Sustainable Development Free Essays

Sustainable Development in South Asia * Sustainable Development (SD) implies economic growth together with the protection of environmental quality, each reinforcing the other. Sustainable Development, thus, is maintaining a balance between the human need to improve lifestyles and feeling of well-being on one hand, and preserving natural resources and ecosystems, on which we and future generations depend. The main features that all the definitions have are as follows: * A desirable human condition : a society that people want to sustain because it meets their needs * A enduring ecosystem condition: an ecosystem that maintains its capacity to support human life and others * A balance between present and future generations; and within the present generation. We will write a custom essay sample on Sustainable Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now Principles Defining Sustainable Development * Sustainable development requires the promotion of values that encourage consumption standards that are within the bounds of the ecologically possible and to which all can reasonably aspire. Meeting essential needs depends in part on achieving full growth potential, and sustainable development clearly requires economic growth in places where such needs are not being met. * Sustainable development must not endanger the natural systems that support life on Earth; the atmosphere, the waters, the soils, and living beings. * Most renewable resources are part of a complex and interlinked ecosystem and maximal sustained yield must be defined after taking into account system-wide effects of exploitation. Sustainable development requires that the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources should foreclose as few options as possible. * Sustainable development requires the conservation of plant and animal species. * Sustainable development require s that the adverse impacts on the quality of air, water and other natural elements are minimized so as to sustain the ecosystem’s overall integrity. * Two major events in the recent past have fairly lucidly articulated the sustainable development challenges and priorities for the global community over the next decade. These include the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) –Johannesburg 2002. * Poverty eradication has been clearly identified as the foremost global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development particularly for the developing countries. United Nations Millennium Declaration * At the dawn of the new millennium, the United Nations General Assembly reviewed sustainable development initiatives and processes around the world. Recognising the gravity and urgency of challenges, the global community committed itself to eight goals and eighteen targets to be achieved by 2015. * Indicators of achievement were identified for each of the targets and responsibility entrusted to multilateral agencies to coordinate global efforts. * The declaration, often referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) committed to: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability, and 8. Develop a global partnership for development World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) * The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held at Johannesburg in September 2002 was enriched considerably by the preparatory processes of stakeholders including governments, inter-governmental agencies and civil society groups. WSSD Plan of Implementation focuses on the following: . Reinforcing the Millennium Development Goals, including: a. Poverty eradication b. Changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production c. Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development d. Health and sustainable development 2. Sustainable development in a globalising world 3. Sustainable development in regions 4. Means of Implementation 5. Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development South Asian Perspective on Sustainable Development Developing countries and regions need to identify their own priorities and initiate concerted action with maximum self-reliance and minimal external assistance to retard the poverty and environmental degradation. * Various regional and national assessments point towards four broad thematic priorities for the next decade. These tend to converge with recent global mandates and commitments: †¢ Eliminating Poverty and Creating Human Security †¢ Conserving the Natural Resource Endowments †¢ Securing the Economic Base Strengthening Institutional Systems †¢ Eliminating Poverty and Creating Human Security * Ensuring food security through accessibility, affordability and well planned sustainable food production, storage and distribution strategies. * Promoting income security through micro-finance and micro-enterprises as a means of livelihood and developing effective marketing and distribution links with medium and large-scale industries. farmi ng of poor communities through affordable and socially acceptable technologies and practices. Enhancing energy security through improved access to reliable, affordable, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound energy services and resources. * Ensuring health security through significant investments in primary health care infrastructure and systems which are linked to referral systems in towns and cities. * Providing security from natural disasters through preventive action including large-scale afforestation, rehabilitation of degraded lands, hazard resistant structures and other long term measure. * Conserving the Natural Resource Endowments With almost half the land area in the region degraded in one form or the other; the water resource base threatened due to overexploitation and pollution; cities like Mumbai and Dhaka having the dubious distinction of being among the most polluted in the world; and the biodiversity under severe threat; South Asia has no option but to focus seriously