Unit : 01

Module 01: Introduction to Sustainable development goals

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• learn the concept - sustainability and sustainable development
• understand what are the Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable development

As per World Commission on Environment and Development: Our common future

during 1987 sustainable development has been defined as:
• Sustainable development is said to be there when the needs of the present
generation are met without compromising the ability to meet the needs of the future
generation.
With the rapid globalization and swift changeover from an agricultural economy to
an industrial and service-oriented economy, the world is witnessing massive consumption
and large-scale depletion of its natural resources.

This leads to several questions:

• Does this large scale depletion of the natural resources and massive consumption,
lead to a country’s real prosperity?
• Does this result in improved human health, nation’s wealth and an individual’s
standard of living? or,
• Is such consumption lead to a marginal growth in certain spheres at the cost of
others?
• What are its impact on the overall sustainability?
In recent times these questions have gained widespread importance and
researchers are frenziedly searching for answers. In 1915, the Canadian Commission on
Conservation defined sustainable development as ‘Each generation has the right to use
natural capital, but must follow the principle that natural capital should not be reduced’.
Sustainable development is defined as the development that caters to the needs
of the present generation without jeopardizing the requirements of the future generations.

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Living on this planet earth, having a good quality of life without causing any harm to the
environment is the central principle of sustainable development.
It was since the industrial era during 1930s and technological era 1950s, that the
usage of resources increased exponentially which created an imbalance in all spheres of
life. It resulted in environmental pollution – ecosystem imbalance, because of excessive
usage of resources, and in some instances unnecessarily.
The planet earth is hence currently in grave danger which has been caused by
none other than mankind. He is not just using the resources but in fact stealing a lot from
the planet earth while not compensating for his swindling. Mankind is causing more
damage than ever to the planet earth and to the environment.
The earth has got tilted as shown in Figure 1. From a green earth we are now moving
towards a darker future and a dead earth.

Figure 1 Tilted world

The United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 38/161 in 1983 establishing a
special commission considering these dire circumstances. Their duties included:
(a) long-term environmental strategies: Their duties included proposing long-term
environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development to be achieved by
the year 2000 and beyond;
(b) environmental awareness on the link between people, resources, environment and
development: To make suggestions on how environmental awareness could lead
to a greater cooperation among developed and developing nations who are at
different stages of economic and social development, achieving shared and
mutually beneficial goals. It is expected that these take into account the
interrelatedness between the main players namely people, resources,
environment and development.

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 (c) role of international community: In the light of the other reports and
recommendations, it was suggested to investigate mechanisms by which the
international community might address the environmental challenges more
effectively
(d) aspirational goals for protecting the environment: Taking into account the pertinent
resolutions of the session of a special character of the Governing Council in 1982,
a long-term agenda for action plan for the coming decades was suggested.
Aspirational goals for the global community were developed to help define and
resolve the shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues. Further
appropriate efforts required was suggested to successfully deal with the problems
of protecting and enhancing the environment.

Brundtland-report
The commission later adopted the formal name World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED). However it is widely known by the name of the
Chairman - Gro Harlem Brundtland, a medical doctor and public health advocate. He
was Norway's Minister for Environmental Affairs and also was the Prime Minister for three
terms. The commission had twenty-one members drawn from across the globe, half
representing developing nations.
In addition to its fact-finding activities on the state of the global environment, the
commission held fifteen meetings in various cities across the globe. They sought first-
hand information on the experiences of how people interact with the environment.
• In 1987, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and
Development released the report ’Our Common Future’, commonly called
the Brundtland Report
• The Brundtland Report uses the terms sustainable development, sustainable, and
sustainability interchangeably, emphasizing the connections among social equity,
economic productivity, and environmental quality.
Differences…….
• The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has taken a step forward in
bringing out the distinction between sustainability and sustainable development.
• They have highlighted that sustainability encompasses ideas, aspirations and
values that inspire public and private organizations to become better stewards of
the environment, to promote positive economic growth and social objectives.
• While sustainable development emphasizes environmental protection does not
preclude economic development and that economic development must be
environmentally friendly for the present and in the long term.

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 • UNESCO formulated a distinction between the two concepts as follows:
"Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. for a more sustainable
world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways
required to achieve it."

Sustainable development - pillars

The three pillars of sustainable development is given in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Pillars of sustainable development

The overlapping themes of sustainable paradigm is given in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Overlapping themes of sustainability paradigm

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Thus, there are three dimensions that sustainability seeks to integrate: economic,
environmental, and social (also referred to as socio political).
1. Economic interests define the framework for making decisions, the flow of financial
capital, and the facilitation of commerce, including the knowledge, skills,
competences and other attributes embodied in individuals that are relevant to
economic activity.
2. Environmental aspects recognize the diversity and interdependence within living
systems, the goods and services produced by the world's ecosystems, and the
impacts of human wastes.
3. Socio-political refers to interactions between institutions/firms and people,
functions expressive of human values, aspirations and well-being, ethical issues,
and decision- making that depends upon collective action.

