2.6+Sustainable+Development

 Sustainable development     Scheme of sustainable development: at the confluence of three constituent parts. [|[1]] [|Intergenerational equity] [|Polluter pays principle] [|Precautionary principle] [|Public trust doctrine] Sustainable development || [|Brownfield land] [|Illegal logging] [|Poaching] · [|Unlawful fishing] [|Mitigation of global warming] [|International environmental law] [|War and environmental law]  || [|Environmental impact assessment]  || Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the [|environment] so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future. The term was used by the [|Brundtland Commission] which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as [|development] that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [|[2]] [|[3]] Sustainable development is the way in which [|developing nations] undergoing the process of industrialisation will avoid becoming like current industralised carbon intensive nations with high level of emissions. Sustainable development ties together concern for the [|carrying capacity] of [|natural systems] with the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the 1970s "sustainability" was employed to describe an [|economy] "in equilibrium with basic ecological support systems" [|[4]]. Ecologists have pointed to the “limits of growth” [|[5]] and presented the alternative of a “steady state economy” [|[6]] in order to address environmental concerns. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three constituent parts: [|environmental] [|sustainability], [|economic] sustainability and [|sociopolitical] sustainability. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Scope and definitions <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The concept has included notions of weak [|sustainability], strong sustainability and [|deep ecology]. Sustainable development does not focus solely on environmental issues. The United Nations [|2005 World Summit] Outcome Document refers to the "interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars" of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection. [|[7]] <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Indigenous people 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 "...cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”; it becomes “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. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Economic Sustainability: [|Agenda 21] clearly identified information, integration, and participation 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-centred ways of doing business to new approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of environmental and social concerns into all development processes. Furthermore, Agenda 21 emphasises that broad public participation in decision making is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. [|[8]] <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">According to Hasna, 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 is 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. [|[9]] <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|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. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Some research activities start from this definition to argue that the environment is a combination of nature and culture. The Network of Excellence "Sustainable Development in a Diverse World", [|[10]] sponsored by the [|European Union], integrates multidisciplinary capacities and interprets [|cultural diversity] as a key element of a new strategy for sustainable development. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Still other researchers view environmental and social challenges as opportunities for development action. This is particularly true in the concept of sustainable enterprise that frames these global needs as opportunities for private enterprise to provide innovative and entrepreneurial solutions. This view is now being taught at many business schools including the [|Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise] at [|Cornell University] and the [|Erb Institute] for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the [|University of Michigan]. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Environmental sustainability <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">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]. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">An "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. <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The Notion of Capital in Sustainable Development <span style="background: #f8fcff; line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The sustainable development debate is based on the assumption that societies need to manage three types of capital (economic, social, and natural), which may be non-substitutable and whose consumption might be irreversible. [|[13]] Daly (1991), [|[14]] for example, points to the fact that natural capital can not necessarily be substituted by economic capital. While it is possible that we can find ways to replace some natural resources, it is much more unlikely that they will ever be able to replace eco-system services, such as the protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate stabilizing function of the Amazonian forest. In fact natural capital, social capital and economic capital are often complementarities. A further obstacle to substitutability lies also in the multi-functionality of many natural resources. Forests, for example, do not only provide the raw material for paper (which can be substituted quite easily), but they also maintain biodiversity, regulate water flow, and absorb CO2. Another problem of natural and social capital deterioration lies in their partial irreversibility. The loss in biodiversity, for example, is often definite. The same can be true for cultural diversity. For example with globalisation advancing quickly the number of indigenous languages is dropping at alarming rates. Moreover, the depletion of natural and social capital may have non-linear consequences. Consumption of natural and social capital may have no observable impact until a certain threshold is reached. A lake can, for example, absorb nutrients for a long time while actually increasing its productivity. However, once a certain level of algae is reached lack of oxygen causes the lake’s ecosystem to break down all of a sudden.
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> [[image:file:///C:/DOCUME~1/ADMINI~1.LOU/LOCALS~1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image005.gif width="99" height="102" caption="Scales of justice" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scale_of_justice_2.svg"]] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|Environmental law]  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Theory ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|Earth jurisprudence]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Specific issues ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|Asbestos]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Instruments of [|Environmental policy]  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|Ecotax] · [|Market-based instruments]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|v] • [|d] • [|e]  ||
 * <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Consumption of renewable resources || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">State of environment  || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Sustainability  ||
 * <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">More than nature's ability to replenish || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Environmental degradation  || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Not sustainable  ||
 * <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Equal to nature's ability to replenish || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Environmental equilibrium  || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> [|Steady-state economy]   ||
 * <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Less than nature's ability to replenish || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Environmental renewal  || <span style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Sustainable development  ||