ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

N Akrami

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

What is sustainability? What defines a Sustainable Development? How Sustainable Development relates to

Environment? What else may implicate and may be implicated by

a Sustainable Development? Can these elements function in isolation?

So,.... What is it that we need to sustain?!!!

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?

Bell & Morse (2008):

“People differ in the environmental , social and economic conditions within which they have to live, and having a single definition that one attempts to apply across this diversity could be both impractical and dangerous”.

(Measuring the Immeasurable)

Why? And How?!!!

CONFERENCES:

During the latter part of the 20th century many international conferences were convened for the purpose of debating the various environmental issues.

Bergen, Norway (1990)o The conference at which the slogans "Agenda for

action" and "Action for a common future" became known.

New Delhi, India (1990)o This conference was used to establish a policy for

action across south east Asia and focused attention on sustainable development and local participation in environmental improvements.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992)o 178 countries met at the UN Conference on Environment

and Development (UNCED or otherwise known as the Earth Summit).

o At this unique gathering, nations signed up to a number of agreements including:

o Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992a), o the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

(UNCED, 1992b) o Two treaties were also agreed:o Convention on Biological Diversity o UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Agenda 21o The delegation of responsibility for the global picture to

local communities is essential to the success of an Agenda 21 strategy.

UN Framework Convention on Climate Changeo Each nation to formulate and implement plans to counter

global warming; developed nations were to reduce emissions and to contribute to the cost of measures undertaken by developing countries.

o The Conference of the Parties was established to review progress.

Kyoto, Japan (1997)o Emission targets were negotiated at the Third

Conference of the Parties. o The conference summarized how the targets could be

met and developed countries were asked to provide financial assistance and technology transfer to help developing countries reduce emissions.

Johannesburg, S Africa (2002)o Put resources and sustainability at the top of the

international agenda with clean water being one of the major issues. President Bush did not attend.

Copenhagen Climate Change 2009o “...,while the Copenhagen negotiations "didn't

produce the final cake", they did leave countries "with all the key ingredients to bake a new one". Although the proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating.” (Guardian, 29 Jan 2010)

Cancun Climate Change 2010o “...after two weeks of negotiating, rich and poor

countries agreed a compromise that will see all countries committed to cutting emissions for the first time.

o The "Cancun package" also sets up a "green fund" to help poor countries cope with climate change and a new scheme to halt deforestation.” (Telegraph, 11 Dec 2010)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT “...development that meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’’. (WCSD, 1987)

“The goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising the quality of life of future generations…

…for the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations, that goal will be pursued in an integrated way through a sustainable, innovative and productive economy that delivers high levels of employment; and a just society that promotes social inclusion, sustainable communities and personal wellbeing. This will be done in ways that protect and enhance the physical and natural environment, and use resources and energy as efficiently as possible.” (The UK’s Sustainable Development Commission)

PROFITABILITY V ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE

Strong Sustainability (SS) (Neumayer, 2003):

Implies that that the environment is critical for our and our children’s survival, and any damage will have negative consequence.

a. Preserving natural capital in value term, which does not demand preserving the nature as it is, rather implies reinvesting non-renewable resources in development of renewable sources in order to keep the aggregate value of total nature resources stock constant.

b. Preserving the Physical stock of those forms of natural capital which is regarded as non-substitutable, i.e. Critical Natural Capital. This interpretation does one allow substitutability between different forms of critical natural capital, while however, it does not mean preserving the nature as it is.

PROFITABILITY V ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE

Weak Sustainability (WS) (Bell & Morse, 2003):

a. Primary attention is on the cost of attainment of sustainability and typically based on Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA).

b. WS compared to a model of economic sustainability (environmental economics) where the focus is on allocation of resources and levels of consumption, where financial value is a key element of system quality.

c. In contrast to SS (Neumayer, 2008), in WS the environmental quality can be compromised against economic gain, in other word environment is valued in monetary terms. Weak sustainability currently dominates in the global economy.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

Measured primarily through GDP (Gross Domestic Products)United Kingdom:

GDP – real growth rate:(source: National Statistics, 2011)

GDP is the standard measure of the value of the production activity (including goods and services) of resident producer unit. (OECD, 2009)

GDP & ECONOMIC GROWTH

Nominal GDP equals current market value calculated as:

Consumption + Investment + Government spending + Net Exports

Real GDP measures the market value where adjustments were made for any changes in price level. Hence:

Real GDP= (Nominal GDP/ GDP Deflator) x 100

Economic Growth is measured by growth in read GDP which controls for any price changes.

%∆Real GDP=((Real GDP New-Real GDP Old)/ Real GDP Old) x100

%∆Real GDP > 0→ growth

%∆Real GDP < 0→ de-growth

if the %∆Real GDP shrinking for 2 consecutive quarters→ recession

if the %∆Real GDP shrinking for 8 consecutive quarters→ depression

CLOSED ECONOMY MODELCIRCULAR FLOW OF EXCHANGE VALUE

LIMITS TO GROWTH

The notion that the physical environment imposes hard and fast limits to the scale of growth, or even softer limits to its rate, is not widely shared.

While engineers and scientists understand the limits in a closed system imposed by the laws of thermodynamics, arguments abound as to whether those limits are being approached at all!

LIMITS TO GROWTH

Human survival, through the processes of production and consumption, involves converting low-entropy matters such as fossil fuels to high-entropy substances, namely waste.

Economic production is utterly dependent on the availability of low-entropy input of natural resources. Thus applying a systems perspective to resources and environmental issues should naturally start with thermodynamics .

ECOLOGICAL ECONOMIC WORLDVIEW

R=WR+WP+WC

a production processes generate waste at every stage: the processing of resources generates waste (WR), as with overburdened tips at coal mines; production (or manufacturing) generates waste (WP) in the form of industrial effluent, air pollution and solid waste; consumption generates waste (WC) in the form of sewage, litter and municipal refuse. The amount of waste in any period is equal to the amount of natural resources (R) (First Law of Thermodynamics)

SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

Although mass and energy cannot be destroyed, the process of conversion will progressively destroy the capacity of the matter to engine further conversions owing to dissipation or dispersion by friction , whilst within the economic system, there is a whole category of resources that cannot be recycled, to be precise, energy resources. This is how entropy places a physical barrier in the way of reshaping the economy as a closed and sustainable system.

REFERENCES:

Bell, S.; Morse, S. (2008), Sustainability indicators: measuring the immeasurable?, Earthscan

The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/29/copenhagen-what-next

Neumayer, E (2003), Weak versus strong sustainability: exploring the limits of two opposing paradigms, 2nd Ed., Edward Elgar Publishing

OEDC (2009), OEDC Regions at a glance 2009, OEDC Publishing.

Office for National Statistics (2011):http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=192

Sustainable Development Commission:http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/about-sustainable-development.html

The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8196074/Cancun-meeting-reaches-climate-change-agreement.html#