on conserving its natural resource endowments. * Providing water security for human consumption, including livestock and The three areas that require immediate and sustained attention are: †¢ Arresting industrial pollution †¢ Managing urbanisation Conserving biodiversity Securing the Economic Base * The long-term sustainability of the South Asian sub-region is critically dependent on a firm and secure financial and economic base which is currently rather fragile. Each country in the sub-region has to strengthen its financial and economic systems while also focussing on poverty eradication and survival issues. * Considerable mutua l support and assistance is possible through technology cooperation and sub-regional trade arrangements. * Promoting Technology Cooperation * Building a Sub-regional Trading Bloc Depending on Minimal External Assistance * Strengthening Institutional Systems * All recent assessments reiterate the need for strengthened institutional systems to cater to the emerging priorities of eliminating poverty and creating human security; * managing population growth and its impact; conserving the natural resource endowments; and securing the economic base. * Any successful effort to bring about sustainable development will necessarily require countries of the sub-region to establish mechanisms for formulating policy and implementing it at the relevant levels: * †¢ Local †¢ National * †¢ Regional * †¢ Global * Enhance South Asian Cooperation * Asia is assuming importance in terms of its centrality to global geopolitics and * geo economics. Though characterised by tensions and conflicts, the continent is also * an area of potential economic growth. South Asia is home to a phenomenal skilled manpower. It also houses some of the largest emerging markets in the world. Such a diverse resource base can be pooled together for broader regional co operation, which in turn will engender durable peace and security in the region. Key areas of regional cooperation include: †¢ Joint action on Poverty Eradication and Human Security * Sub regional Trade and Economic Policies †¢ Sub regional Sharing and Management of Natural Resources †¢ Strengthening Implementation Systems SAARC Initiatives South Asian Food Bank South Asian Disaster Preparedness and Management System South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement / South Asian Free Trade Area South Asian Technology Bank South Asian Development Bank South Asian Biodiversity Conservation Agreement South Asian Energy Alliance How to cite Sustainable Development, Papers Sustainable Development Free Essays Q. Sustainable Development? Ans:. Sustainable development refers to a mode of human development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. We will write a custom essay sample on Sustainable Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now The term ‘sustainable development’ was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development: â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges faced by humanity. As early as the 1970s, â€Å"sustainability† was employed to describe an economy â€Å"in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems. â€Å"Ecologists have pointed to The Limits to Growth, and presented the alternative of a â€Å"steady state economy† in order to address environmental concerns. The concept of sustainable development has in the past most often been broken out into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. More recently, it has been suggested that a more consistent analytical breakdown is to distinguish four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability. This is consistent with the UCLG move to make ‘culture’ the fourth domain of sustainability. Indigenous peoples have argued, through various international forums such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Convention on Biological Diversity, that there are four pillars of sustainable development, the fourth being cultural. The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) further elaborates the concept by stating that â€Å"†¦ cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature†; it becomes â€Å"one of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence†. In this vision, cultural diversity is the fourth policy area of sustainable development. Economic Sustainability: Agenda 21 clearly identified information, integration, and articipation as key building blocks to help countries achieve development that recognises these interdependent pillars. It emphasises that in sustainable development everyone is a user and provider of information. It stresses the need to change from old sector-centered ways of doing business to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of environmental and soci al concerns into all development processes. According to Hasna Vancock, sustainability is a process which tells of a development of all aspects of human life affecting sustenance. It means resolving the conflict between the various competing goals, and involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity famously known as three dimensions (triple bottom line) with the resultant vector being technology, hence it is a continually evolving process; the ‘journey’ (the process of achieving sustainability) is of course vitally important, but only as a means of getting to the destination (the desired future state). However, the ‘destination’ of sustainability is not a fixed place in the normal sense that we understand destination. Instead, it is a set of wishful characteristics of a future system. Green development is generally differentiated from sustainable development in that Green development prioritizes what its proponents consider to be environmental sustainability over economic and cultural considerations. Proponents of Sustainable Development argue that it provides a context in which to improve overall sustainability where cutting edge Green Development is unattainable. For example, a cutting edge treatment