Reaching the sustainable
development goals
Lecture 1: Sustainability thinking and sustainable
development goals
In order to reach the overall goal of a better
world, the UN has defined the Sustainable
Development Goals in 2015. The dynamics
between different parties, including
business, science, government and citizens is
complicated. However, every part of society
needs to play a role to reach the SDGs.
Sustainability challenges are all around the
world and are very diverse in their origin, but
also they are related. Some of the
sustainable issues that need solving are:
- Plastic pollution
- Water safety
- Poverty
- Climate change: Heat waves, Floodings, Droughts, Wild fires, Tropical Storms, Changing
weather
What actually is sustainability? Sustainability and global sustainability, means that the way of living
on the planet needs to ensure that the planet is preserved and life and society can keep thriving.
These sustainability challenges as mentioned before are caused by unstainable human influences,
through which we cause changes in the environment. We are moving from a relatively calm Holocene
towards a rough Anthropocene. More extreme weather will occur, that could bring a lot of damage.
Especially on countries who do not have enough money to invest in mitigation and adaptation to this
crisis.
History of sustainable development - How did the idea of
sustainability evolve?
In the 18th and 19th century, the idea of economic growth being linked to land was central.
- Concerns: How to feed an exponentially growing population
- Unlimited growth is impossible: since amount of land is finite
- Ecosystem services was the idea that we need our surroundings (food, resources such as
wood) to support us. So healthy ecosystems deliver services to humans.
Then, in mid 19th and mid 20th century, industrialization was taking up, in which the coupling of
economic growth and land/resources was weakened. Therefore, the economic growth became less
coupled to land and more to capital and labour.
- Concerns on depletion of resources resource scarcity substitution is answer
- Growing notion that unlimited growth on a finite planet is possible
,In 1960-1970 there was a growing concern about the environment as a sink of pollutants. It became
clear that the environment has a limit in terms of the amount of waste we can dump in it.
- The rapid population growth (relating back to 18 th and 19th century) was present, arising the
questions on whether it might not be possible to have unlimited growth due to food
scarcity.
- Also, resource scarcity came back into the picture with the oil crisis. There was oil scarcity
due to countries not selling oil. Alternatives are necessary since we do not want to be
dependent on other countries.
- Furthermore, concerns about global inequality and poverty came up, although these were
not coupled to environmental concerns.
Some key publications that triggered sustainable thinking:
1. Silent spring by Rachel Carson (1962). It marks the start of environmental science, as it
induced criticism on industrial agriculture by explaining that pesticides kill insects, and
without insects birds will also not be able to thrive
2. The population bomb by Dr. Paul. R. Ehrlich (1968). It predicted that the exponential
population growth will cause worldwide famine (scarcity of food).
3. Tragedy of the commons scientific article (1968). Individual thinking is not good for the
commons.
4. The closing circle by Barry commoner (1970). First, to describe the idea of an ecosphere with
4 rules:
I. There is a single ecosphere in which everything is connected
II. There is no waste, everything must go somewhere (circular)
III. Nature knows best, so human innovations that tend to improve upon nature
could induce change on natural resources that could be detrimental
IV. There is no free lunch, meaning that it is not possible to get something for
nothing, so exploitation of nature will inevitably involve conversion of useful to
useless forms.
5. The limits to growth by Donella H. Meadows (1972). It models the environmental societal
system in 5 different scenarios with their interactions, including population growth,
economic growth with resource use. They concluded that if the growth trends of the
Business As Usual system (BAU) would continue, it would collapse in the 21 st century. We can
change the pathway, but this would require fast and decisive action. It put the issue of
sustainable development on the global policy agenda.
All in
all,
around 1970 it became clear that unlimited growth is not possible and it would have detrimental
effects in the future. Currently, we still have a similar growth pattern as in the 1970s, but the models
do not predict this collapse. There are however a lot of signs from the earth to change our way of
living.
,International sustainability governance
1971: Unesco Man and biosphere conference
An attempt to connect poverty and nature conservation. With conclusion that national
governments should put in policies and act on sustainability
1972: First UN conference on the Human Environment: ‘Earth Summit’
1974: Cocoyoc declaration
Declaration by the UN environment programme and UN commission on trade and
development. The idea of ecodevelopment arose.
‘The task of statesmanship is to guide the nations towards a new system more capable of
meeting the inner limits of basic human needs for all world’s people and of doing so without
violating the outer limits of the planet’s resources and environment’
1987: Bruntland commission report: Our Common Future
The world commission on environment and development wrote a report called: ‘Our
common future’. It stated the following:
- Human development, poverty reduction, gender equality and wealth distribution is
crucial for environmental conservation.
- Environmental limits to economic growth in industrialized societies exist
- Many crisis facing the planet are interlocking elements of a single crisis of the whole
- Sustainable development = development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- What is needed now is an era of economic growth – growth that is forceful and at
the same time socially and environmentally sustainable. This means more rapid
economic growth in both industrial and developing countries (Concept of Green
Growth)
1992: Rio de Janeiro – Earth Summit
The start of the UN framework convention on Climate change and Biological diversity. All
countries came together to look for solutions with regard to climate and biodiversity, which
are still important bodies to govern these topics. They have not been really successful in
reaching it
2000-2015: Millennium Development goals
The MDGs were established by the UN, targeting mostly human development, such as
poverty, equality, education, health etc. They were active from 2000 to 2015, including 8
goals with 21 targets and 60 indicators to measure progress. On some goals, a lot of progress
was made, however other targets were underachieved. The people who were worst off in
the first place were not reached by the MDGs.
, 2002: World Summit on Sustainable Development
A conference about how to go on after 2015, to replace the MDGs.
2015-2030: Sustainable development goals
The SDG’s were established after 2015 to tackle sustainable development.
The UN resolution involved to transform our world.
2015: Paris Agreement
The climate agreement that gives the framework in which we work to fix the climate change.
Its goal is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The sustainable development goals entail the UN resolution to transform our world.
o Eradicating poverty, which is the greatest and most important challenge
o Transformative change is necessary, the small incremental steps are not enough anymore. It
is the idea that society needs to make a transformational change to reach the goals.
o No one will be left behind, like what happened with MDGs, large groups in Africa were
difficult to reach
o We envisage a world free of poverty, hunger, disease and want, where all life can thrive.
Thus also includes other species than humans
o The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Recognition as a world we have
common roles, but not every country has the same means to take action, and therefore
differentiated responsibilities. Some countries suffer more from the consequences and need
to be helped. Everybody should contribute to the extent that they are capable of.
o Each country faces specific challenges. Achieving the goals includes that every country needs
to face their specific challenges. So, wealthy countries do not only need to make budget, but
also reach their own goals by changing their behaviour for example.
o The challenges and commitments identified at these major conferences and summits are
interrelated and call for integrated solutions. The goals should be looked at as an entirety,
since one affects the other.
The SDGs are based on 4 core principles:
1) Universality: end of North-South divide
Every country has work to do, it is a collaborative process
2) Interconnectedness and Indivisibility
The problems are interconnected and could not be solved separately. There is no pick and
choose, due to this interconnectedness.
3) Leaving no one behind
The MDGs lacked progress for poorest and most vulnerable. Everyone should and must be
reached.
4) Multi-stakeholder approach: ‘Project Everyone’
We need to collaborate both in formulating the SDGs and working on them.
