Sustainable Development

Samantha Manawadu
Content
 Setting the stage – the debate
 What defines the limits?
 Sustainability, sustainable yield etc
 Nine ways to achieve sustainability

 Sustainable development
 Definitions
 3 dimensions
 3 approaches
 Key issues to keep in mind
Content
 History SD
 The beginning
 Stockholm
 The road to Rio
 Our common future
 Agenda 21
 CSD, CBD, UNFCC
 Rio plus 10
 Johannesburg
 Millennium development goals
Setting the stage
 Malthus – Principle of population
“Population when unchecked increased in a
geometric ratio and subsistence for man in an
arithmetical ratio”
 Renewed Malthusians
 Club of Rome - Limits to growth – Donella
Meadows et al
 Lester Brown – Worldwatch Institute – warnings of
immediate collapse
 Remind us that sooner or later unchecked
consumption will get us in trouble
Limits to Growth
 Setting the stage
 Ester Boserup – believed “necessity is the
mother of inventions” – increased population
pressures act as an incentive to the
development of new technology and food
production
 Julian Simon, Wilfred Beckerman – limits only
set by human ingenuity not resources
 Lomborg – assessing Simons claims
 Who to believe?
Long run vs short run
 Physical limits set by Nature – or what?

 In the long run we are limited without

changes in technology
 In the short run rely on human ingenuity to
keep us going
Sustainability
 Selected to bridge the gulf between
development and environment

 Originally used in
 Fisheries “maximum sustainable yield”
 Forestry “maximum sustainable cut”
 Hydrology “maximum sustainable pumping
rate”
Renewable Resources
Population growth
 Logistic or density
dependent growth
 Upper limit to the
ultimate size
 Determined by carrying
capacity
 What defines CC?
 Growth curve u-shaped

Growth determined by:

Pt = Pt-1 + r*(CC - Pt-1)/CC
MSY
Original Equation
 St = St-1 + Gt - Et
 Extraction affects
stock size.
 Sustainable yield:
extraction equal to
growth
 G=E
Renewable resources
 Maximum sustainable
yield (MSY)
 Complex dynamics -
stock possibly grows
drastically with
decreased harvest
Sustainability?
 What is a sustainable fishery?

 How would you define it?

Nine ways to achieve sustainability
1. Leave everything in pristine state, or return it
to pristine state
2. Develop so as to not overwhelm carrying
capacity of the system
3. Sustainability will take care of itself as
economic growth proceeds (Kuznets)
4. Polluter and victim can arrive at an efficient
solution by themselves (Coase)
5. Let the market take care of it!
Nine ways to achieve
sustainability?
6. Internalize externalities
7. Reinvest rents for nonrenewable resources
8. Let the national economic accounting
systems reflect defensive expenditures
9. Leave for future generations the options or
the capacity to be as well off as we are
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"
Brundtland Commission
“Our common future” 1987
Dissecting

“meeting the needs”,

“the present”
“compromise”
“ability of future generations”
“meet their own needs”
Different views
 Robert Repetto
“The core idea of sustainability is that current
decisions should not impair the prospects for
maintaining or improving future living
standards. This implies that our economic
system should be managed so we can live off
the dividends of our resources”.
 Resources – all resources
Mohan Munasinghe
 SD is an approach that will permit continuing
improvements in the quality of life with a
lower intensity of resource use, thereby
leaving behind for future generations an
undiminished or even enhanced stock of
natural resources and other assets.
Different views
 Mohan Munasinghe – three approaches
 Economic: Maximize income while
maintaining a constant or increasing stock of
capital
 Ecological: Maintaining resilience and
robustness of biological and physical systems
 Socio-cultural: Maintaining the stability of
social and cultural systems

