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Essay: Sustainable development

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  • Subject area(s): Environmental studies essays
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  • Published: 16 October 2019*
  • Last Modified: 15 October 2024
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  • Words: 1,865 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 8 (approx)

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As of October 2018, the current world population is 7.7 billion and is growing at a rate of 1.09% per year which is roughly 83 million people per year. Although these numbers are quite astounding, the world population growth rate has actually decreased and is predicted to continue to decrease throughout the future. Of course the world population will continue to grow but at a much slower rate compared to the recent past. The latest world population projections indicate that by the year 2055 the world population will reach 10 billion people (Worldometers, n.d.). These numbers matter when it comes to sustainable development, a central and growing concept of the 21st century. What is sustainable development? Who determines what is sustainable development and what indicators are used to measure it? Is sustainable development really the best solution for ensuring a flourishing and healthy global society and environment? What are the alternatives? In this paper, I will examine and critique sustainable development with the hope of answering some of the above questions and therefore determining the feasibility of sustainable development as a process towards a better future. This paper argues that sustainable development is possible although not in the prominent conception that it exists today. The popular conception of sustainable development as adopted by major global governance, such as the UN, as well as by many distinguished academics and policy-makers seems to be far too idealistic as well as unbalanced in its aim to create a world with perfect balance between economic, social, and environmental targets. Instead, this paper offers a different approach to sustainable development in which real and equitable commitments are made by every country to change the global system.

In deciding the feasibility of sustainable development, it is important to first understand it as a concept and how it came to be so prevalent in 21st century discourse. There are many different interpretations of sustainable development which can make it an incredibly confusing concept to understand and therefore to implement. As a result of growing awareness of the links between environmental issues, socio-economic problems to do with poverty and inequality and concerns about a healthy future for humanity, the concept of sustainable development represents a shift in humanity’s understanding of its place on Earth (Hopwood, Mellor, & O’Brien, 2005). The modern concept of sustainable development emerged out of the 1987 Brundtland Commission which it defined as “the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. At its core, the essence of sustainable development is an intellectual pursuit as well as a lifestyle which is dependent upon the balance between three pillars of sustainability. According to Klarin (2018), the three pillars of sustainability are environmental, social, and economic. Environmental sustainability focuses on maintaining the environment which is necessary for the quality of socio-economic life. Social sustainability strives to ensure human rights, equality, preservation of and respect for cultural diversity, race, and religion. Finally, economic sustainability is necessary to maintain the social and human capital required for income and living standards (Klarin, 2018). These three components are widely accepted in the modern discourse of sustainable development, however Sachs (2015) goes on to add a fourth objective, good governance. He argues that in order to achieve the economic, social, and environmental objectives of sustainable development, good governance must also be achieved as it is governments who “carry out many of the core functions that enable societies to prosper” (Sachs, 2015). The concept of sustainable development exists upon two fundamental elements: sustainability and development. The concept of development has undergone a dramatic shift since its origin as a notion of colonialism and imperialism. In its original meaning, it served colonists and imperialists as a way to marginalize, diminish, and oppress millions of people all around the world. Today, development (theoretically) refers to the process that creates lasting growth, progress and positive change in a community or economy. On the other hand, sustainability refers to “a capacity to maintain some entity, outcome, or process over time and carrying out activities that do not exhaust the resources on which that capacity depends” (Klarin, 2018). This interpretation of sustainable development is the most common particularly within the realm of global governance. While in theory this interpretation seems quite positive and hopeful towards a better future for the world, in practice it is limited at making lasting and effective change.

