中国要实现可持续发展，必须积极应对资源短缺、环境恶化、海洋开发和气候变化等一系列重大资源环境问题；随着全球经济发展一体化进程加快，中国必须以全球视角研究和解决面临的资源环境问题。遥感在地球科学、环境科学、资源科学与全球变化研究中具有宏观动态的优点，是不可替代的全球观测手段，是实施可持续发展战略的基础性技术支撑。本文回顾了遥感科学技术进步的历程，总结了国际上围绕可持续发展所开展的全球遥感科学计划，分析了中国遥感现状和服务于可持续发展的前景，并结合国际上地球综合观测系统的发展态势，提出了中国遥感科学技术发展面临的挑战和机遇，进一步阐述了遥感发展面临的建立地球综合观测系统之系统、高精度遥感模型与参数反演、遥感产品真实性检验与遥感性能判据及测试系统、遥感数据与地球系统模式同化、遥感大数据与主动服务等前沿科学与技术问题。最后指出遥感要更好地服务于社会可持续发展，服务于国家的全球战略，服务于国民经济建设，必须创新遥感应用服务模式、加快遥感产业化和商业化进程，建议推进卫星观测系统的商业化、加快无人机遥感发展、促进遥感应用市场化。

For sustainable development, China must deal with a lot of significant major issues, such as resource shortage, environmental deterioration, ocean exploitation, climate change, and so on. As the acceleration of global economic integration process, we have to study and resolve these resource and environment problems with global view. Remote sensing is the unique and basic global observation technology to support the sustainable development, due to its advantages of synoptic view and dynamic monitoring capability for the earth system science, environmental science, resource science and global change study. After a short review of the remote sensing development history, the major international earth observation programs for human sustainable development and global change are summarized and the Chinese remote sensing technology and application status is analyzed accordingly. The most important five remote sensing frontier and challenge directions are presented as the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, high performance remote sensing modeling and inversion, quantitative remote sensing product validation theory and platform, earth system model and remote sensing data assimilation, and remote sensing big data science. Finally, we point out that the remote sensing application service model should be innovated for much better services on sustainable development, global strategy and economic development. The high-resolution remote sensing satellite commercialization, UAV remote sensing development, and the remote sensing application marketization should be encouraged.