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Critical Challenges: Sustainable Development Dr Bhaskar Vira, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge A Vicious Circle? POVERTY ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION Brundtland Report (1990) - poverty as a major cause and effect of global environmental problems Millennium Development Goal 7 (2000) – Ensure Environmental Stability Views on poverty-environment linkages Conventional wisdom – Deterministic relationship: if one is poor, then one degrades the environment Poverty is negatively related to sustainable development short time horizons of the poor Policy: need for economic growth to break the downward spiral: World Bank World Development Report 1992 – – Poverty Environmental degradation Alternative perspectives Political economy – Why are people poor? Poor as proximate causes, but (global) inequalities as the ultimate causes Evidence that the poor can and do care for the environment: effective environmental stewardship The poor as environmental activists: new social and ecological movements; grassroots political action Policy - remove inequalities – – – Inequality (power, wealth) Environmental degradation Alternative perspectives Market/institutional failure – Price signals - perverse subsidies/taxes Tenure policies/property rights Lack of effective legal framework Implementation capacity; administrative competence Competing policy demands & development pressures Policy – correct market/institutional failure – – – – – Policy imperfections Environmental degradation Alternative perspectives Reversing the causality – Dependence of the poor on natural resources for their livelihoods: studies showing that the ‘poor’ depend more than their ‘richer’ counterparts on local (common) resources Impact of internal and external pressures is to undermine the sustainability of the local resource base Policy - improved environmental sustainability as a poverty alleviation strategy – – Poverty Environmental degradation Is there a choice between environmental sustainability & economic development? Depends on how we define development: green GDP (adjusting for loss of natural capital) looks very different to conventionally measured GDP Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi) www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr In addition to Green GDP, we need measures of ‘extended wealth’ (Adjusted Net Savings) and ecological footprints The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Need for a more encompassing measure of societal well-being that better reflects the position of society’s poorest: the ‘GDP of the Poor’ GDP of the Poor: Evidence from TEEB Indonesia Numbers dependent on ecosystem services 99 million India 352 million 20 million 16% 10% 21% Ecosystem services as a % of classical GDP 90% 84% 79% 47% 25% Ecosystem services as a % of “GDP of the Poor” Brazil 11% 53% 75% Ecosystem services Source: Gundimeda and Sukhdev, D1 TEEB 05.05.2017 8 89% Progress towards MDG7 & the role of Parliamentarians 7A: Integrating sustainable development into country policies and programmes & reversing loss of environmental resources Mixed picture, some progress: big challenges in terms of climate change agreement, loss of forests/fish Key role for Parliaments: legislative support; measuring well-being 7B: Significant reduction in rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 Missed the 2010 target; need for focus on new targets Need to show how biodiversity is ‘relevant’ to the lives of people to reverse drivers – communicating this message; measuring well-being 7C: Halve proportion lacking access to safe drinking water & sanitation On course to meet 2015 targets on water, but not on sanitation; and, even in the case of water, significant distributional challenges People already know this is important – monitoring, especially in rural areas 7D: Significant improvement in lives of 100 million (+) slum dwellers 100 million target met, but failing to keep pace with urbanisation More ambition needed – raise expectations; hold government to account
