Reaching Sustainability Development Goals
Lecture 1 – 5 september 2022:
The overall goal is a better world, this should be done with rules of the United Nations with their
sustainable development goals.
Sustainability challenges:
- Plastic pollution
- Poverty
- Flooding
- Droughts → ecoculture is worse
The idea in the 18th and 19th century was to make the land (economic) stronger
→ E.g. Malthus’ concerns: how to feed an exponentially growing population?
→ unlimited growth was seen as impossible: amount of land is finite
→ idea of ‘ecosystem services’(not called that back then)
Mid 19th – mid 20th century:
- Industrialization weakens coupling of economic growth to land --> shift to capital and labor
- Concerns on depletion of coal resources or land --> substitution is the answer; if there was
fear of running out of substitution then there will be looked at something else that could be
used.
- Growing notion that unlimited growth on a finite planet is possible
1960s-1970s:
- Growing concern about environment as a sink of pollutants --> you can not dump the waste
unlimited.
- Rapid population growth
- Resource scarcity back in the picture (a.o. because of 1973 oil crisis) --> not be dependent on
one country, but also find something else that works
- Also concerns about global inequality and poverty, but not coupled to environmental
concerns
1962:
- Pesticides are killing the insects → So like the book Silent Spring, which pointed out the
danger of pesticides. Silent Spring it is called, because the writer noted that the amount of
birds singing was declined.
- Criticism of industrial agriculture → mainly to the USA
1968:
- Exponential population growth will cause worldwide famine → this did not happen as was
thought. The book the population bomb was published in 1968, this book predicted the
worldwide famine, because of the worldwide increasing population. The predictions made,
did not actually happen, however this book gain some awareness of a growing population.
1970: the book ‘the closing circle’ was the first book who described a sort of ‘Ecosphere’; In this
book there were 4 laws: the first one is that everything is connected to everything else (so there is
one ecosphere for all living organisms).
- What effects one, effects all (species) (law 1)
, - There is no ‘away’ to which tings can be thrown → The second law is that everything must
go somewhere
- The third law was that ‘Nature knows best’.
- The fourth law was that he said; there is no such thing as free lunch
1972: The limits to growth (is a publication) → the idea of feedback loops. In this publication they
made a very ‘simple/basic’ computer model of exponential, economic and population growth. And
with this, this was one of the first attempts of modelling the future.
Conclusions:
- In ‘business as usual’ systems will collapse in 21st century (life expantancy will decline,
because the population will also go down)
- Perpetual growth of resource use is unstainable
- We can change the pathway; but then the system and society we live in must be changed
- But this requires fast and decisive action..
- This model looks a little bit like the more complex models we have now. However, the big
collapse that should happen in the old model, is not happening in the complex model, so
that is a good thing. However, there is still not a good model that predicts all the
sustainability.
1987: The book ‘Our common future’ was published. This book considers environment &
development as one single issue:
- Human development, poverty reduction, gender equity and wealth redistribution 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
In 1992 there was the Earth Summit and The convention on climate change and on biological
diversity. And this was one of the first time that all countries were coming together, to address all
these issues.
From 2000 till 2015 the world was
thriving for the Millennium
Development Goals → there are 8
goals, most of them are on human
development. Some incredible
progress (there is not a lot of poverty
anymore), other targets
underachieved. So there were 8 goals,
21 targets and 60 indicators.
In 2002 there was the world summit on sustainable development.
In 2012 there was the Rio +20
In 2015 the sustainable development goals were developed, this leaded to the Paris Agreement.
Some notes from the UN resolution in 2015: Transforming our World:
- Eradicating poverty is the greatest challenge
- No one will be left behind → Africa
, - We envisage a world free of pverty, hunger, disease and want, where all life (all humans and
species) can thrive
- The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities --> there is the same world goal,
but every country does the same to reach the goal (not every country emits the same
amount of pollution)
- Each country faces specific challenges
- The challenges and commitments identified at these major conferences and summits are
interrelated and call for integrated solutions
After this, the sustainable development goals were developed. These are 17 goals, with 4 core
principles:
1. Universality: end of North-South divide
2. Interconnectedness and indivisibility
3. Leaving no one behind
4. Multi-stakeholder approach; ‘Project everyone’
The 17 goals are:
1. End poverty in all this form everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities
for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive
employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster
innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable
development
, 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage
forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity
loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive 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 revitalize the Global Partnership for
Sustainable Development.
The difference between the sustainable and millennial development goals, are that the sustainable
goals are more political then the millennial. For the sustainable there might be some more people
that disagree on something.
The sustainable development goals have 169 targets and 244 (or 232) indicators in total. These
targets and indicators are important, because that is how the progress is measured.
Political impacts have been mainly discursive:
- Governments, international agencies and corporations changed their language
- But not so much their practices
- Clear focus on reaching the SDGs is rarely seen in governments
- No ‘transformative change’ in government yet
Each SDG represents a (or several) complex systems, the working of which ‘we’ decided need to be
improved
All SDGs are connected, actions for one SDG may impact several others (you make more land to
produce more food, to challenge the hunger, but then the biodiversity will go worse because there is
less land
- Synergies: an intervention on one SDG has positive effects for other SDGs
- Trade-offs: an intervention on one SDG has negative effects for other SDGs
There are several phenomena that are highly relevant for multiple SDGs. For example:
- Population dynamics
- Economic development
- What do people and societies strive for
- Carrying capacity of natural systems
Criticism on the SDG framework:
- Technical / accountability critique:
o Too many targets
o Unattaiable targets
o Too voluntary
o Too silo'd
- Anti-neoliberal / post-growth critique:
o Too market-based
o No focus on causes of inequality
o There is too much focus on GDP growth (SDG8)
- Humans rigths critique:
o SDGs do not serve as a great emancipating force for disenfranchised groups
o Too accomodating to authoritarian regimes: where are terms like
▪ Civil liberties
▪ Freedom of speech
▪ Press freedom
▪ Free and fair elections