 Triple bottom line

3 Dimensions
Economic dimension
Capital: produces a stream of goods and
services into the future
 Financial capital
 Manufactured capital; durable capital
 Human capital; stocks of learned skills
 Intellectual capital; accumulation of knowledge
and skills not embodied in individuals
 Social capital; Set of institutions and customs
 Natural capital; renewable and nonrenewable
Weak vs Strong sustainability
 Weak sustainability; man made and natural
capital substitutable. Sum must be non-
declining
 Implications?
 Strong sustainability; man made and
natural capital with limited substitutability,
each stock must be non-declining separately
 Implications?
Strong or weak?
Robert Repetto – Economic Approach
“The core idea of sustainability is that current
decisions should not impair the prospects for
maintaining or improving future living
standards. This implies that our economic
system should be managed so we can live off
the dividends of our resources”.
 Resources – all resources
Economic dimension
Jonathan Harris Tufts U
 An economically sustainable system must be
able to produce goods and services on a
continuing basis, to maintain manageable
size of government and external debt and to
avoid sectoral imbalances (maintain diversity)
Environmental dimension
D. Pearce
 Sustainable development is (1) development
subject to a set of constraints which set
resource harvest rates at levels not higher
than managed natural regeneration rates and
(2) use of the environment as a waste sink on
the basis that waste disposal rates should not
exceed rates of managed or natural
assimilative capacity of the ecosystem
Quantifiable
 Managed or natural regeneration rate
 Forest resource
 X1 biomass removed/unit time
 X2 biomass regenerated/unit time
 X1<=X2
 Managed or natural waste assimilative
capacity
 Wastewater effluent
 Y1 = PPM discharged BOD/unit time
 Y2 = PPM BOD capacity /unit time
 Y1<=Y2
Environmental dimension
Jonathan Harris Tufts U
 A stable resource base, do not overwhelm the
waste assimilative ability of the environment
nor the regenerative services of the
environment, deplete non-renewables only to
the extent we invest in renewable substitutes.
Social Dimension
Jonathan Harris Tufts U
 Achieve distributional equity, adequate
provision of social services including health
and education, gender equity and political
accountability and participation
3 Approaches
Economic Approach to SD
 Robert Repetto
“The core idea of sustainability is that current
decisions should not impair the prospects for
maintaining or improving future living
standards. This implies that our economic
system should be managed so we can live off
the dividends of our resources”.
 Resources – all resources
Ecological approach to SD
IUCN
 SD is about maintenance of essential
ecological processes and life support
systems, the preservation of genetic diversity
and the sustainable utilization of species and
ecosystems
Social Approach to SD
Ed Barbier
 SD is directly concerned with increasing the
standard of living of the poor, which can be
measured in terms of increased food, real
income, education, health care, water supply,
sanitation and only indirectly concerned with
economic growth at the aggregate.
The principle
 Protect the environment and at the same time
fulfill economic and social objectives
 Operational criteria:
 Economic objectives should not be maximized
without satisfying environmental and social
constraints
 Environmental benefits should not be maximized
without satisfying economic and social constraints
 Social benefits should not be maximized without
satisfying economic and environmental constraints
The principle – meant to deliver
1. Economic growth and equity; not leaving
any region behind
2. Conserving natural resources and the
environment; for us and future
generations
3. Social development; Ensure rich fabric of
social and cultural diversity, ensure rights
of workers, empowerment and at the
same time ensure jobs, education, food,
health care, energy etc.
Confusion
 Sustainable development
vs.
 Sustainable production
 Sustainable extraction
 Sustainable use
 Sustainable yield
To consider