The report sees these three elements as part of a highly integrated and cohesively
interacting system. Though sometimes poorly understood system. The intersection of
social and economic elements can form the basis of social equity. In the sense of
enlightened management, "viability" is formed through consideration of economic and
environmental interests. Between environment and social elements lies “bearability”, the
recognition that the functioning of societies is dependent on environmental resources and
services. At the intersection of all three of these lies sustainability.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development
goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources
and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result
is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet
human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system.
Sustainable development - Definition
Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the
present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs. The modern concept of sustainable development is derived mostly from the
1987 Brundtland Report. It is also rooted in earlier ideas about sustainable forest
management and 20th-century environmental concerns. As the concept of sustainable
development developed, it has shifted its focus more towards the economic development,
social development and environmental protection for future generations.
Sustainable development was first institutionalized with the Rio Process initiated at
the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly

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adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from 2015 to 2030 and explained
how the goals are integrated and indivisible to achieve sustainable development at the
global level. They address the global challenges as shown in the Figure 4.

Figure 4 Global challenges

The Brundtland Report makes it clear that while sustainable development is

enabled by technological advances and economic viability, it is first and foremost a social
construct that seeks to improve the quality of life of people: physically, through the
equitable supply of human and ecological goods and services. The global challenges can
be achieved as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 Mechanism to achieve global challenges

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 Looking at sustainability from this perspective, it is understood to be a series of
human social movements that have occurred throughout history. Some of them are given
in Figure 6.

Figure 6 Human social movements

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), was a project undertaken by over a

thousand internationally recognized experts, from 2001-2005, who assessed the state of
the world's major ecosystems and the consequences for humans as a result of human-
induced changes. The MEA presents findings as assessments of ecosystems and
ecosystem services are given in Figure 7.

Figure 7 MEA findings

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MEA has presented three important conclusions:

1. Approximately 60% (15 out of 24) of the ecosystem services examined are being
degraded or used unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and
water purification, and the regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards,
and pests. The full costs of the loss and degradation of these ecosystem services
are difficult to measure, but the available evidence demonstrates that they are
substantial and growing. Many ecosystem services have been degraded as a
consequence of actions taken to increase the supply of other services, such as
food. These trade-offs often shift the costs of degradation from one group of people
to another or defer costs to future generations.

2. There is established as well as evidence that changes being made are increasing
the likelihood of causing nonlinear changes to ecosystems (including accelerating,
abrupt, and potentially irreversible changes) that have important consequences for
human well-being. Examples of such changes include disease emergence, abrupt
alterations in water quality, the creation of dead zones in coastal waters, the
collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate.

3. The harmful effects of the degradation of ecosystem services are being borne
disproportionately by the poor. This is contributing to growing inequities and
disparities across groups of people, and are sometimes the principal factor causing
poverty and social conflict. This is not to say that ecosystem changes such as
increased food production have also not helped to lift many people out of poverty
or hunger, but these changes have harmed other individuals and communities, and
their plight has been largely overlooked. In all regions, and particularly in sub-
Saharan Africa, the condition and management of ecosystem services is a
dominant factor influencing prospects for reducing poverty.
According to the Brundtland Report, the concept of sustainable development has
developed beyond the initial intergenerational framework to focus more on the goal of
"socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth". In 1992, the UN
Conference on Environment and Development published the Earth Charter, which
outlines the building of a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century.
The action plan Agenda 21 for sustainable development identified information,
integration and participation as key building blocks to help countries achieve
development. Furthermore, Agenda 21 emphasizes that broad public participation in
decision making is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.

Sustainable development, like sustainability, is regarded to have three dimensions

namely environment, economy and society. This framework has been expanded by some
authors to include a fourth dimension of culture, institutions or governance as shown in
Figure 8.

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 Society

Environ
Economy
ment

Society

Culture Economy

Environ
ment

Figure 8 Evolution of sustainable development pillars

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Criticisms

1. The concept of sustainable development has been, and still is, subject to criticism,
including the question of what is to be sustained in sustainable development. It has
been argued that there is no such thing as a sustainable use of a non-renewable
resource, since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the
exhaustion of earth's finite stock; this perspective renders the Industrial
Revolution as fully unsustainable.
2. 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.
3. 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 less
likely that they will ever be able to replace ecosystem services, such as the
protection provided by the ozone layer, or the climate stabilizing function of the
Amazonian forest.
4. The concept of sustainable development has been criticized from different angles.
While some see it as paradoxical and regard development as inherently
unsustainable, others are disappointed in the lack of progress that has been
achieved so far.
5. The Rio Protocol was a huge leap forward: for the first time, the world agreed on
a sustainability agenda. In fact, a global consensus was facilitated by neglecting
concrete goals and operational details. The Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) now have concrete targets (unlike the results from the Rio Process)
but no methods for sanctions.

