Lecture 4 Sustainable Development Flashcards
What is sustainable development
Sustainable development is development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
- the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.”
Dimensions of sustainable development
- Social
- standard of living, education, community
- Economic
- profit, cost savings, economic growth, R&D
- Political
- natural resources use, environmental management
use, pollution prevention (air, water, land, waste)
- natural resources use, environmental management
Short history of sustainability debate
and actors: Where it all began
- Malthus vs Boserup
- 1962: Silent Spring (Rachel Carson) -> effects of
insecticide on biodiversity - 1972: Club of Rome’s Limits to growth
- 1974: E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful
- 1983: World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCED)
Short history of sustainability debate and
actors II: Introduction to Sustainability
- Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland
Report, from the United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED) was published
in 1987. - The Earth was in a terrible state during that time.
- It was the first time the world community saw the
importance of Sustainable Development through
resource management. - We realized that there are limits to our
growth and the resources we use.
Short history of sustainability debate and
actors III: Global Environmental Governance
- 1992: Rio Earth Summit and Agenda 21.
Each country agreed to formulate a detailed national
sustainable development strategy (NSDS). Local
Agenda 21 encourages local governments to facilitate
involvement in environmental decision making
processes. - 1994: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:
- UNFCCC
- 1997: Kyoto Protocol -> ratified in 2005.
- Countries who signed the treaty pledged to cut their
GHGs by 5.2% by 2012 - Establishing CO2 as a commodity
- Countries who signed the treaty pledged to cut their
- 2002: World Summit for Sustainable Development
- More focus on renewable energy.
- IEAs, MEAs, various actors: World Bank, WTO, MNCs, TNCs, NGOs, Civil society, national governments, local communities, etc.
Short history of sustainability debate
and actors IV: Current trends
- 2015: Sustainable Development Goals
- 2016: The Paris Agreement
- “The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen
the global response to the threat of climate change
by keeping a global temperature rise this century
well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature
increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
- “The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen
- Nationally Determined Contributions
- Annex I, Annex II and non-annex countries
Hardin’s tragedy of the commons
- If human population continues to grow, the
commons will eventually be depleted. - “Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”
- Hardin suggested two solutions:
- Government control -> don’t allow other people to
make use of natural resources. - Privatization -> if it is privately owned, others can’t
make use of it.
Environmental Kuznet’s Curve
- The more an economy grows, the worse environmental degradation.
- After the economy reaches a tipping point, it improves the environment.
- Europe heavily polluted in the beginning of 1900s, now it is trying to improve environmental conservation.
Group 3: Governing the commons (forests, lakes, sea, etc.)
- Communities, stakeholders, institutions, and other
groups of people have successfully proven
throughout time that we are not doomed depleting our
natural resources or commons. - What are the success factors for successfully
governing the commons?
8 principles for managing the commons (Elinor Ostrom):
first 4
- Define clear group/commons boundaries.
- Who is part of the group managing the commons?
- What should be managed?
- Match rules governing use of common goods to local needs and conditions.
- Are there rules in place? Are those rules adapted to
local needs?
- Are there rules in place? Are those rules adapted to
- Ensure that those affected by the rules can participate in modifying the rules.
- Stakeholders are able to influence the rules and
change them.
- Stakeholders are able to influence the rules and
- Make sure the rule-making rights of community members are respected by outside authorities.
- Governments need to acknowledge the group
making the rules, and respect them
- Governments need to acknowledge the group
8 principles for managing the commons (Elinor Ostrom):
second 4
- Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members’ behavior.
- Monitoring the commons is very important.
- Use graduated sanctions for rule violators.
- Rule violators need to be punished.
- Provide accessible, low-cost means for dispute resolution.
- When people have a dispute with each other, there
need to be mechanism to solve these disputes.
- When people have a dispute with each other, there
- Build responsibility for governing the common
resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to
the entire interconnected system.- Global, national, and local systems are
interconnected. We need to pay attention to that.
- Global, national, and local systems are
History of environmental management in
Global South
- untill 1970s a lot of exploitation (forest enterprises)
- 1980s the global north began conservation.
- present: Stakeholders that plea for restoration
- local communities, universities, think tanks, NGOs,
civil society.