 Define sustainable development of the

Icelandic Geothermal system
History of SD
1. The Beginning
 1962; “Silent spring” – Rachel Carson
 1963 International biological programme
initiated
 1967 Environment defense fund pursues
legal options to protect environment
 1968 Paul Ehrlich “The population bomb”
 1968 Club of Rome
History
1. The Beginning
 1968; Intergovernmental conference for rational use
and conservation of the biosphere
 UN GA authorizes the Human Environment
conference in Stockholm
 1969 NEPA formed – EPA established
 1970 - 71 Natural Resources Defense Council
formed, earth day, Greenpeace established, IIED
 1971 Founex Report
 1972 Club of Rome report published “Limits to
Growth”
Limits to Growth
First Conference – first milestone
 1972 Stockholm, United Nations Conference
on Human Environment
 First international recognition of environmental
problems and the link between human
behavior and environmental issues
 Focus on environment vs development
 Concept Sustainable development argued as
the solution to this dilemma
 Led to creation of UNEP
First Conference 1972
 Conference themes
 the interdependence of human beings and the
natural environment;
 the links between economic and social
development and environmental protection;
and
 the need for a global vision and common
principles.
The Road to Rio
2. Towards Rio
 1972 Oil Crisis
 Evidence mounts for increasing scarcity
 1980 World Conservation strategy released
(IUCN)
 Towards Sustainable development
 Poverty, population pressure, inequity, trade
 Global 2000 commissioned
 1983 World Commission on Environment and
Development formed
 Gro Harlem Brundtland (chair)
World Commission on Environment
and Development
Mandate to work for 3 years to:
 To propose long-term environmental strategies for
achieving sustainable development to the year 2000
and beyond;
 To recommend ways in which concern for the
environment may be translated into greater co-
operation among developing countries and between
countries at different stages of economic and social
development
 To consider ways and means by which the
international community can deal more effectively
with environmental concerns, in the light of the other
recommendations in its report;
 To help to define shared perceptions of long-term
environmental issues
2. The Road to Rio
 1984 Worldwatch publishes the first State of
the World Report
 1985 Antarctic ozone hole found
 1985 Villach Austria, climate change
predicted
 1986 IUCN Conference on Environment and
Development
 1987 Our Common Future Published
 Prompts the Earth Summit in Rio
Our Common Future – second
Milestone
 Argue for a new era of economic growth,
growth that is forceful, and at the same time
environmentally and socially sustainable.
 Three dimensions of SD
 Environment
 Economics
 Social
 Not clear on specifics
The Earth Summit – third milestone
 1992, The United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development
 Rio 1992
 178 nations
 2400 NGO´s
 17000 participants

Unparalleled emphasis and interest in the

environment – and how to achieve balanced
solutions
The Earth Summit
Outcomes
 Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development
 Agenda 21
 Convention on Biological Diversity
 Forest Principles
 Framework Convention on Climate Change
 Establishing the CSD – began operating in
1993
Rio Declaration
 Non-binding
 Consists of 27 Principles intended to guide
future sustainable development around the
world
 http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aco
nf15126-1annex1.htm
Rio Declaration – Key highlights
 Humans at the center
 States have the right to use their own resources as they see fit
 Must integrate the environment into development plans
 Should facilitate increased public participation
 States should enact environmental legislation and should
cooperate where needed
 Should actively discourage or prevent relocation of activities or
substances harmful t the environment or human health
 Apply the Precautionary approach
 Internalize environmental costs and use economic instruments
 EIA should be undertaken for proposed activities
 Peace, development and environmental protection are
interdependent and indivisible
Agenda 21
 A comprehensive blueprint of action to be
taken globally, nationally and locally by
organizations of the UN, governments, and
major groups in every area in which humans
influence the environment.
 The task is to balance economic development
with social and environmental objectives
 21?
 40 Chapters, 4 sections, 100 programme
areas
 Non-binding
The 4 sections
Section I: Social and Economic Dimensions
 Including combating poverty, changing consumption patterns,
population and demographic dynamics, promoting health,
promoting sustainable settlement patterns and integrating
environment and development into decision-making.
Section II: Conservation and Management of Resources for
Development
 including atmospheric protection, combating deforestation,
protecting fragile environments, conservation of biological
diversity (biodiversity), and control of pollution.
Section III: Strengthening the Role of Major Groups
 Including the roles of children and youth, women, NGOs, local
authorities, business and workers.
Section IV: Means of Implementation
 Including science, technology transfer, education, international
institutions and mechanisms and financial mechanisms.
Local Agenda 21
 Agenda 21 involves action at international,
national, regional and local levels.
 Some national and state governments have
legislated or advised that local authorities
take steps to implement the plan locally
(Chapter 28)
 Such programmes are often known as 'Local
Agenda 21' or 'LA21'.
UNFCCC
 Binding
 Signed initially by 153 nations – now been
ratified by enough nations to be implemented
 Described commitments to reduce emissions
of GHG
CBD
 Binding
 Signed by 156 nations initially
 Deals with:
 Economic exploitation of genetic material and
biodiversity conservation
 Creating protective areas and draw up
national plans for conservation
Convention on forest management
 Non-binding
 Short statement on principles for a global
consensus on forest management
Commission for SD
 Was established by the General Assembly to monitor
and facilitate efforts to implement the diverse goals of
the earth summit – in particular agenda 21.
 Supposed to promote dialog and encourage
partnerships among governments, UN agencies and
the NGO community.
 Lacks both power to make binding resolutions and its
own financial resources to fund programs.
 Reports directly to ECOSOC
CSD - functions
1. Provides a forum for the discussion of a wide range of
subjects related to SD. Supposed to strengthen the
participation of groups such as NGO’s indigenous peoples,
local governments, workers women and the young.