plant with extremely high maintenance costs may not be sustainable in regions of the world with fewer financial resources. An environmentally ideal plant that is shut down due to bankruptcy is obviously less sustainable than one that is maintainable by the community, even if it is somewhat less effective from an environmental standpoint. However, this view depends on whether one determines that it is the development (the plant) which needs to be sustainable, or whether it is the human-nature ecology (the environmental conditions) in which the plant exists which should be sustainable. It follows, then, that an operational but heavily polluting plant may be judged as actually ‘less sustainable’ than having no plant at all. DOMAINS I. Economics: The domain of ‘economics’ is fundamental to considerations of sustainable development, however there has been considerable criticism of the tendency to use the three-domain model of the triple bottom line: economics, environment and social. This approach is challenged to the extent that it treats the economy as the master domain, or as a domain that exists outside of the social; it treats the environment as a world of natural metrics; and it treats the social as a miscellaneous collection of extra things that do not fit into the economic or environmental domains (see the section on Economic sustainability below). In the alternative Circles of Sustainability approach, the economic domain is defined as the practices and meanings associated with the production, use, and management of resources, where the concept of ‘resources’ is used in the broadest sense of that word. II. Ecology: The domain of ‘ecology’ has been difficult to resolve because it too has a social dimension. Some research activities start from the definition of green development to argue that the environment is a combination of nature and culture. However, this has the effect of making the domain model unwieldy if culture is to be considered a domain in its own right (see below). Others write of ecology as being more broadly at the intersection of the social and the environmental – hence, ecology. This move allows culture to be used as a domain alongside economics and ecology. III. Culture: Working with a different emphasis, some researchers and institutions have pointed out that a fourth dimension should be added to the dimensions of sustainable development, since the triple-bottom-line dimensions of economic, environmental and social do not seem to be enough to reflect the complexity of contemporary society. In this context, the Agenda 21 for culture and the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Executive Bureau lead the preparation of the policy statement â€Å"Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development†, passed on 17 November 2010, in the framework of the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders – 3rd World Congress of UCLG, held in Mexico City. This document inaugurates a new perspective and points to the relation between culture and sustainable development through a dual approach: developing a solid cultural policy and advocating a cultural dimension in all public policies. IV. Politics: Sustainable development is an eclectic concept and a wide array of political views fall under its umbrella. The concept has included notions of weak sustainability, strong sustainability and deep ecology. Different conceptions also reveal a strong tension between ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. Many definitions and images (Visualizing Sustainability) of sustainable development coexist. Broadly defined, the sustainable development mantra enjoins current generations to take a systems approach to growth and development and to manage natural, produced, and social capital for the welfare of their own and future generations. During the last ten years, different organizations have tried to measure and monitor the proximity to what they consider sustainability by implementing what has been called sustainability metrics and indices. This has engendered considerable political debate about what is being measured. Sustainable development is said to set limits on the developing world. While current first world countries polluted significantly during their development, the same countries encourage third world countries to reduce pollution, which sometimes impedes growth. Some consider that the implementation of sustainable development would mean a reversion to pre-modern lifestyles. Environmental sustainability Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure current processes of interaction with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the environment as pristine as naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior. Thus, environmental sustainability demands that society designs activities to meet human needs while indefinitely preserving the life support systems of the planet. This, for example, entails using water sustainably, only utilizing renewable energy, and sustainable material supplies (e. g. harvesting wood from forests at a rate that maintains the biomass and biodiversity). An â€Å"unsustainable situation† occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature’s resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature’s resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally. Inherently the concept of sustainable development is intertwined with the concept of carrying capacity. Theoretically, the long-term result of environmental degradation is the inability to sustain human life. Such degradation on a global scale could imply extinction for humanity. Economic sustainability The Venn diagram of sustainable development has many versions, but was first used by economist Edward Barbier (1987). However, Pearce, Barbier and Markandya (1989) criticized the Venn approach due to the intractability of operationalizing separate indices of economic, environmental, and social sustainability and somehow combining them. They also