Sustainable DevelopmentSOSC 562/301E

Instructor: Jerry Patchell

TA: Wong Chi Hang

What environmental problems?

Symptoms?

Causes?

How do you solve these problems?

Politics? Economics and business? Technology? Consumption patterns?

A Global Dilemma: Two Vicious Circles

Poverty Affluence

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation

Resource imports,

pollution exports

How does poverty cause environmental damage?

Agriculture: need to survive causes overuse of land (grazing, intensive agriculture, fertilizer, fuel wood, logging) leading to deforestation, topsoil erosion, water contamination

Worsened by: population pressures; lack of control over local resources and poor governance; Inability to invest in environment

Industry: inefficient, dirty industry locates where wages and influence over environment are low, causing pollution of air, land, and water

Cost-based competition Labour intensive Low capacity to invest in environment

How does affluence cause environmental damage?

High productivity levels cause greater throughput of materials and energy per person

Higher income levels enable greater consumption of energy and materials

Greater throughput of energy and materials means more land used for agriculture (more pesticides, fertilizers, erosion), more wood and mineral resources used, more energy extracted and used, etc.

Urbanization has disconnected producers and consumers relieving them of the influence of environmental degradation on their lives.

How are the two vicious circles connected?

Connections Trade in resources, pollution and waste Exploitation of global commons for resources and

waste disposal Impact of local actions on global health

Two Paths to Sustainable Development

Poverty Affluence

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation

Resource imports,

pollution exports

Welfare Improvement:Basic needs (food, shelter, edu.)Productive employmentControl over resourcesPopulation controlEnergy

Environmental Remediation:Production

ConsumptionFulfilling employment/leisure

Responsibility and participation

Energy

Livelihood Lifestyle

Cooperation on Global Governance

From Ad Hoc Responses to the Environmental Crisis…

Social Demands Catalytic events: disasters, Pollution, Habitat

Destruction etc. Scientists, Environmentalists, Social Movements raise

Awareness: demand for action, green consumptionPolitical Action Government Regulations, Penalties, and Administration International Conferences and AgreementsBusiness Response Evasion Compliance Beyond Compliance

…to an (Ambiguous) Consensus on 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. ” (WCED)

The short definition was qualified by its originators in the following manner: “It

(sustainable development) contains within it two key concepts:

the concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs off 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.” (WECD, 1987, 43)

History

Stockholm 1972: UN Conference on the Human Environment

Report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development: “Our Common Future”.

Rio 1992: UN Conference on Environment and Development: Agenda 21

Johannesburg 2002: 2nd World Summit on Sustainable Development

Far-Reaching Ethical, Political and Economic Implications

Raised the environmental issue to a high level;

Recognizing the issue of intra-generation and inter-generation equity;

While, still allowing for growth and development;

And bound all countries to a global effort.

Local, National and Global Strategies revive growth, but change the quality of growth; meet essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation; ensure a sustainable level of population; conserve and enhance the resource base; reorient technology and manage risk; merge environment and economics in decision making;

enhance the flow of capital to developing countries; link trade, environment, and development by improving the terms of

trade; increase the diffusion of environmentally sound technologies and

their funding to developing countries.

Institutional Gaps

Institutions: culture, knowledge and theory, policy and laws, administration

Lack of recognition of environment; lack of integration among institutions; lack of coordination

Global, national, regional, local scales

Sustainable Development as Integration

Science &

Technology

Politics

Society

Environment Environment

Economy

Who does sustainable development? The UN and its agencies

Dozens of environmental conventions and programs(UNDP)

National, state, local governments, communities 110 national, over 6000 local Agenda 21s

Non-governmental organizations Thousands involved

Companies Corporate social responsibility/sustainability programs;

ethical investing Consumers

Green consumer movements, fair trade

Sustainable Sai Kung: a practical introduction to sustainable

development

The core of sustainable development is that people from diverse backgrounds, often with conflicting interests need to work together to produce integrated answers to environmental pressures.

Sector/Community Study

Choose a sector or community Baseline conditions and impacts Stakeholder awareness and capacities Issue analysis Alternatives generation Indicators and monitoring system Stakeholder feedback to your plan Community integration

Sector/Community Study

Done Fisherfolk Wind energy Hiking Water recycling Ecotourism Seafood restaurants Expat community Recreational fishing Transportation SK town planning

To Be Done Houses Housing estates Education Recycling Industry Old folks, young folks Yachting, scuba diving, etc Environmental awareness Politics Various businesses e.g.

construction And much, much more.

Sai Kung Environment

Attributes and quality Society

Pop.; groups; services Technology

Infrastructures and products Economy

Sectors; composition; values; jobs Politics

Representation/Administration; participation

Evaluation System

Group reports: 2 x 15 marks 30% Participation: 20% Final report: 50%

Requirements

read basics of sustainable development; field research; Literature/case study research; willingness to talk to people; creativity

Course Websites

http://teaching.ust.hk/~sosc562/ Sustainablesaikung.org

Defining an oxymoron

Sustainable?

Development?

(www. sustainableliving.org)

Other Definitions

Ecological Definition IUCN, WWF and UNEP. 1980.

Sustainable development - maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems, the preservation of genetic diversity, and the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems.

Ecological DefinitionKeiichiro Fuwa. 1995. Biophysical sustainability means maintaining or improving the integrity of the life

support system of Earth.

Mohan Munasinghe and Walter Shearer. 1995. Biogeophysical sustainability is the maintenance and/or improvement of the

integrity of the life-support system on Earth. Sustaining the biosphere with adequate provisions for maximizing future options includes providing for human economic and social improvement for current and future human generations within a framework of cultural diversity while: (a) making adequate provisions for the maintenance of biological diversity and (b) maintaining the biogeochemical integrity of the biosphere by conservation and proper use of its air, water and land resources. Achieving these goals requires planning and action at local, regional and global scales and specifying short- and long-term objectives that allow for the transition to sustainability.

Economic DefinitionR. Repetto. 1986.

The core of the idea of sustainability, then, is the concept that current decisions should not impair the prospects for maintaining or improving future living standards... This implies that our economic systems should be managed so that we can live off the dividend of our resources, maintaining and improving the asset base. This principle also has much in common with the ideal concept of income that accountants seek to determine: the greatest amount that can be consumed in the current period without reducing prospects for consumption in the future.

This does not mean that sustainable development demands the preservation of the current stock of natural resources or any particular mix of human, physical and natural assets. As development proceeds, the composition of the underlying asset base changes.

There is broad agreement that pursuing policies that imperil the welfare of future generations, who are unrepresented in any political or economic forum, is unfair.

Core Economic Definitions

Robert Haveman. 1989. Sustainable development is the maintenance or growth of the

aggregate level of economic well-being, defined as the level of per capita economic well-being.

John Pezzey. 1989. Our standard definition of sustainable development will be non-

declining per capita utility - because of its self-evident appeal as a criterion for inter-generational equity.

Social DefinitionsDavid Munro,1995.

Sustainable development is a complex of activities that can be expected to improve the human condition in such a manner that the improvement can be maintained.

Nazli Choucri, 1997. The process of managing social demands without eroding life

support properties or mechanisms of social cohesion and resilience.

Self-reliance DefinitionMustafa Tolba, 1987. Sustainable development has become an article of faith, a shibboleth: often used but

little explained. Does it amount to a strategy? Does it apply only to renewable resources? What does the term actually mean? In broad terms the concept of sustainable development encompasses:

1. Help for the very poor because they are left with no option other than to destroy their environment;

2. The idea of self-reliant development, within natural resource constraints; 3. The idea of cost-effective development using differing economic criteria to the

traditional approach; that is to say development should not degrade environmental quality, nor should it reduce productivity in the long run;

4. The great issues of health control, appropriate technologies, food self-reliance, clean water and shelter for all;

5. The notion that people-centered initiatives are needed; human beings, in other words, are the resources in the concept.

