sustainability – Sustainability – Missing Points in the Development Dialogue

Reframing Sustainability

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:21:43 +0000

Over the last quarter century, since the Brundtland Commission proposed their definition of ‘sustainable development’, the dialogue about sustainability has failed to reduce the threat that human activities pose to the global ecosystem. The time has come to question deep- rooted assumptions, including the role of economics. In this paper, priorities are re-examined and principles developed to be able to build a sustainable economy. It is argued that sustainable economics is subservient to society’s higher objectives and is about control and balance, rather than laissez-faire free markets. A conceptual model for sustainability is proposed that is closer to reality than the traditional model consisting of three pillars of society, the economy and the environment. This more integrated model has cornerstones of ‘culture’, ‘land’, ‘population’ and ‘energy’. Using this model allows economics to be repositioned in support of the needs of society and compliant with effective stewardship of the ecosystem.

Energy is the most challenging aspect of the transition to a sustainable economy, because the distortion to the economy arising from fossil-fuel dependency is considerable, and the consequences of fixing it are huge. Fossil fuel dependency is a seriously dangerous addiction; it is argued that the pain of curing it cannot be avoided and should be faced without further delay.

A renaissance in economics is possible but neoclassical economics has to be challenged to makes way for new economic models. Many blocks of economic policy will survive but need to be repositioned around the cornerstones of sustainability to provide the integrated model required to steer human affairs out of the current crisis and onto a safe track.

Degrowth: social change beyond the planet’s limits

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:19:57 +0000

The perception that we have already entered a necessarily transitional phase of overshoot, beyond the planet’s limits, has become a central subject, which is growing in quantity and impact, in the literature about the present environmental predicament of humanity. This view believes the collapse of industrial civilization to be possible in the near future and revisits, from this perspective, the fate of different societies in the past. The discussion about the scope and possible social effects of a “degrowth”, decline, or way-down is intense. Degrowth ideas have spread to the point of questioning the promises of sustainable development which, after the Rio summit in 1992, dominated the discourse on the possible response to environmental and social problems. The rationale for such a questioning is clear-cut: if population and the economy are truly beyond the limits, then current visions and theories of social change would be deeply perturbed; if the development era is approaching its end, then many sociological theories on current societies will share the same destiny, sustainable development doctrines between them. But visions of degrowth are also plural, with significant frictions drawing potential inner lines of division. The most important one separates those who associate degrowth to a total catastrophic collapse of civilization (the die-off, the rapid return to the Olduvai Gorge, to the prehistoric origin of the human species) from those who associate it with the continuity of wellbeing (defending the idea of a more or less prosperous way-down).

Contrasting Values in the Sustainability Debate: Limitations of Economic Valuations and their Role in Decision-making

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:06:09 +0000

This paper explores some of the more controversial conceptual issues surrounding ecosystem valuations in monetary terms along with their role in the greater decision-making process. I argue that there is an urgent need to be explicit about the underlying social goals being pursued by any given policy/action and that the degree in which a given policy makes trade- offs between achieving each goal should also be transparent. In the context of the sustainability debate, economic valuations of ecosystems can provide missing information necessary for achieving the goal of allocative efficiency, but they must be accompanied by a similar ‘conversion’ of how much economic activity ‘contributes’ to the goal of ecological sustainability.

Is the pursuit of economic growth compatible with the pursuit of environmental sustainability? A discussion from the perspective of carbon emissions

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:04:43 +0000

Neoclassical economics argues that environmental sustainability and economic growth in GDP terms are compatible through increased technological innovation and efficiency; however, exploring past data and observations as well as projections of future carbon emissions the increasingly prominent discpline of ecological …
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China’s Unsustainable Economic Growth and Development: The Influence of Conspicuous Consumption

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:59:27 +0000

Most of the literature analyzing the sustainability of China’s economy tends to be directed at whether the country can maintain its unprecedented high rates of economic growth. Too little concern has been given to the sustainability of China’s ecosystem, and the effect of rising consumption on the rapid degradation of that ecosystem. This paper will focus on the factors propelling the dramatic shift in values over the past 30 years that heavily favor higher rates of conspicuous consumption and waste, using Thorstein Veblen’s classic analysis of this type of consumption. One negative effect of this consumption has been a dramatic decline of the supply and quality of water that has brought the sustainability of China’s economy and ecosystem into question.