noted that the Venn approach was inconsistent with the Brundtland Commission Report, which emphasized the interlinkages between economic development, environmental degradation, and population pressure instead of three objectives. Economists have since focused on viewing the economy and the environment as a single interlinked system with a unified valuation methodology (Hamilton 1999, Dasgupta 2007). Intergenerational equity can be incorporated into this approach, as has become common in economic valuations of climate change economics (Heal 2009). Ruling out discrimination against future generations and allowing for the possibility of renewable alternatives to petro-chemicals and other non-renewable resources, efficient policies are compatible with increasing human welfare, eventually reaching a golden-rule steady state (Ayong le Kama 2001 and Endress et al. 2005). Thus the three pillars of sustainable development are interlinkages, intergenerational equity, and dynamic efficiency (Stavins et al. 2003). How to cite Sustainable Development, Essay examples Sustainable Development Free Essays Science, Medicine and Technology What is sustainable development? Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:[1] Sustainable development has various definitions; a well-known definition is that of the Brundtland Report. According to the Brundtland Report, â€Å"Sustainable development is 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. We will write a custom essay sample on Sustainable Development or any similar topic only for you Order Now † Sustainable development then is the ability to fulfill the current needs while not halting the ability of generations to come to fulfill their needs. What is sustainability? Sustainability is the ability of an object to renew itself so that it will always be available. Sustainability means that, the object is available in the present and can continue into the future while still accessible in the future. Sustainability of the earth Sustainability, relating to the earth, means that the earth can continue producing or reproducing all it’s natural products which include: water, food, and air; all which defines our and enhances the quality of life for humans. The earth is a system and within this system are: our society, economy and environment. In order for earth to have sustainability, these three needs to work harmoniously and in equilibrium, In a quest for prosperity in all aspects of life, us – human beings are simultaneously destroying the system that we depend on. Threats to the environment include : * Climate change due to greenhouse gas emission * Increase in Toxic Waste * Lack of Fresh Water * Over fishing – Lack of fish (food source) * Pollution – Water, Land, Air * Deforestation – Extinction of rain forests Overpopulation (Imbalance in the ration of people and resources) * Poor land management inappropriate agriculture soil erosion Threats to the economy include: * Industrial production and economy has decreased * Decrease in wage * Economic insecurity (due to the economy) Threats to society include: * Unemployment * Starvation * Poverty * Violence How to live sustainably? In order to live sustain ably, humans need to reduce : 1. ) the dependence on fossil fuels and heavy metals. 2. ) the dependence on synthetic chemicals. 3. ) the destruction of Nature. . ) Insure we are not halting other humans from meeting their global needs. What is being done? A number of things by international organizations are being done from as early as 1970 to present. 1970’s brought both developed, developing and underdeveloped countries was brought together, by The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, to discuss the rights of a human family to a healthy and productive environment. 1980’s – A World Conservation Strategy was published by the international union for the conservation of natural resources. the strategy discussed the importance to improve poverty before attempting to conserve nature. 1982- WCS initiative terminated with the approval of the World Charter for Nature. The Charter stated that â€Å"mankind is a part of nature and life depends on the unin terrupted functioning of natural systems†. 1983 – the creation of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) 1984- WCED was deemed an Independent body by the United Nations General Assembly and ask to formulate â€Å"A global agenda for change† 1987- The WCED created a report â€Å"Our common future† discussed the global interdependence and the relationship between the economy and environment – stating â€Å"the environment does not exist as a sphere separate from human actions, ambitions, and needs, and therefore it should not be considered in isolation from human concerns. The environment is where we all live; and development is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable. † 1992 -First United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. 993 -The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established to follow-up on the implementation of Agenda 21. 1997 – Gener al Assembly devoted its 19th Special Session to design a strategy for the further Implementation of Agenda 21 2002 – World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was summoned to renew the global commitment to sustainable development. Bibliography DEPweb. (n. d. ). World Bank Group. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://www. worldbank. org/depweb/english/sd. html Major Groups . :. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. (n. d. ). Home . :. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://sustainabledevelopment. un. org/majorgroups. html Sustainability Basic Information. (n. d. ). US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://www. epa. gov/sustainability/basicinfo. htm What is Sustainable Development?. (n. d. ). International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Retrieved March 20, 2013, from http://www. iisd. org/sd/ How to cite Sustainable Development, Papers