❖ Unit 4 ❖ Sustainable Development ❖ Vocabulary ❖

Sustainable Development Vocabulary

Three fields: social issues, economic issues, environmental issues. Plus essential collocations and word families for talking about development.

Three categories of issues

Social issues

healthcare · social justice · poverty elimination · equal pay for women · property rights · drug addiction

Economic issues

micro enterprises · raw materials · money investment · transport infrastructure · unemployment · job opportunities

Environmental issues

climate change · water pollution · forest preservation · ecological crisis · energy preservation · recycling waste · global warming

Collocations

civil society — NGOs, non-profit organisations, voluntary associations
non-governmental organisation (NGO)
sustainable development — growth that doesn't harm the future
renewable energy — solar, wind, hydro power
rural areas — countryside, villages
global warming — temperature rise across the planet
micro credits — small loans for low-income people
natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, hurricanes
financial assistance — money help from a government or NGO
social justice — fairness in society
have access to — to be able to use / reach
raise awareness — make people conscious of an issue
combat / fight + corruption / poverty / illiteracy

Word families

Adjective / Verb	Noun
poor	poverty
develop	development
healthy	health
nature / natural	nature
pollute	pollution
improve	improvement
employ / unemployed	employment / unemployment
prior	priority
dangerous	danger
conscious	consciousness
renew / renewable	renewal
harm / harmful	harm
happy	happiness

Practice 1 — Use the collocations

Fill in with the right collocation

Some NGOs provide rural women with micro credits to start their own businesses.
Earthquakes, hurricanes and floods are called natural disasters.
"Baity" is a Moroccan non-governmental organisation whose main concern is to save homeless children.
Morocco is setting up one of the world's largest projects of renewable energy in Ouarzazate.
The civil society consists of NGOs, non-profit organisations and voluntary associations.
Global warming, which is caused by pollution, constitutes a major threat to Earth.

Practice 2 — Word formation

Correct form of the word

(Poor) Poverty is a big problem all over the world.
Our country has made great efforts for the sustainable (develop) development.
"Rameed" is a new system in the Moroccan (healthy) health care.
We have to preserve our (nature) natural resources for the coming generations.
People mustn't (pollution) pollute their neighbourhoods.
One cause of traffic accidents is that a lot of roads need (improve) improvement / improving.
(Unemployment) Unemployed people are manifesting in the capital city these days.
Fighting corruption must be given a high (prior) priority.
Drug addiction is a (danger) dangerous phenomenon.

❖ Key Takeaways ❖

① Three fields

Social, economic, environmental issues — know at least 5 words for each.

② Common pairs

civil society · sustainable development · renewable energy · global warming · natural disasters · micro credits.

③ -tion / -ment / -ity / -ness

Suffix patterns for nouns. Pollute → pollution. Develop → development. Prior → priority. Conscious → consciousness.

❖ Exam tip

Sustainable development is the most frequent theme in National Exam writing tasks (e.g. environment, NGOs, civil society projects). Build a strong vocabulary base for this unit.