The phenomenon of the greenhouse effect has been known since the mid-19th century. One hundred years later, the environmental threats were addressed by economists such as, among others, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Kenneth E. Boulding and René Passet. Subsequent decades have shown that the pressures of economic systems on the environment are increasing and that certain processes can no longer be reversed. This article is an overview and identifies the most important challenges for environmental sustainability, presents the theoretical framework of sustainability in economics as well as the latest research in the field. Charting the way forward, both in terms of monitoring the state of the environment using the sustainability indicators I have discussed, and in terms of reducing the impact of the economy on the environment, based on the ecological and political economy frameworks, I propose a move towards a new socio-metabolic regime of sustainable degrowth, which I briefly outline in the last section of the article.