Challenges
facing sustainable development in the next 20 years
By Choo Zheng Xi
The concerns about the negative externalities
of industrialization in Third World nations was first put
on the international environmental agenda when the relationship
between economic development and environmental degradation
was discussed during the United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, 1972. This led to
the question of how to ensure holistic human development was
not compromised by economic advancement, a question which
was answered by the mooting of the idea of sustainable development
during the 1987 UN Conference on Environment and Development
which was to be an alternative approach to the growth centered
economic paradigm of that time. The aim of sustainable development
would be to achieve economic development that would meet the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
This sustainability will only occur as a result of controls
to ensure that the rate at which the Earth's
natural resources are depleted as a result of development
does not exceed the rate at which they can be replaced. These
controls can take the form of atmospheric regulations like
caps on carbon emissions that contribute to global warming
and the regulation of toxic releases by large companies into
the rivers and wells of developing nations. International
agreements have been established to introduce and implement
these controls worldwide like the Kyoto Protocol that obliges
nearly 40 nations to cut or limit emissions of carbon dioxide
by an average of 5.2 per cent by the year 2012. Conferences
have also been held to address the issue of sustainable development
like the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit held in 1992 that put
forward working proposals like Agenda 21 that aims
to achieve "global partnership for sustainable development"
as stated in its preamble.
However, despite achieving the difficult task of getting such
a substantial number of nations to agree on the principles
and direction of sustainable development, several key problems
that stand in the way of the realisation of these goals have
yet to be solved.
Most fundamentally and perhaps the most damaging, the difficulties
of determining the problems of rampant development have yet
to be identified. Scientists still disagree with the long-term
effects of global warming with some acknowledging a rise in
temperature but theorising that this might lead to more global
evaporation, creating increased cloud covers blocking solar
radiation and eventually leading to a fall, not rise, in temperatures.1
Some, like scientist Richard Lindzen disagree with the mainstream
view of the rate and seriousness of global warming, 2creating
disunity within the ranks of scientists whose energies would
be better directed at finding solutions, if only the problem
could be agreed upon.
Another major hurdle in the path of sustainable development
is political will, without which agreements cannot be ratified
and implemented. Many of the world's largest polluters shy
away from imposing regulatory measures for fear of slowing
industrial development. These nations are not just Third World
polluters without the infrastructure to adhere to environmental
protocols, they include nations like the United States which
are unwilling to ratify international agreements like the
Kyoto Protocol. The protocol, which requires 55 nations responsible
for 55 per cent of greenhouse emissions to take effect, is
unlikely to have much force without the ratification of a
large industrial power like the US.
Perhaps the most divisive challenge that sustainable development
will have to face is the perception that its burdens are unequally
weighted towards poorer nations. Poorer countries that rely
on activities that directly impact the environment for economic
growth cry foul at what they view as First World hypocrisy.
Much of the revenue gained from these activities like commercial
logging and the clearing of lands for the growing of cash
crops are used to service debts owed to First World nations3.
Compounded by the fact that this logging is a result of First
World demand for
Third World wood, which accounts for half of Third World wood
exports, despite the former producing 80 per cent of the world's
timber, the request that the latter use "environmentally
friendly" methods of production seems hypocritical to
say the least.4When developing nations experience shortages
of timber for the building of necessities like housing due
to excessive exports, increasing the cost of production by
making the methods of production "environmentally friendly"
simply is not feasible.
In conclusion, before the process of implementing the goals
set out in sustainable development summits, the global community
must first come to a consensus on exactly what the problems
are and the gravity of their effects. The basis and direction
for action thus set, implementation must then be backed by
governmental will and the accepting of both the First World
and Third of their respective responsibilities. Those are
the challenges, now to move forward.
References:
1Castree, Noel, Geography Review, vol.14, no. 3 Jan 2001
2Guteral, Fred, Newsweek, Jul 23, 2001
3Revington, John, World Rainforest Report, 1992
4Mander, Jerry and Goldsmith Edward, The Case Against The
Global Economy, Sierra Club Books
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