Geography 1.1.1(a)
Sustainable development presented as 3 pillars
-It confirms the need to consider social, ecological and economic areanas together and equally if the building is to remain upright and development is sustainable. -However, they are less effective for communicating the interconnections between the 'uprights' and the need to integrate thinking and action in sustainable development across traditional disciplinary boundaries and established policy-making departments.
Sustainable development presented as interlocking circles, with sustainable development as where the circles intersect
-It gives attention to the objective of sustainable development as seeking to maximise the goals across all 3 spheres at the same time and the possibility of mutually supportive gains that can be made through sustainable development actions. -The basic premise for integration is that the economic, social and environmental dimensions are interrelated, and for the most part, indivisible aspects of a whole system. -People and the nature of the society in which they live are shaped by and, in turn, shape the economies that support their livelihoods and enhance their overall quality of life. Environments provide life-giving and economically important services to economies and to people. -It supports the understanding that achieving sustainable development in practice regularly involves trade offs across the different spheres: 1. Difficult choices have to be made at particular points in time and at particular scales as to what is being pursued 2. Hew certain goals can be compromised in the achievement of others 3. Any action will carry unequal impacts of particular interests and for groups for people
The issue of trade-offs
-It involves making difficult choices at particular points in time and at particular scales as to what is being pursued and how, that certain goals can be compromised to achieve others, and that any action will carry unequal impacts for particular interests and for groups of people. -They are unintended outcomes of policy that arise out of the failure to recognise various forms of capital and the interrelationships between them. -Very often, trade-offs appear as the positive and negative consequences of choices. -Trade-offs can manifest differently at various levels. -There are 4 fundamental reasons for trade-offs: 1.externalisation of environmental and social values and the 'tragedy of the commons' 2.The usually lengthy time between investments in socially and environmentally beneficial actions and returns on those investments. 3. institutional capacity and governance shortcomings that foster policy conflicts instead of coherence 4. Complexity, scientific uncertainty and stakeholder perspectives are not factored in time, or capacities do not exist to deal with the complexity and scientific uncertainty. -Governments need to consider the implications of trading off one policy area against another, and plan accordingly. -This means discussing the potential outcomes of policies with stakeholders to ensure that the likely distributional impacts are fully understood, especially for the poorest and marginalised who are most vulnerable to change -Governments have to ensure that complementary policies are in place to compensate the immediate losers from a specific policy -The appropriate ranking of priorities will vary by locale and at different times, depending on the issue and on several other factors
Sustainability
-It is often used interchangeably with sustainable development. -It is a way of thinking about how to meet the needs of people and the physical environment simultaneously by enhancing human well-being without undermining the well-being of the planet on which we live. - one strength of the sustainability idea is that it draws together concerns over economic development, social development and environmental protection.
The concept of needs
-It refers to the basic requirements that people need to have as they aspire for an improved quality of life . -Fulfilment of these needs should contain both intergenerational equity( for future generations) and intragenerational equity (for our generation) -Sustainable development requires that societies meet human needs both by increasing productive potential and by ensuring equitable opportunities for all -The principal development challenge is to meet the needs and aspirations of the expanding developing world population. -Essential needs refers to food, clothing, shelter, jobs and energy. It is necessary to ensure that the poor get their fair share of the resources required to sustain their growth -Essential needs depends on whether countries are able to achieve their full growth potential -Equity in essential need has to be aided by political systems that secure effective citizen participation in decision-making and by greater democracy in international decision-making. -Perceived needs include socially and culturally determined. Sustainable development requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecological possible and to which all can reasonably aspire.
Sustainable development
-It refers to the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs -It concerns a process of change and is heavily reliant upon local contexts, needs and interests. -It is an emerging concept because it is relatively new and evolves as we learn to grasp its wide implications for all aspects of our lives, and because its meanings emerge and evolve according to local contexts -It contains 2 key concepts, needs and limitations
The idea of limitations
-It refers to the limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organisation on environmental resources, as well as the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities -All forms of economic and social activity make demands on the resource base, as raw materials within agricultural production, and as sources of inputs and energy into industrial production and in the construction and maintenance of human settlements and urban lifestyles -Economic development has been closely correlated with mounting rates of resource extraction around the world. -The predominant resource challenge for development at a global scale would include the limits to stocks of natural resources. -However, this is a complex idea as different limits hold for different types of resources such as energy. materials, water and land. Perceived measurements of limitations may also change over time. -Many of the limitations will manifest themselves in the form of rising costs and diminishing returns, rather than in the form of any sudden loss of a resource base. -All production and consumption activities produces waste in the form of a various gases, particulate matter, chemicals and solid matter -Past development processes have depended substantially on the capacity of natural systems to absorb, transport and dissipate such waste, termed environmental 'sink' functions. -Where the rate of waste generation exceeds the natural capacity of the atmosphere, oceans, vegetation or soils to absorb these, there are detrimental effects to human health and to the operation of ecological systems -Finding the physical space for the disposal of solid wastes is an ongoing challenge, particularly in the more developed countries where rates of production are highest. -Concern for the 'sink' function of the earth's systems also underpins the global challenge of climate change. -However, what constitutes an environmental 'limit' on development is also shaped by the values and decisions of society; in determining 'acceptable' levels of resource degradation and which groups of people living where should bear the cost of such degradation. -Sustainable development must not endanger the natural systems that support life on Earth -The accumulation of knowledge and the development of technology can enhance the carrying capacity of the resource base. The world must ensure equitable access to the constrained resource and re-orientate technological efforts to relieve the pressure.
