Sustainability from a development perspective

Definition

Sustainability is perhaps the most trending concept of the last decades. Although the word originally derives from the Latin word sustinere (‘to hold up’), the concept has been used in a more specific sense, mainly focusing on human sustainability. Especially from a development perspective, much awareness has been raised about the concept of sustainable development, a term that is increasingly being recognized as a discipline on its own. The most common definition of sustainability from a development perspective derives from the 1987 Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (United Nations General Assembly, 1987):

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

· the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and

· the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

As this definition shows, the concept of sustainable development pays particular attention to the needs of the world’s poor. Seen from the discipline of international development studies, ‘sustainability’ is thus most commonly used in the challenge to develop the global South while making sure that future generations are not disadvantaged in their supply of needs.

History of the concept

The awareness of sustainability emerged earlier in history than most people would expect. More than 200 years ago, the first questions arose about the consequences of the development of our civilization for the resources of our planet. The English demographer Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was the first to predict that the world’s population would eventually starve because of the pace of population growth and the shortcoming food production level (Malthus, 1798). Since Robert Malthus, the debate about the ‘limits to growth’ continued in time, which set the framework for the problem behind sustainability. However, the actual emergence of the term itself was not until the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm; the first international conference exclusively devoted to environmental issues (Vogler, 2007).

This conference was based on the 1972 Limits to Growth report of the Club of Rome, about the limited availability of natural resources. Fifteen years later, the concept of sustainable development was coined for the first time by the Brundtland Commission. The above stated definition was highly valuable in developing a ‘global view’ regarding our planet’s future (Mebratu, 1998). The term sustainable development as introduced by the Brundtland report captures a broad view of issue, paying attention to both developed and underdeveloped countries. It is the same report that stated that development and environment are closely linked and that they can be combined (Adams, 2009). At the Stockholm Conference in 1972 it was already noted by the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi that sustainable development is not possible in the context of poverty. She argued:

“Are not poverty and need the greatest polluters? How can we speak to those who live in villages and in slums about keeping the oceans, the rivers and the air clean when their own lives are contaminated at the source? The environment cannot be improved in conditions of poverty. Nor can poverty be eradicated without the use of science and technology.”

(Adams, 2009).

From this moment on, people started to realize that there is a relation between sustainability and development, and that sustainability is indeed hard to achieve in the context of poverty. Since then, more and more emphasis has been put on sustainable development in developing countries. An example of these kinds of approaches is sustainable forest management as a strategy to avoid deforestation and Hardin’s ‘tragedy of the commons’ (Hardin, 1968).

Disciplinary embedding

The concept of sustainability has become so popular in the past decades that it is actually close to becoming a discipline on its own. According to Komiyama (2006), there is a high need for the discipline ‘sustainability science’, that recognizes the fundamental link between science and economy while remaining free from political bias. Because sustainability is a reaction to problems that have to be dealt with in scientific, economic, political and social sciences, there is no single discipline where the concept is most important or mostly use. Sustainability has to be embedded everywhere, where each discipline is included. As Komiyama (2006) puts it:

“Because the problems sustainability addresses involve disparate elements – from science and technology, to politics and economics, to human lifestyle and behavior – this new discipline must necessarily embrace the social and natural sciences.”

However, the need for sustainability is still mostly recognized in natural sciences, where it first gained attention. The attention for sustainability in political and economic disciplines is highly needed and slowly rising. Since sustainability includes global, social and human systems and because it involves all disciplines, sustainability must be addressed with a transdisciplinary approach (Komiyama, 2006).

Key authors

The problems that sustainable development addresses have been described by Malthus (1798) and Hardin (1968) for the first time. These authors were mainly concerned about high population growth and the depletion of natural resources. Nowadays, there are many research bodies that focus on the concept of sustainable development, including the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Institute for Envoronment and Sustainability and the International Institute for Environment and Development. An individual key author of sustainable development is William M. Adams, who wrote several books about what he calls ‘Green Development’ (Adams, 2009).

Relevance for Future Planet Studies

Sustainability and sustainable development are two of the most important concepts within Future Planet Studies. Future Planet Studies focuses on recent and upcoming challenges our earth faces, and sustainability is the core solution to address these challenges. The course deals with the same urging questions as the concept of sustainability: how can we meet humanity’s needs without harming our future generations? Moreover, applying sustainability and sustainable development requires a transdisciplinary approach, which is a main feature of Future Planet Studies.

Criticism

The concept of sustainable development raised several critiques at different levels. Various writers, including Sophia Aguirre (2002) have commented on the focus on population control policies that is – according to them – a hidden notion. Other writers argue that the concept of sustainable development is dangerous because its effects are unknown. This implies that the realization of sustainable development, for instance in sustainable forest management, could have unwanted consequences.

There are several writers who criticize the term ‘sustainable development’, stating that it is too vague. What is sustainable development? How can it be realized? The same critique emerged after the 1972 UN Conference in Stockholm, where policy makers were told to implement sustainable development, without mentioning how (Adams, 2009).

Another major critique on the concept of sustainable development is that it does not question economic growth. On a planet where 20% of the population uses 80% of the natural resources, sustainable development cannot be possible together with economic growth. To be truly sustainable according to the Brundtland definition, we should be speaking about ‘sustainable de-growth’ (Kallis, 2009).

Literature

Adams, W.M. (2009). Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in a developing world. London: Routledge 2009.

Aguirre, M.S. (2002). Sustainable development: why the focus on population? International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 29, 12: 923 - 945

Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162:1243−1248

Kallis, G. (2009). Sustainable De-Growth. Retrieved February 17 2011. Available at http://www.esee2009.si/papers/Kallis%20-%20Sustainable%20De-growth.pdf.

Komiyama, H. (2006). Sustainability science: building a new discipline. Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science and Springer-Verlag. Published: 24 August 2006.

Malthus, T.R. (1798). An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics (reprint). Chapter 1, page 13.

United Nations General Assembly (1987) Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Retrieved on: 2011-02-01.

Vogler, John (2007) - The international politics of sustainable development, published in

Handbook of Sustainable Development, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham.