Module title:

Environmental Planning &

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Chapter 2: Environment and
Sustainable Development

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 Concepts definition
Environment is defined as:
• a group of physical, chemical and biological
elements as well as socio-economic, cultural,
aesthetic and intellectual factors likely to have a
direct or indirect, immediate or long-term effects
on the development of environment, human
beings and human activities.
• A distinction is made between natural
environment and human environment.
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 Environment (definition cont’d)
The natural environment consists of:
• soil and subsoil;
• water resources;
• air;
• biological diversity;
• landscapes, sites and monuments.

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 Natural environment (def. cont’d)
• Water resources include surface inland waters and
underground waters.
• Air is a gaseous fluid of the earth’s strata of atmosphere
whose composition causes biochemical phenomena and
whose chemical and physical modification or any other
modification can endanger the health of human beings,
ecosystems and environment in general.
• A landscape is a part of the territory whose diverse elements
form a picturesque entity because of the position of its
components or contours of its forms or else the effect of its
colours
• A site is a part of a landscape with its particular geographical
characteristics and/or its history.
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 Natural environment (def. cont’d)
• A natural monument is an element or a group of natural
elements such as rocks, trees, springs, soil disruption,
geological accidents or other elements that, whether
separately or together, form an attractive panorama.
• An ecosystem is a structured whole that includes in one and
same unit a biotope and biocenosis.
•  A biotope is a geographical area where the entire
environment’s physical and chemical factors remain more or
less constant.
•  Ecology is a study of the different kinds of environments
where living beings live, reproduce and die, as well as the
relationship among these human beings and with the
environment. 6
 Natural environment (def. cont’d)
A biological diversity is:
• The variability of the living organisms of any
origin, including among others, land
ecosystems, marine and other aquatic
ecosystems as well as ecological complexes
of which they are part.
• These include the diversity within and
among species and the diversity of
ecosystems.
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 Definitions on env (continued)
• Human environment is concerned with towns and country
planning and life surroundings.
•  Pollution is the contamination or direct or indirect modification of
environment caused by any action likely to alter man’s and other
species’ life settings and to be harmful to health, security, man’s
well-being, flora and fauna or community and individual
properties.
• Water pollution is the introduction in aquatic environment of any
substance likely to modify physical, chemical and/or biological
characteristics of water and to be detrimental to man’s health,
harmful to both land and aquatic fauna and flora, and to
undermine sites or to interfere with any other normal use of
waters.

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 Definitions on env (continued)
• Atmospheric or air pollution is a voluntary or accidental
emission in the atmosphere of gas, smoke, particles or
substances likely to endanger human beings, to
jeopardize public health or security or agricultural
production as well as the conservation of buildings or
sites and landscapes.
•  Cross-border pollution is the pollution taking place in a
given country and whose effects spread in the
neighbouring countries.
•  A pollutant is any solid or gaseous waste, any smell,
heat, sound, radiation or combination of these likely to
bring about pollution.
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 Definitions on env (continued)
• A nuisance is any attack on human beings’ health
through the emission of pollutants.
•  Wastes are solid, liquid or gaseous products resulting
from household activities or from a manufacturing
process or any abandoned movable or real estate, or the
ones that threaten to collapse.
•  Dangerous wastes are solid, liquid or gaseous products
that constitute a serious threat to or particular risks for
the health and security of human beings and to the
quality of environment.
• Installation is any system, any fixed or mobile unit likely
to undermine the environment, whoever the owner and
whatever the location. 10
 Definitions on env (continued)
• An Environment Impact Assessment is an evaluation
report on the probable impact of a given activity on
environment.
•  An Environmental Audit is a procedure of evaluation
and control of environment protection activities.
•  The Environment Impact Assessment Bureau is a
service at the disposal of the Competent National
Authority with the responsibility of examining
environment impact assessments.
• The Competent National authority is a special entity or
group of entities whose functions are defined by the
decree.
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 Definitions on development
• Development is more than simply increasing
economic output, i.e. GDP per capita.
• It is a wider concept than economic growth.
• Even if a country’s economy experiences real
growth of GDP it does not mean that economic
development is taking place.
• Nevertheless, wider more meaningful indicators
of development are often correlated with GDP
per capita.

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 Definitions on development
Other indicators have been used to measure the
development level :
• The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI): in this index
three single indicators were combined together: life
expectancy at birth, infant mortality and literacy rates.
• For each indicator the performance of individual
countries were rated on a scale of 1 to 100 where 1
represents the worst and 100 the best.
• There was a correlation with the GDP per capita.
• However it was not as close as might be expected.

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 Definitions on development
Other indicators of development level:
• The Human Development Index (HDI) produced by the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
includes indicators of longevity, knowledge and income.
• It combines life expectancy (at birth), an average of
literacy rates and number of years of education and GDP
expressed in terms of its purchasing power in the
domestic economy.
• In this regards, some countries have shown rapid
economic growth but have not shown corresponding
high HDI index.

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 Definitions on development
Another indicator: the Human Suffering Index (HIS): the index ranks
people according to the level of human suffering based on :
– Life expectancy;
– Daily calorie supply;
– Access to clean water;
– Infant immunization
– Secondary school enrolment;
– Per capita GDP;
– Rate of inflation;
– Communications;
– Technology;
– Political freedom;
– Civil rights

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 Definitions on development
• The Human Poverty Index: the United Nations defines as the
“denial of choices and opportunities most basic to human
development to lead a long healthy, creative life and enjoy a
decent standard of living, freedom, self esteem and the respect of
others”.
• Whilst the Human Development Index measures the progress of
the country in achieving development, the Human Poverty Index is
more aimed at reflecting on how the progress is distributed and
the level of deprivation and poverty being experienced in the
country.
• There are two HPI indexes most commonly used. HPI-1 is a
measure of absolute poverty used in Less Developed Countries
and HPI-2 is a measure of relative poverty used in More
Developed Countries.
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 Definitions on development
• HPI-1 measures poverty in Less Developed
Countries. The variables used are:
– The percentage of people expected to die before age
40;
– The percentage of adults who are illiterate;
– Deprivation in overall economic provisioning-public
and private-reflected by the percentage of people
without access to health services and safe water and
the percentage of underweight children under five.

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 Definitions on development (versus poverty)
• HPI-2 measures human poverty in industrial countries. Because human
deprivation varies with the social and economic conditions of a
community, this separate index has been devised for industrial
countries.
• It focuses on deprivation in the same three dimensions as HPI-1
although with an adjusted set of criteria and on additional one, social
exclusion measured by low incomes and long term unemployment.
• The variables are:
– The percentage of people likely to die before age 60;
– The percentage of people whose ability to read and write is far from
adequate;
– The proportion of people with disposable incomes of less than 50 %
of the median;
– The proportion of long-term unemployment (12 months or more)

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 Sustainable development
• Despite various development indicators, very few authors
have attempted to define the concept “development”
alone.
• For a better understanding of the dimensions of
“development” many definitions come with the concept
“sustainable”.

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 The origins of sustainable Development
• The theoretical framework for sustainable
development evolved between 1972 and 1992
through a series of international conferences and
initiatives.
• The UN Conference on the Human Environment,
held in Stockholm in 1972, was the first major
international gathering to discuss sustainability
at the global scale.

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 The origins of sustainable Development(cont’d)
• The conference created considerable
momentum, and a series of recommendations
led to the establishment of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP);
• It also from the conference that there was
creation of numerous national environmental
protection agencies at the national level.

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 The origins of sustainable Development
(cont’d
• The recommendations from Stockholm were further elaborated in
the 1980 World Conservation Strategy—a collaboration between
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF), and UNEP—which aimed to advance
sustainable development by identifying priority conservation
issues and key policy options.
• In 1983, the UN convened the WCED (World Commission on
Environment and Development), chaired by Norwegian Prime
Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
• Comprised of representatives from both developed and
developing countries, the Commission was created to address
growing concern over the “accelerating deterioration of the
human environment and natural resources and the consequences
of that deterioration for economic and social development.” 22
 The origins of sustainable Development
(cont’d
• Four years later, the group produced the
landmark publication Our Common Future (or
the Brundtland report) that provided a stark
diagnosis of the state of the environment.
• The report popularized the most commonly
used definition of sustainable development:
“Development that meets the needs of current
generations without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs”
(WCED, 1987, p. 45).
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 The origins of sustainable Development
(cont’d
• The Brundtland report provided the momentum for the
landmark 1992 Rio Summit that laid the foundations for the
global institutionalization of sustainable development.
• Marking the twentieth anniversary of the Stockholm Conference,
the Earth Summit adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development and Agenda 21, a global plan of action for
sustainable development.
• The Rio Declaration contained 27 principles of sustainable
development, including principle 7 on “common but
differentiated responsibilities,” which stated: “In view of the
different contributions to global environmental degradation,
States have common but differentiated responsibilities.

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 The origins of sustainable Development
• The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they
bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in
view of the pressures their societies place on the global
environment and of the technologies and financial resources they
command.”
• Agenda 21 included 40 separate chapters, setting out actions in
regard to the social and economic dimensions of sustainable
development, conservation and management of natural resources,
the role of major groups, and means of implementation.
• In Agenda 21, developed countries reaffirmed their previous
commitments to reach the accepted UN target of contributing 0.7
percent of their annual
• Gross National Product (GNP) to official development assistance,
and to provide favorable access to the transfer of environmentally
sound technologies, in particular to developing countries.
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 The origins of sustainable Development
• Three important frameworks for environmental governance were
established at the Rio Summit: the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
and the non legally binding statement of Forest Principles.
• Following a recommendation in Agenda 21, the UN General Assembly
officially created the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
later that year.
• The Rio Summit was very successful from a political standpoint: it had
the world’s attention and active engagement and attendance by
virtually every national leader.
• Its challenges lay in two areas: first, too much of an emphasis on the
“environment pillar” in the negotiations and secondly, all too little
implementation of goals established under Agenda 21, particularly
those related to development aid and cooperation.
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 The origins of sustainable Development
• Since that time a number of important international conferences
on sustainable development have been held— including the 1997
Earth Summit+5 in New York and the 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.
• Meetings were primarily reviews of progress; and reported that a
number of positive results had been achieved, but
implementation efforts largely had been unsuccessful at the
national and international level.
• The UN General Assembly noted in 1997 (paragraphs 4 and 17)
that “the overall trends with respect to sustainable development
are worse today than they were in 1992” and “much remains to
be done to activate the means of implementation set out in
Agenda 21, in particular in the areas of finance and technology
transfer, technical assistance and capacity-building.”
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 The origins of sustainable Development
• In his 2002 report on implementing Agenda 21, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan confirmed that “progress towards
reaching the goals set at Rio has been slower than anticipated”
and “there is undoubtedly a gap in implementation” (United
Nations Economic and Social Council, 2002, p. 4).
• Regrettably, initiatives following the Rio Summit have not
attracted the attention, commitment, and resources required for
effective implementation of sustainable development.
• This is a problem with multilateral agreements, in that
commitments at the international level do not reflect the
processes and realities in countries, where multiple stakeholders
—including government, businesses, and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs)—need to be engaged in action.

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 The origins of sustainable Development
• The negotiations at the WSSD in 2002 demonstrated a
major shift in the perception of sustainable development
—away from environmental issues toward social and
economic development.
• This shift, which was driven by the needs of the
developing countries and strongly influenced by the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)2, is but one
example of how sustainable development has been
pulled in various directions over its 20- plus year history.
• Defining and implementing sustainable development has
had to deal with the tensions between the three pillars,
and the prevailing “influences” at different points in time.
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 The origins of sustainable Development
• The WSSD did make a constructive change by focusing
considerably more attention on development issues, particularly
in integrating the MDGs with sustainable development principles
and practices.
• However, the political timing was simply not there: the political
leadership was not engaged because the world, led by the United
States, was more focused on security issues around terrorism,
weapons of mass destruction, and Iraq.
• Unfortunately, the seeds planted in 2002 fell upon arid land.
• At and since the Rio Summit, sustainable development has found
its most prominent focus around the issue of climate change.
• Responses to address climate change, both mitigation and
adaptation, are linked to sustainable development.