Capacities needed for Sustainable Development

The capacities required for sustainable development is highlighted in the Figure 9. Six
interdependent capacities are deemed to be necessary for the successful pursuit of
sustainable development.

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 Figure 9. Six capacities

These are
• the capacity to measure progress towards sustainable development;
• the capacity to promote equity within and between generations;
• the capacity to adapt to shocks and surprises;
• the capacity to transform the system onto more sustainable development
pathways;

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 • the capacity to link knowledge with action for sustainability;
• the capacity to devise governance arrangements that allow people to work
together in the exercising of the other capacities.
Here are some serious facts:
• Today, more than 1 billion people live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day).
8 men have as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion poorest people (i.e. half the
world population).
• In 2017, more than 750 million people went to bed hungry every night and at the
same time, there are approximately 2 billion people that are overweight or obese.
• In 2017, more than 6 million children died before their 5th birthday because of
preventable diseases. That’s more than 15,000 deaths each day.
• Today, about 263 million children and youth are out of school, including 61 million
children of primary school age.
• Currently, 49 countries have no laws specifically protecting women from domestic
violence
• In 2012 a least 1.8 billion people were exposed to drinking water that was
contaminated.
• Today, more than a billion people don’t have access to electricity.
• The number of people living in slums and shanty towns is now estimated at 863
million, in contrast to 760 million in 2000 and 650 million in 1990.
• In 2017, youth were almost three times more likely than adults to be unemployed
(12.8%).
• The number of deaths from natural disasters continues to rise. From 1990 to 2015,
more than 1.6 million people died in internationally reported natural disasters.
• Each year, the world generates roughly 1.3 billion tons of waste, but that’s
expected to soar to 4 billion tons by 2100. In the United State alone, about $200
billion a year is spent on solid waste management.
• Tens of thousands of species – including 25% of all mammals and 13% of birds –
are now threatened with extinction. This is because of hunting, poaching, pollution,
loss of habitat, the arrival of invasive species, and other human-caused problems.
In the context of these scenarios
 Firstly, how far are we in eradicating poverty.
 Secondly, human societies are causing more damage than ever to the planet earth
and the environment.

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  Thirdly, inequality and disparity among and between countries is increasing.
 Finally, governance is becoming more complex, especially with the growing
influence of technology.
Today’s problems will escalate quickly and dangerously if we do not urgently and
radically change course. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) gives us a plan to
combat and overcome these challenges.

Sustainable development goals

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) as a global roadmap to help us restore the natural world by the end of this decade.
This is given in the Figure 10.

Figure 10 Sustainable Development Goals

1. Eliminate Poverty
2. Erase Hunger
3. Establish Good Health and Well-Being
4. Provide Quality Education
5. Enforce Gender Equality-

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 6. Improve Clean Water and Sanitation-
7. Grow Affordable and Clean Energy-
8. Create Decent Work and Economic Growth-
9. Increase Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
10. Reduce Inequality
11. Mobilize Sustainable Cities and Communities
12. Influence Responsible Consumption and Production
13. Organize Climate Action
14. Develop Life Below Water
15. Advance Life On Land
16. Guarantee Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
17. Build Partnerships for the Goals

While UNEP is responsible for monitoring only six of the 17 goals, all of the SDGs
are linked and ultimately impact each other. The SDGs were designed to highlight
interlinkages between the environmental, economic and social aspects of development
and to point out the gaps and opportunities that have unfolded. The SDGs are used not
just by governments, but also by the private sector – like manufacturers, corporations and
developers. This is used during their planning process with reference to their
Environmental, Social and Governance initiatives, and when gauging their Social Return
on Investment. SDG 6 -Clean Water and Sanitation, obviously impacts SDG 14 -Life
Below Water. Similarly SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production certainly
impacts SDG 2 -Zero Hunger, and so on.
The correlation between SDG indicators are important. For instance, air pollution
(SDG indicator 11.6.2) is reduced when recycling rates (SDG indicator 12.5.1) rise, since
waste that is recycled does not go into landfills or get incinerated. That, in turn, helps
species at risk (SDG indicator 15.5.1) such as marine life that might otherwise be ingested
with harmful plastic pollution.
No single SDG can be achieved without dramatically impacting the other goals,
which is why global cooperation, coordination and commitment are so important. The
sustainable development goals in terms of society, economy and environment is given in
the Figure 11.

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 Figure 11 Classification of SDGs

Let us see each of these goals in detail in the next module.

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