Key
Features of Sustainable Development
Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs):
Approaches
to sustainability and development:
Neo-liberal/
free market approach:
Reformist
and interventionist approaches:
Sustainability can be defined as the practice of maintaining
world processes of productivity indefinitely—natural or human-made—by replacing
resources used with resources of equal or greater value without degrading or
endangering natural biotic systems. Sustainable development ties together
concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social,
political, and economic challenges faced by humanity (Kahle and Gurel-Atay
2014). In 1980 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
published a world conservation strategy that included one of the first
references to sustainable development as a global priority and introduced the
term “sustainable development” (Sachs 2015). Two years later, the
United Nations World Charter for Nature raised five principles of conservation
by which human conduct affecting nature is to be guided and judged. In 1987 the
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development released the
report Our Common Future, commonly called the Brundtland Report. The report
included what is now one of the most widely recognised definitions of
sustainable development.
Alternatively Sustainable development is defined as a
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.
[World Commission on Environment and Development, Our
Common Future (1987)]
Sustainable development can be achieved if we follow the
following points,
·
Restricting human being from over-exploitation
of the environmental resources both at individual level and as a corporate.
·
Technological development should be input
effective and not input utilizing. Therefore, ensuring technology that minimises
the use of finite resources and maximises the output.
·
The rate of consumption should not surpass the
rate of salvation.
·
For renewable resources, the rate of consumption
should not surpass the rate of production of renewable substitutes.
·
Minimisation of all kinds of pollutants and
safer disposal of waste.
·
Sensible use of Natural Resources.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the
Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a
universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all
people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The SDGs are:
1.
Complete eradication of poverty
2.
No hunger
3.
Good health and well-being
4.
Quality education and life-long learning
opportunity for all
5.
Achieve gender equality and empower all women
and girl
6.
Ensure availability and sustainable management
of water for all
7.
Ensure the availability of reliable, affordable,
sustainable and modern energy for all.
8.
Promote sustained inclusive and sustainable
economic growth. Full and productive and descent work for all.
9.
Build resilient infrastructure, promote
inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10.
Reduce inequality within and among countries
11.
Make cities and human settlement inclusive,
safe, resilient and sustainable for all
12.
Ensure sustainable production and consumption
pattern
13.
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its
impact
14.
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and
marine resources for sustainable development
15.
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of
terrestrial eco-systems, sustainably mange forest, combat desertification, halt
reverse land degradation and halt bio-diversity loss.
16.
Promote inclusive and peaceful societies for sustainable
development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
17.
Strengthen the means of implementation and
revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.
(Accessed from https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html)
The 17 SDGs are integrated—that is, they recognize that
action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must
balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Through the pledge to Leave No One Behind, countries have
committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind first. That is why
the SDGs are designed to bring the world to several life-changing ‘zeros’,
including zero poverty, hunger, AIDS and discrimination against women and
girls.
Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets. The
creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is
necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.
Sustainable development is based on environmental theories
of economic development. Based on them the policies and programmes of the
development of a state is often decided. These theories range from welfare
state models of economic activity to
radical approach that suggests to overthrow the capitalist system and live life
according to ecological principles. There are several trends, here we will
discuss broadly three major categories of development approach that address the
issues of sustainability. These are:
·
Free-market/neo-liberal
·
Reformist and interventionist
·
Radical
Neo-liberal/ free market approach:
Proponents of the free market believe that trade is not the
cause of environmental degradation and that capitalism encourages the rational
use of resources under conditions of free market competition and the
specialisation of production through comparative advantage (Ricardo 1973). For
free-marketers, economic globalisation is an opportunity to rationalise the use
of resources. Restrictions on trade would merely lead to economic decline,
which would in turn devastate environment and human societies. Because,
degradation of economic growth would mean that people will less care about
environment and will try to meet their immediate need without thinking about
the environmental sustainability. As scholars like Gouldson and Murphy (1997)
show, free-market principle suggest that trade and environment conservation is
in a win-win situation, as profit generated can be channelized into environmental
conservation.
They believe in converting common properties like sea to be
converted into the concept of private properties so that over-exploitation can
be stopped.
Reformist and interventionist approaches:
Reformist approach provides incentives or penalties for
consumers and producers to move towards environmentally friendly economic
behaviour. This may be in the form of financial instruments such as subsidies
(reward) or taxation (punishment). Interventionist approaches attempt to achieve
environmentally friendly development by making legislation changes. Taxes and
subsidies are used to alter the economic behaviour and development approaches by
manipulating markets. It is a strict form of control involving legal penalties
for ‘dirty’ producers.
Radical approaches:
Radical approaches like ‘deep green’, eco-centric’ and ‘deep
ecology’ suggest that western consumption patterns are environmentally
unsustainable and undesirable. Driven by capitalism’s imperative for
continuously expanding demand rather than any relation to meeting human needs, ‘consumptive
growth doesn’t make people happier […] people would actually be better off,
Greens argue, if they consumed less and concentrated more on genuine
well-being: on personal development, on relationships with others and social
belonging’ (Jacobs 1997: 50).
Further reading:
https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_CEA_202_0563–an-application-of-anthropology-in-develo.htm#
http://sumananthromaterials.blogspot.com/2013/06/anthropology-and-public-policy.html
http://sumananthromaterials.blogspot.com/2012/05/anthropology-and-development.html