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 The origins of sustainable Development
• The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007, chapter 12.1.1) pointed out the
relationship between climate change and sustainable
development, and that the two can be mutually reinforcing.
• In many respects, the UNFCCC has become an international
proxy for discussions around sustainable development, and a
potential means to channel required funding and technology
from developed to developing countries.
• While climate change is certainly one manifestation of the
broader challenge of sustainable development, the scale and
complexity of the broader sustainability challenge means that it
cannot be adequately addressed in the confines of the climate
change negotiations.

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Acceptance of sustainable development as a
guiding principle
• Since the Brundtland report and the Rio Summit,
sustainable development has transitioned from being an
interesting yet at times contested ideal, to a concept that
enjoys widespread endorsement by international
institutions, governments, businesses, and civil society.
• The nearly universal adoption of sustainable development
as a guiding principle is, in part, due to its flexibility.
• It allows various stakeholders to adapt the concept to
their own purposes.
• This strength, however, is also a liability because various
interpretations have led to confusion and compromised
implementation. 32
 Acceptance of sustainable development as a
guiding principle
• Nonetheless, sustainable development has been integrated into the
operations and governing mandate of many prominent international
organizations.
• These include the World Bank (2010), which has affirmed a commitment
to “sustainable globalization” that “enhances growth with care for the
environment”; the International Monetary Fund (IMF, 2010), with a
commitment to “sustainable economic growth”; as well as the World
Trade Organization (WTO, 2010) which endeavours to contribute to
sustainable development through the pursuit of open borders and the
removals of barriers to trade.
• Sustainable development is also a prominent component of the MDGs,
which have been widely endorsed by national governments and the
world’s foremost development organizations since they were adopted at
the Millennium Summit in 2000.

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 Acceptance of sustainable development as a
guiding principle
• While the concept is widely accepted and sustainable
development has been adopted as a desirable goal by many
institutions, governments, businesses, and NGOs; the term
sustainable development suffers from definitional ambiguity or
vagueness (IPCC, chapter 12.1.2).
• The dominant view of governments and businesses is that
sustainable development is continued economic growth made
more environmentally sensitive in order to raise living
standards globally and break the link between poverty and
environmental degradation.
• Economic growth is seen as part of the solution, and markets
and technology will produce a richer world that is more
ecologically stable (Hopwood, Mellor and O’Brien, 2005).
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Acceptance of sustainable development as a
guiding principle
• Developed country adherence to this view is being
matched by the major developing economies of the
Republic of Korea, China, and India; where growing
wealth is being followed by efforts to improve
environmental performance.
• Spending on environmental protection in China’s 2010
budget was projected to rise by more than 20 percent,
clean energy measures in India amount to over US$1
billion, and close to 80 percent of the Republic of
Korea’s stimulus funding was directed to the
implementation of its Green New Deal (Robins, Clover
and Sarawanan, 2010: pp. 3-6). 35
 Acceptance of sustainable development as a
guiding principle
• Others view sustainable development as a balancing act between the
economy and the environment—meaning that the economy is an entity
that is separate from the environment, where the latter inevitably loses
out (Caccia, 2001).
• Some critics accuse the business community of using sustainable
development as a way to paint environmentally destructive practices
“green”—a rationalization for economic growth without due concern for
environmental or social imperatives (Corporate Watch, 2006;
Greenpeace, 2010).
• Some NGOs and academics have argued that sustainable development
does not go far enough to create the required lifestyle, consumption, and
behavioral changes—that radical changes are needed in the world’s
economic order.
• “Deep ecology” critics argue that the concept of sustainable
development is too humancentric, and the paradigm of sustainable
development does not adequately challenge the consumer culture. 36
 Progress on Sustainable Development
metrics
• Progress has been made on sustainable development metrics.
• Since the Brundtland report and the Rio Summit, researchers in universities,
environmental organizations, think tanks and national governments have
furthered the measurement of progress on sustainable development.
• Indicators have been developed to supplement and enhance the default
measure of progress, gross domestic product (GDP), which is a measure of a
country's overall official economic output in the formal sectors.
• These indicators aim to reflect a broader understanding of what constitutes
progress, and seek to refine the conceptualization of wealth, capital, and
development.
• Examples include the Human Development Index developed by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Gross National Happiness
indicator of Bhutan.
• Other measures focus more specifically on the state of the natural
environment, including the WWF’s Nature’s Living Planet Index and the Happy
Planet Index of the New Economics Foundation
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 Progress on Sustainable Development metrics
• The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and the International Institute for Sustainable
Development developed the Bellagio STAMP (SusTainability
Assessment and Measurement Principles) as a set of guiding
principles to measure and assess progress towards sustainability
under the OECD’s Measuring the Progress of Societies program.
• This initiative involves UN organizations, national governments,
and civil society organizations in the development of alternate
measurements of human progress that more accurately account
for social and environmental factors.
• Several countries have developed sustainable development
indicators to supplement economic indicators.