In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda which included the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – these goals are built upon the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are expected by the UN to be achieved by 2030. These 17 SDGs aim to mobilize countries to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change whilst ensuring that one is left behind. The 17 goals range from “Zero Hunger” to “Responsible Consumption and Production” to “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”. According to the UN, the success of these goals “will rely on countries own sustainable development policies, plans, and programmes” (United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda). In tracking and maintaining progress on these goals, the Sustainable Development Goals Fund, an international multi-agency development mechanism created by the UN, has set up an online database of sustainable development case studies from around the world as advanced by the SDGs. Although this paper takes a critical approach towards this particular conception of sustainable development, it is important to note that the SDGs set forth are valuable goals to have and many people across the world have been positively affected by them. Despite the fact that many of the case studies in the database present major strides for communities around the globe; is intergenerational, effective change happening? In accordance with this paper, a growing number of academics and professionals say no. Brown argues that the popular conception of sustainable development is an oxymoron as “continual population growth and economic development on a finite Earth are biophysically impossible” (Brown, 2015). Because they attempt to cover all favorable facets of society and even somewhat contradict each other, the SDGs have ended up as vague and meaningless promises (Holden, Linneurd, Bannister, 2016). Many of the SDGs are unrealistic or impossible because they ignore the realities of human behavior as well as laws of nature (Brown, 2016).  Not only are some of the SDGs unrealistic in theory but are seemingly impossible to implement in reality, “despite the adoption of numerous strategies and plans for sustainable development management, various regulatory and incentive policies, standards and indicators for measurement and other instruments, the current problem of its implementation still remains” (Klarin, 2018). It has been thirty years since the Brundtland report in which sustainable development emerged as a priority on the global political agenda yet only short-term change has been made.

It is clear that the conversation regarding sustainable development needs to change.  In recognition of this need, this paper supports a different take on sustainable development as proposed by Holden, Linnerud, and Bannister in 2016. Their approach to sustainable development disregards the current model that calls for a balance between social, environmental, and economic targets and instead approaches sustainable development as a normative value system, similar to democracy or human rights, that rests upon moral imperatives. Their model redefines sustainable development as constraints on human activities governed by the moral imperatives of needs, equity and limits. This model of sustainable development is based upon three primary moral imperatives: satisfying human needs, ensuring social equity and respecting environmental limits. Unlike most models of sustainable development, this model neglects economic growth as a primary dimension of sustainable development as it can and often does reduce social equity by contributing to wealth inequality as well as overexploits resources and the natural environment. It is noted that a policy that will aid this process of sustainable development is one that “achieves a socially desirable goal that is not in conflict with the three sustainable development constraints and highlights that the constraints are not negotiable (Holden, Linnerud, Bannister, 2016). In the realm of implementation, Holden, Linnerud, and Bannister express that indicators should relevant, measurable, and easy to communicate which is why this model assigns minimum and maximum threshold values for each indicator. Another key point of this model is the importance of democratic participation from the global, state, and local stage. This is perhaps one of the most appealing parts of this model to me. I believe that a lot of the failure in current models of sustainable development exists from the lack of participation and effort, particularly among developed states. Although one may argue that sustainable development exists not for developed but developing states, I believe that the process of sustainable development, which ensures the future for us all, has no chance at success without active participation from every country and community. This model implicates that different regions face different policy needs so the priority of this model does not rest on perfection in achieving all three imperatives but rather on a priority of richer participation. This approach to sustainable development is an extension and improvement upon Our Common Future (the Brundtland Report) and concludes with an acknowledgment of the challenges that face the process of sustainable development: “We do not pretend that the process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will” (WCED, 1987).

Much of the focus of sustainable development is on the developing world or “third-world countries” as that is where the majority of the world’s deep issues lie. In the desire to create a better world through sustainable development, we must first ask ourselves how these “underdeveloped” countries came to be. Colonialism and imperialism, the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism and modern science all developed under the view that the environment exists externally to humanity, mostly to be used and exploited by those in power (Hopwood, Mellor, O’Brien, 2005). I believe this is important to note in the discourse of sustainable development as the current existence of the developed world exists upon hundreds of years of exploitation and domination over the rest of the world and its resources. The developed world was able to develop at the rate that it did solely because it did not allow the rest of the world to do so. Which is why this paper concludes by stressing the importance of a major change in global order if sustainable development is to ever be a possibility. Sustainable development requires major commitment and transformation within the developed world, not just by developed countries upon the rest of the world. Real commitments must be made to equitable economic systems and changes in global consumption and production – the way in which humanity exists today is and will continue to be to its detriment. The humans of the Anthropocene are changing the climate, decimating the biodiversity, and reducing the productivity of the biosphere. Unless current trends can be reversed, a catastrophic crash is inevitable (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2013).  The United States in particular has an obligation to lead the world by example by emphasizing the importance of sustainable development in our very own communities. If a change in global order is necessary to sustain intergenerational peace, prosperity and well-being, the United States has the power to lead it.

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