Spatial Definition R. Norgaard, 1988. Thus we need to nail down the concept of sustainable development. I propose five increasingly

comprehensive definitions. First we can start at the local level and simply ask whether a region's agricultural and industrial practices can continue indefinitely. Will they destroy the local resource base and environment or, just as bad, the local people and their cultural system? Or will the resource base, environment, technologies and culture evolve over time in a mutually reinforcing manner? This first definition ignores whether there might be subsidies to the region - whether material and energy inputs or social inputs such as the provision of new knowledge, technologies and institutional services are being supplied from outside the region. Second, we can ask whether the region is dependent upon non-renewable inputs, both energy and materials, from beyond its boundaries. Or is the region dependent on renewable resources beyond its boundaries which are not being managed in a sustainable manner? Third, we can become yet more sophisticated and ponder whether the region is in some sense culturally sustainable, whether it is contributing as much to the knowledge and institutional bases of other regions as it is culturally dependent upon others. Fourth, we can also question the extent to which the region is contributing to global climate change, forcing other regions to change their behavior, as well as whether it has options available to adapt to the climate change and surprises imposed upon it by others. From a global perspective, this fourth definition of sustainable development addresses the difficulties of going from hydrocarbon energy stocks to renewable energy sources while adapting to the complications of global climate change induced by the transitional net oxidation of hydrocarbons. Fifth, and last, we can inquire of the cultural stability of all regions in combination, are they evolving along mutually compatible paths, or will they destroy each other through war. These definitions become increasingly encompassing. All, however, address sustainability of changing interactions between people and their environment over time.

Overcoming the contradiction?R.E. Munn, 1989. The phrase sustainable development has been criticized, for example, by O'Riordan

(1985) as a contradiction in terms. If development is equated with economic growth, this criticism is indeed justified: Malthusian limits prevent sustained growth in a finite world... Ultimately, however, uncontrolled economic growth will cause the quality of the environment to deteriorate, economic development to decline and the standard of living to drop.

Of course, the word development does not necessarily imply growth. It may convey the idea that the world, society or the biosphere is becoming "better" in some sense, perhaps producing more, or meeting more of the basic needs of the poor. The word therefore involves a value judgement. In principle, development could become sustainable through structural changes (economic, political, cultural or ecological) or a succession of technological break-throughs.

Integrating economic definition with environment

Johan Holmberg, 1992. Sustainable development means either that per capita utility or well-being is

increasing over time with free exchange or substitution between natural and man-made capital; or that per capita utility or well-being is increasing over time subject to non-declining natural wealth.

There are several reasons why the second and more narrow focus is justified, including: Nonsubstitutability between environmental assets (the ozone layer cannot be

recreated); Uncertainty (our limited understanding of the life-supporting functions of many

environmental assets dictates that they be preserved for the future); Irreversibility (once lost, no species can be recreated); Equity (the poor are usually more affected by bad environments than the rich).

Integration and Fundamental Change?

Maurice Strong, 1992. Sustainable development involves a process of deep and

profound change in the political, social, economic, institutional, and technological order, including redefinition of relations between developing and more developed countries.

World Bank, 1992.. Sustainable development means basing developmental and

environmental policies on a comparison of costs and benefits and on careful economic analysis that will strengthen environmental protection and lead to rising and sustainable levels of welfare.

Alternative/Qualitative Growth Definition

J. Coomer, 1979. The sustainable society is one that lives within the self-

perpetuating limits of its environment. That society... is not a "no growth" society... It is rather, a society that recognizes the limits of growth... [and] looks for alternative ways of growing.

