and social development, which are mentioned in literature as interdepended and complementary. The concept is very wide and in some contexts the ecological, institutional, cultural, ethical aspects are included as well. From the other side, this wide range of aspects, which are included in sustainable development, make it weakly defined. From this point of view, it is possible to have some contradictions of sustainable development concepts.Literature offers many definitions of sustainable development, but it is thought appropriate to use the classic definition, which postulates that „sustainable development is a kind of development, that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs“. This paper evaluates the process of economic development by sustainability aspect. According to the collected theorethical and practical material, assessing the principles and systems of environmental economics and sustainable development, economic development by sustainability aspect is reviewed.

Keywords: economy, sustainable development, sustainability, economic development.

JEL Classification Codes: O1