sustainable development – Sustainability – Missing Points in the Development Dialogue

The Flawed Paradigms of Economics and Sustainable Development

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:26:03 +0000

The sustainable development paradigm has failed. Ecological overshoot is accelerating and breaching the intergenerational equity criterion which requires humanity to live within safe planetary ecological limits. The equity gap between rich and poor also continues to grow wider breaching the intra-generational equity criterion.

This paper argues that the failure of the sustainable development paradigm is due to it being subsumed into the economic paradigm – a paradigm so disconnected from reality that it simply cannot address the sustainability problem. This is grounded in a failure to understand the fundamental contradiction between ecological imperatives and economic imperatives.

An overview of the way the world works ecologically followed by a brief presentation of the human evolutionary journey provides the context for the discussion. Based on this, economics is generically defined as ‘the way an animal species organises itself to obtain the necessary low entropy from it environment for it wellbeing’.

This is followed by an evaluation of the sustainable development construct and how it is addressed through the lenses of environmental and ecological economics. This leads to the conclusion that the economic system as currently designed is simply unable to deal with the sustainability problem.

An analysis of the financial system and its role in the problem is then presented and leads to the conclusion it is the inevitable structural driver of ecological overshoot and increasing inequity. An examination of the origins of economic thought and the assumptions it is based on throws some light on why the economic system fails humanity.

The final section considers how humanity might allocate the absolutely scarce resources of the planet so as to maximise the welfare of humanity while ensuring the very long term sustainability of the human enterprise.

Material, social and theoretical aspects of Sustainable Development

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:15:30 +0000

This paper explores some of the material, social and theoretical aspects of sustainable development. It starts from a critical scrutiny of some methodological and conceptual weaknesses or flaws of mainstream approaches. It also discusses the limitations of ecological reforms and of the efforts to create sustainability conditions under capitalism. Based on a Marxist perspective, it proceeds to identify and briefly analyze some crucial aspects or preconditions for a truly sustainable development, including externalities, the scale of production and growth limits, and the growing rift in the nature – society dialectical metabolism. Particular emphasis is placed on the material and social conditions as well as the historical perspectives, extending beyond capitalism, for creating the preconditions of sustainable development.

Sustainable development in the maritime industry: a multi-case study of seaports

sustainabilityconference2012 — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:09:03 +0000

Seaports are historic and commercial infrastructures and significant nodes in the logistics and transport chains that form the backbone of national and regional economies. However, ports are also sites of environmental pollution originating from land-based activities, ship movements and ports‘ own activities that impact the ecology. It is, therefore, increasingly recognized that economic growth in ports must be balanced with environmental protection and social progress. This has led to enhanced appreciation of the need for sustainable development in ports. While much has been written about port environmental practices in European and American ports, there is limited synthesis of sustainable port practices from different parts of the world. Furthermore, in-depth case analysis and critical examination of the challenges of sustainable port development is limited.

Given this gap, this paper presents findings from a qualitative multi-case study research that aimed to analyse sustainable port policies and practices from a range of perspectives as well as to understand the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities faced in attaining SD in ports. This paper reports findings pertaining to the following research questions from a larger study:

What specific sustainable practices do ports utilise to manage environmental aspects such as air pollution, water quality, ballast water, dredging and disposal of dredged materials, and hazardous substances?
What are the driving and constraining forces in achieving sustainable development in ports?

Four port authorities were studied by reviewing documents and secondary data – the Port of Long Beach (USA), Port of Rotterdam Authority (The Netherlands), Sydney Ports Corporation (Australia), and Transnet Ltd. that owns and manages South African ports. Findings of the study demonstrate that the SD paradigm has gained momentum, albeit to differing degrees, in the functioning, organisation and the very ethos of case study ports. An important theme from all four case studies is that, while there is definite progress towards SD, practices deemed to be sustainable must be critically examined from the perspectives of different stakeholders including shippers, port-related businesses, and the local and global community. Reconciling differences between stakeholders; capitalising on economic opportunities, operational efficiencies and cost- savings offered by environmental-friendliness; public-private partnerships; and policies negotiated by involving all stakeholders were found to foster port sustainability. Furthermore, this study found that globalisation necessitates a more holistic and global analysis of port operations and environment practices in order to be truly sustainable.