Issues, Dependencies, Limitations and ConflictsEnvironment Society Economy

Main Issue Integrity of biogeochemical systems

Equity

Poverty reduction

Quality of life

Consistent increase in human welfare

Dependencies (Ec) Extraction, assimilation

(S) Life-giving, appreciation

(En) Awareness, responsibility

(Ec) Human, social, financial capital

(En) Recognition, mitigation

(S) Monetary support

Limitations and Conflicts

Carrying capacity, ecosystem resilience

Capacities, control, creativity

Need for growth and incentives conflict with carrying capacity and equity

Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment without decreasing the capacity of the environment to sustain that same amount in the future.

The Problem with a Balance

What happens when the economy grows? To the previous balance with the

environment? To the previous configuration of society

and culture?

Contrasting Perspectives Status Quo: Neo-liberal economists; World Bank,

OECD, Lomberg, WBCSD, green consumers, ecological modernizers, green economists

Reformers: Environmental NGOs, IUCN, Limits to Growth, ICLEI, Bruntland, Schumacher, Environmental Justice

Transformers: Anti-Capitalist, Social Ecology, Ecofeminist, Ecosocialist, Indigenous/South, Deep Ecology, Eco-facists

Controversy and Acceptance

Weak vs. Strong sustainability Human-centered (anthropocentric) vs.

Nature-centered (eco-centric) perspective North vs South Laissez-faire vs. Distributive Justice Private vs. public vs. common property

views Social vs. Scientific Definition

Social versus Scientific definition of Sustainability:

Societies (nations) define what sustainable means rather than basing sustainability on scientifically based theories of ecosystem carrying capacity

A Scientific Definition

"A sustainable society meets three conditions: its rates of use of renewable resources should not exceed their rates of regeneration; its rates of use of non-renewable resources should not exceed the rate at which sustainable renewable substitutes are developed; and its rates of pollution emission should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment” (Herman Daly).

A Social Definition?

Sustainable development in Hong Kong balances social, economic and environmental needs, both for present and future generations, simultaneously achieving a vibrant economy, social progress and better environmental quality, locally, nationally and internationally, through the efforts of the community and the Government.

Sustainable Development as a Balance

Environment

EconomySociety

Sustainable Development as Integration

Science &

Technology

Politics

Society

Environment Environment

Economy

Sustainable Development as Integration All activities depend on the environment Society is the core of the system because it shapes

relations with the environment and because of need for equity (resources, health, responsibility; intra & inter generational)

Society needs economy for support and to exist within carrying capacity

Society exists within long-term technological conditions Society requires government to set common standards of

behavior.

Integrating Principles

public trust doctrine precautionary principle inter-generational equity intra-generational equity subsidiarity principle polluter pays principle (PPP) user pays principle (UPP)

The public trust doctrine means that governments must act to prevent environmental damage whenever a threat exists, whether it is covered by a specific law or not.

The precautionary principle holds that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

The principle of inter-generational equity is at the heart of the definition of sustainable development. It requires that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The principle of intra-generational equity requires that people within the present generation have the right to benefit equally from the exploitation of resources and that they have an equal right to a clean and healthy environment.

The subsidiarity principle requires that decisions should be made by the communities affected or on their behalf, by the authorities closest to them.

The polluter pays principle (PPP) suggests that the polluter should internalize all the environmental costs of their activities so that these are fully reflected in the costs of the goods and services they provide.

The user pays principle (UPP) applies the PPP more broadly so that the cost of a resource to a user includes all the environmental costs associated with its extraction, transformation and use (including the costs of alternative or future uses foregone).

Key Points: SusDev Driving Forces Problem of poverty and environment Problem of affluence and environment Connections between the two

Key SusDev Ideas Intra generation Equity Inter generation Equity Need to develop social institutions to bring about

change

Key Points: Tensions and Integration

Ambiguity of susdev Tensions between environmental, economic

and social views Tensions in different ideological

approaches (e.g. weak vs. strong, anthropocentric vs. ecocentric)

Need to integrate and overcome tensions Integrating principles