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 Difficulties in implementing sustainable
development
• The concept and idea of sustainable development is
widely accepted, and good progress has been made on
sustainable development metrics.
• Yet the implementation of sustainable development has
been largely unsuccessful.
• The world has made little progress in implementing
programs and policies to improve the lives of the poor
(Moyo, 2009), and the integration of the three pillars of
economic development, social development, and
environmental improvements remains a challenge.
• Sustainable development is not easy and will take
considerable time and effort. 39
 Difficulties in implementing sustainable
development
• Many of the consensus-driven UN summits have resulted in broad
documents, policies, and goals; and the action plans tend to be
“sprawling documents that offer something for everyone” (Victor,
2006).
• High-level international meetings—such as under the (Commission
for Sustainable Development (CSD) and UNFCCC—“avoid concrete
discussion about how to shift to a more sustainable, low carbon
world economy” and “international talks increasingly become
disconnected from real-world policy.”
• Efforts to implement sustainable development have taken place in
an environment of mainstream economic planning and market-
based investment, in a manner that will not disrupt overall growth.
• As such, implementation has not moved beyond slow incremental
steps to transformative action.
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 Difficulties in implementing sustainable
development
• There is a lack of leadership and each sector waits on
the others, limiting real progress toward sustainable
development.
• They note that “politicians tend not to run for office
on promises of making the price of goods reflect their
real (higher) costs for the sake of sustainable
development.
• Consumers tend not to demand to pay such higher
costs; business tends not to lobby lawmakers for
higher prices (Holliday, Schmidheiny and Watts, 2002,
p. 18). 41
 Difficulties in implementing sustainable
development
• Part of the reason for the lack of implementation is that actions have tended
to emphasize the symptoms of environmental degradation and not the
underlying source of the problem.
• Jim MacNeill (2007, p. 5), former Secretary General of the Brundtland
Commission, asserted that we are still struggling with an issue raised in the
Brundtland report: the institutions and policies we put in place to address
sustainable development issues were “not only weak but they had been
directed one way or another to tackle the symptoms of environmental
degradation and to ignore its sources.
• The sources, of course, are to be found in government (and corporate) fiscal,
tax, budget, trade, energy, agriculture and other policies and in the values
underlying them.”
• Governments have not taken down the silos between departments to find the
complex, integrated answers.

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 Difficulties in implementing sustainable
development
• Some developing countries argue that lack of financial and technological
resources, and unfair terms of trade have plagued their implementation of
sustainable development.
• Many poor people and poor countries do not have adequate access to
technology, lacking the resources, infrastructure, quality of governance, and
business environment necessary to stimulate sustainable development
(Economic Commission for Africa, 2002).
• While national governments have developed sustainable development
strategies and plans, and local governments have been involved in initiatives,
these actions have not led to fundamental changes.
• Few countries have lived up to their Rio commitments, stating that National
Agenda 21 efforts led to “increased academic debate, heightened public
awareness and minor adjustments in the system of national accounts and
taxation rules, but they have not fundamentally altered the way we manage
and measure our national economy.”
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