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Continuation along current development pathways is not sustainable. Available technology and production practices and the consumption patterns of modern societies are leading to global warming and ecological destruction. Business as usual is not an option. There is an urgent need to find a new development paradigm that ensures environmental sustainability while managing to provide, now and in the future, a decent livelihood for all of humankind.

In Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development, experts in the area provide a variety of insights about the technical transformation needed for sustainable development. It spells out the behavioural and policy changes that would need to accompany the next technological transformation, taking into account the complexity of inducing technological change in the energy and agricultural sectors. The assessment suggests that this will require major, but doable improvements in national innovation systems and major, but affordable shifts in investment patterns and related macroeconomic adjustments.

Rob Vos is the Director of Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. From 2005 to December 2012 he was the Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. During that time, he was the lead author and coordinator of the flagship publications, World Economic and Social Survey and the World Economic Situation and Prospects.

Diana Alarcón is Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. She was part of the team that produced the World Economic and Social Survey from 2007-2012 and was Senior Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank from 1997-2007. In the past she has worked as Director of Economics at Colegio de la Frontera Norte, and has been affiliated with the International Labour Organization and several universities in Mexico and the United States.