Asia is certainly one of the key areas of the developing world. What is the role assigned in Asian countries, to crucial factors like fundamental rights, the rule of law, environmental protection, trade liberalization? A distinguished group of scholars, practitioners and officials analyses the concepts of development, environmental protection, climate change, use and distribution of natural resources through the well-known paradigm of sustainable development. This reflection is carried out through the lens of some key ideas: the rights to life and to development, and more generally human rights, equitable distribution of resources, common but differentiated responsibility, the pivotal role of finance, trade and knowledge-and-technology transfer to developing countries to trigger and support sustainable development. Analyzing the challenges of development from an Asian perspective does not lead to results which are only of limited interest to this continent: Asia can offer useful lessons for other areas of the developing world – and maybe even beyond.