2. Monitors progress made by industrial and developing

countries towards SD and implementing Agenda 21. Protocol
for reporting has been agreed upon – and at least..
 137 countries have submitted reports.

3. Have encouraging organizational developments but little has

been done to implement key provisions agreed upon at the
Earth Summit => But keep in mind – the CSD lacks powers to
do anything about it.
History – After Rio
3. After Rio
 1993 First meeting of the CSD
 1995 World Summit for Social development
 1996 The Summit of the Americas on SD
 1997 UN GA review of the Earth Summit
progress
 2000 UN Millennium Summit – declaration of
the Millennium Goals
 2001 EU sustainable development strategy
 2002 Rio plus 10 - Johannesburg
Millennium Declaration
 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
 The eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all the
world´s countries and all the world´s leading
development institutions.
 The goals….
The Millennium Goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Achieve gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country
policies and programs
• reverse loss of environmental resources
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable
access to safe drinking water
8. Develop a global partnership for sustainability
The Millennium Goals
 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

 Take a look at the indicators and the most

recent report
3) Rio plus 10. Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
2002 Johannesburg
 Established to assess progress on implementation of
the results of the Rio summit – in particular Agenda
21.
 The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(Earth Summit 2002) affirmed UN commitment to 'full
implementation' of Agenda 21, alongside
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
and other international agreements.
 Non-binding
 No new conventions
Johannesburg
 Johannesburg Declaration
 Targets set for economic factors and poverty
reduction – e.g.
 Halve by 2015 the population living on less than 1$ a day
 Ensure by 2015 all children complete primary education
 Non-quantitative targets for environment
 Substantially increase global share of renewable energy
sources
 Achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current
rate of loss of biodiversity
Johannesburg
 Focus:
 Social pillar of SD
 Fight poverty
 Mutually enhancing poverty and environmental
degradation is one of the factors preventing SD
 Address equitable access to resources
 Debt relief programs
 Increasing ODA
The three dimensions
 The three conferences defined the three
dimensions
 Stockholm (Environment)
 Rio (Economics)
 Johannesburg (Social)
Move towards fostering synergy
 International community seems to agree on
the general goals of SD
 Efforts remain fragmented – e.g. little link
between various environmental agreements
 Increased cooperation required between
various agreements (e.g. CBD and UNFCCC)
– and there seems to be willingness to do
this.
The Precautionary Principle
 Where environmental consequences of
regulatory inaction are (1) in some way
uncertain (2) but non-trivial, we must act
 In essence minimizing risk – setting minimum
acceptable risk
 Already implemented into EU legislation and
USA legislation
How can we get towards SD?
1. How do we define it?
 What does it mean?
 What is the objective?
 What are the basic principles?
2. How do we know if we are moving there?
 Indicators
3. How to move further?
 From indicators to action
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"
Brundtland Commission
“Our common future” 1987
Economic dimension
 An economically sustainable system must be
able to produce goods and services on a
continuing basis, to maintain manageable
size of government and external debt and to
avoid sectoral imbalances (maintain diversity)
Environmental dimension
 A stable resource base, do not overwhelm the
waste assimilative ability of the environment
nor the regenerative services of the
environment, deplete non-renewables only to
the extent we invest in renewable substitutes.
Social Dimension
 Achieve distributional equity, adequate
provision of social services including health
and education, gender equity and political
accountability and participation
The principle
 Protect the environment and at the same time
fulfill economic and social objectives
The three core drivers of un-
sustainability
 Consumption
 Use of resources beyond the reasonable limits
set by nature
 Production
 Gross inefficiencies in production.
 Distribution
 Inequitable distribution e.g. distribution of
global income between rich and poor
Distribution
Myths
 Most environmental The champagne glass
degradation is done by the
poor
 Poverty reduction leads to
environmental degradation
 Population growth necessarily
leads to env. degradation
 The poor are too poor to invest
in env.
 Poor people lack technical
knowledge for resource
management
Conclusion

 Is a long journey towards SD

 End-point not definable
 Each country/region has different goals,
based on economic circumstances,
population size, stage of development,
resource endowment etc….
 General vague principle agreed upon