Meaning of sustainable development and its relevance for countries at high levels of development
-Sustainable development is primarily about conserving the environment. They tend to give priority to the environmental dimension and to measures to limit natural resource degradation, in spite of the economic and social costs that may be associated with such measures. -The idea of sustainable development came about in the 1980s when there was a realisation that the environmental impacts of economic activities could rebound on the whole of humanity. -Generally, people in developed countries have jobs and a stable income to feed their family. That is why basic survival needs are solved for people in countries at high levels of development. -Under such conditions, it is possible to have others worrying about the environment, about how to live more harmoniously with nature and how to promote one's health, and the usage of renewable energies -In one aspect, most developed countries have already taken measures to overcome or continue to alleviate the more serious agricultural threats to the environment. -Further measures to protect the environment from agricultural pressures are largely a question of social choice since they have the economic and technical capabilities to introduce additional control measures to technologies that are environmentally more benign and sustainable. They can also bear with less economic hardship than the developing countries the eventual economic consequence of such actions. -With the wider acceptance of, and further progress in environmentally-friendly technologies, it can be expected that trade-offs between the environment and development, as the latter is conventionally defined and measured will tend to become smaller.
Meaning of sustainable development and its relevance for countries at low levels of development
-Sustainable development means the continued pursuit of development with the aim of reducing poverty and attaining the status of modern societies. -Unlike the developed countries, setting aside large areas for land of conservation was incompatible with the demand for more space by the developing countries to accommodate their rising populations and for the right to exploit their natural resources in order to achieve more development. -Countries at low levels of development need to give priority to social and economic dimensions, in order to survive. -With reference to the trade-offs between ending hunger and environmental sustainability, improving agricultural resources management is a social imperative rather than a social choice. This is because degradation of these resources is both a cause and a result of poverty. -Their environmental options are often severely constrained in the short to medium term at least. Developing countries will have to use more of their less productive land, as well as some of their wetlands with high agricultural potential. They cannot reduce their often-low use of mineral fertilisers without endangering food security and intensifying soil degradation, and cannot exploit more fully technological options for integrated plant nutrition quickly. -For some production/environmental problems, appropriate technical solutions do not yet exist and are not readily available or affordable. -Any appreciable rise in food production costs and consumer prices would have adverse effects on already low consumption levels, and many countries could not afford to increase commercial food imports. -Countries at low levels of development are already finding it very difficult to maintain existing levels of public services, so environmental measures are commonly in direct competition for scarce resources with projects for investment in material and human capital. -As such, developing countries viewed the developed countries' environmental agenda as hypocritical and designed to stifle the growth of developing countries. -However, countries at low levels of development are recognising the importance of shifting on to a more sustainable growth path. -However, developing countries emphasise the need to ensure that environmental measures do not have adverse effects on their development, arguing that unless rural poverty is eliminated, many of their people will have no alternative to overexploiting natural resources for day-to-day survival.
Concept of needs
-The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given. -Something that is considered a need by a person/ cultural group, may not necessarily be thought of as such by another personal/ culture group(differing opinions) -Needs may also vary through time, so that it is unlikely that those of future generations will be the same as those of present generations. -The ability of people to meet their needs also changes .
Concept of limitations
-The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organisation on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.
Trade-off
-They are difficult choices that have to be made at particular points in time and at particular scales as to what is being pursued -They show how certain goals can be compromised in the achievement of others -Any action will carry unequal impacts of particular interests and for groups of people.
sustainable development presented in 'nested' circles, the spheres of economy and society are shown as embedded in a wider circle of ecology
-This portrays an understanding of environmental limits setting the boundaries within which a sustainable society and economy must be sought -It shows how all human activities depend fundamentally on nature and portrays more clearly how activities that damage the functioning of natural systems ultimately weaken the basis of human existence itself. -However, politics and culture are also key dimensions of sustainable development, which influence the interactions of and between the 3 pillars. They are concerned with the values we cherish, the ways in which we perceive our relationship with others and with the natural world, and with how we make decisions -The values, diversity, knowledge, languages and wold views associated with culture and politics strongly influence the way issues of sustainable development are decided and thus, provide it with local relevance.
The sustainable development goals and their trade-offs
-While the SDG framework shows remarkable balance through the triple bottom line when looked at as a whole, that balance is not necessarily reflected within every SDG because they have been designed as independent goals. -This creates the risk of policy loopholes, whereby policy-makers and practitioners continue to cherry-pick the elements of SDGs they want to implement, while others fall victim to political expediency, or unnecessary and poorly thought-out trade-offs, with no mitigation policies in place to ease harmful impacts -In reality, trade-offs amongst SDGs will be necessary -Trade offs can exist between ending hunger (SDG 2) and environmental sustainability (SDG 15), OR reconciling economic growth (SDG 9) with environmental sustainability (SDG 15)
Summary
1. The report of the World Commission on Environment and Development entitled Our common future (WCED) 1978: -It coined and defined sustainable development, and this was considered from an economic, social and political perspective 2. 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1992: -It identified the principles of an agenda for action towards sustainable development -'Agenda 21' document details the issues, the actors and the means for achieving sustainable development by the start of the 21st century 3. 8 Millennium Development goals (MDGs) by UN 2000: -The world leaders came together to commit their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and set out a series of time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015 4. UN World Summit on sustainable development (WSSD) in Johannesburg 2002: -It involved more stakeholders including a bigger presence for business and many more NGOs from the developing world -The central concern was the impacts of globalisation on the poor -This led to the 'Johannesburg' declaration 5. UN Conference on Sustainable development Rio +20 by UN 2012: -'The Future We Want' contains clear and practical measures for implementing sustainable development -It is the notion of a green economy 6. SDGs by UN 2016 -It identified the principles of an agenda for action towards sustainable development in the future.