- local communities, universities, think tanks, NGOs,
What is environmental governance? (Fakier et al 2005).
“Environmental governance refers to the processes of
decision-making involved in the control and management of the environment and natural resources. It is also about the manner in which decisions are made – are they made behind closed doors or with input from the broader public? Principles such as inclusivity, representivity, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, as well as social equity and justice, form the foundation of good governance. “
Why is environmental governance
important?
environmental challenges on different levels
- on global level we have global warming,
- on local level we could have deforestation and land
degradation,
- on city level we have pollution and over-urbanization.
Difference between environmental management and governance
Management: activities which are necessary for managing the environment, such as ecosystem management, conservation, adaptive management, and so on.
- What should be done?
Governance: who decides which management form we
choose? How do different institutions, organizations, and the State cooperate? Who makes decisions? Who is
responsible? How does the State deal with NGOs,
associations, communities, government agencies, and
international organizations?
- Who is doing it? And how are they doing it?
Criticism on sustainable development
- Guiding principles of sustainable development often relied on: technology, economic growth, and effective management -> no structural change.
- Unclear what sustainable development really is: “Sustainable development is effectively anything that one wants it to be” (O’Riordan 1995 in: Hopper 2012).
- More than 72 definitions of sustainable development.
- Perspective of sustainable development too much dominated by the global North.
- Knowledge gap between sub-tropical and tropical South and temperate and artic climate North.
Criticism on sustainable development II
- Reformist/Technocratic solution vis-à-vis radical/ ecocentric environmentalism (next class we make it even more interesting!)
- Green grabbing and commodification of nature
- Strong lobbying of MNCs and other interest groups
- Population growth control: remains a sensitive issue.
- Political ecology of sustainable development & environmental justice
- Poverty and the environment -> Blaikie (1985): ‘desperate ecocide’.
- Big gap between development studies and environmental studies
- Race to the bottom and pollution havens.
- The link between globalization and environmental management/governance remains problematic.
What is endogenous development?
- Endogenous development is based on local communities’ own criteria of development
- Peoples’ worldviews and livelihoods as starting point for development.
- Balance between material, spiritual and social well-being.
- Endogenous development is mainly based on local
strategies, values, institutions and resources - Empowering local communities to control their own
development process. - Bottom-up approach
- Endogenous growth theory: can be on various levels
Exploring the concept of post-development
- Modernization focused too much on “westernisation”
- Getting rid of ”unwanted” cultural traits.
- Alternative forms of development – favoring local and
popular non-Western cultures and domains of
knowledge. - Stressing the importance of culture.
- “The greatest political promise of minority cultures is
their potential for resisting and subverting the
axiomatics of capitalism and modernity in their
hegemonic form’’ (1995b, page 225).
Criticism on post-development
- Only two flavors: western culture and the “rest”
- Romanticizing alternatives to development
- Dichotomy between pristine grassroots cultures
on the one hand and the homogenizing impulses
of a universal Western culture on the other -> not
doing justice to local complexities - “a paradigm of development with identity has
emerged”
Indigenous and local communities
- Many communities in the world depend directly
on natural resources, such as forests, grass lands,
water-resources, and so on. - These communities have lived in ecosystems
and forests for thousands of years. - They have developed their own ways of lives,
culture, language, history, and ways of managing the
natural environment. - They do not always use “scientific” knowledge
to manage the natural environment. - Often victim of discrimination, marginalization
and domestication.
Indigenous and local communities (part II)
Someone is an indigenous person if:
- They originally come from that area.
- Have their own culture, identity, language and
customs.
- Common history.
- Many indigenous people depend on natural
resources.
- Different culture from rest of society.
- Sometimes live isolated
China does not recognize indigenous people. In
China, we have ethnic groups.
Each country have their own definition of indigenous
people: Tribal people, aboriginal, natives, etc.
Community-based resource management
- Communities who depend on natural resources (such
as indigenous people or local communities) decide
how the natural environment is managed. - They do that together with government agencies,
NGOs and other stakeholders.
Local communities can: - Identify the problem - Find a way to solve the problem - Manage the environment - Make rules and enforce the rules. - Punish people who do not follow or violate the rules - Legally own natural resources. - Monitor their activities.
