The concept and theory of Sustainable Development

China’s sustainable development

Guo Ru Ph.D.CESE, Tongji Universityruguo@tongji.edu.cn

Outline Ice-breaking gameWhy sustainable development?

What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development in China

Critiques on sustainable development

Ice-breaking game

An Interview (5 minutes)Work in pair and ask your partner

the following questions(3 minutes):Do you always use sustainable mode of transportation ( such as public transport ， bicycle and walking) ？

Have you participated in community (or campus) activities ？

Do you always eat local food ？Discuss with your partner the reason of your choices(2 minutes)

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.

--- Martin Luther King

Why Sustainable Development?

Something New Under the Sun ： Criticism on Growth Worship

Historian J.R. McNellThe meaning: the place of

humankind within the natural world is not what it was

Growth worship as the mainstream ideology in Socialism and Capitalism

After the Great Depression of the 1930s: nature figured as a storehouse of resource waiting to be used

The Earliest Ecological Economics:Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834)An England Priest, Principle of

Population (1798)Population growth is exponential

while food supply growth is linear. There exists the trend that the growth of population will exceed that of food supply

Different comments on MalthusFailure anathema prophet ( 失败的诅咒先知 )The first economist who combine the economy with ecology

His idea implied: economy as subsystem of ecosystem; population carrying capacity

Efficiency Only Buys Time

Infinite growth in a finite system is an impossible goal and will eventually lead to failure

Two approaches of growth worshipMarket Economy (the West): decentralized markets; greater efficiency

Planned Economy (USSR, China ): centralization; low efficiency

Because of its greater efficiency, the West can kept going for a bit longer in its impossible quest

But efficiency only buys time, the infinite growth is impossible.

The Development Gap

020406080

100

% of worldpopulation

% of worldGNP

% of worldtrade

% ofcommercial

lending

Share of resources

%

OECDMiddle-incomeLow income

The Development Gap

OECD(19% population)

Middle-incomeCountries

(60% population)

Low-income Countries

(21% population)• 50% global grain

production• 60% of artificial

fertilizers

•30-40% foodstuffs • 500-800 million chronically undernourished

• Limited access to fresh water

• 92% private cars 1.5 billion persons with no household electricity or telephone

• 75% of energy use• 80% of iron & stell• 81% of chemical

production• 86% of copper &

aluminium

• Around 10-15% of world energy and industrial production

• Mainly meeting energy needs by cutting fuel wood at higher than replacement levels

• 100 million without adequate fuel

Christie, I and D. Warburton, 2001, p.7, Table 1.1

The development gapThe geography of the development gap is

more complex than a simple ‘North-South divide’Latin America has HDI levels similar to eastern Europe; China’s HDI

and some others in SE Asia are relatively highSouth Asia has a concentration of levels below 0.6Level in the Middle East are relatively high, although not in Yemen,

Syria and IraqThe picture for Africa is very complex, with the extreme north and

south having decent HDI levels

Since 1971, global energy use has increased by 70% and is expected to rise 2% per year in the next 15 years. This will increase greenhouse gases by 50% over current levels.

Increased atmospheric nitrogen from fossil fuel combustion and farming of root crops, which release nitrogen, has intensified the occurrence in of acid rain

Natural resources (e.g. soils, forests, fish aquatic habitats) continue to decrease in quantity due to fires, pollution and human influence

Unsustainable Exploitation of Resources

Unsustainable Exploitation of ResourcesLoss of biological diversity has

resulted from human activities such as deforestation and pollution.

40% of our global economy is dependent on biologically derived products.

17 million hectares of tropical forest destroyed each year

70-100 species disappear every day

Water, soil and air have been strained due to high pollution levels.

The State of the PlanetClimate Change

Diagram from IPCC

1900 21002003 2050

The State of Our Planet

Consequences: Four Earths needed in 2100

Viewing The Earth As A ShipThe earth as a ship, gross material production of the economy as the cargo

We are navigating unknown seas and no one can predict the weather for the voyageResources are limited，What should be the priority?

Our goal is:To load the ship to the limit

To maintain areas of the ship for our comfort and enjoyment

To maintain it in excellent condition for future generations

What is Sustainable Development?

Growth and DevelopmentGrowth （增长） is a quantitative increase in

size, or an increase in throughputThroughput （吞吐量） is the flow of raw

materials and energy from the global ecosystem, through the economy, and back to the global ecosystem as waste

Development （发展） is the increase in quality of goods and services, as defined by their ability to increase human well-being, provided by a given throughput

Carrying capacity （承载力） is the population of humans that can be sustained by a given ecosystem at a given level of consumption, with a given technology

Sustainable development （可持续发展） is development without growth----that is, qualitative improvement in the ability to satisfy wants (needs and desires) without a quantitative increase in throughput beyond environmental carrying capacity

Limits to growth ≠ limits to development

Sustainable development

Social

Environmental

Economic

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

HistoryStockholm 1972: UN Conference on the Human

EnvironmentReport of the World Commission on the Environment

and Development: “Our Common Future”,1987.Rio 1992: UN Conference on Environment and

Development: Agenda 21(a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regards to sustainable development.)

Johannesburg 2002: 2nd World Summit on Sustainable Development

Rio +20 ,2012:UN Conference on Sustainable Development, with sustainable development governance and green economy as the main themes

Far-Reaching Ethical, Political and Economic Implications

Raised the environmental issue to a high level;

Recognizing the issue of intra-generation and inter-generation equity;

While, still allowing for growth and development;

And bound all countries to a global effort.

Who does sustainable development?The UN and its agencies

Dozens of environmental conventions and programs(UNDP)

National, state, local governments, communities110 national, over 6000 local Agenda 21s

Non-governmental organizationsThousands involved

Industry SectorsAll firms involved in service provision from cradle to

cradleCompanies and other Organizations

Environmental Management Systems; Corporate social responsibility/sustainability programs; ethical investing

ConsumersGreen consumer movements, fair trade

Ecological DefinitionIUCN, WWF and UNEP. 1980.

Sustainable development - maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems, the preservation of genetic diversity, and the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems.

Core Economic DefinitionsRobert Haveman. 1989. Sustainable development is the maintenance or growth of the

aggregate level of economic well-being, defined as the level of per capita economic well-being.

John Pezzey. 1989. Our standard definition of sustainable development will be non-

declining per capita utility - because of its self-evident appeal as a criterion for inter-generational equity.

Social DefinitionsDavid Munro,1995.

Sustainable development is a complex of activities that can be expected to improve the human condition in such a manner that the improvement can be maintained.

Nazli Choucri, 1997. The process of managing social demands without eroding life support

properties or mechanisms of social cohesion and resilience.

Integrating economic definition with environmentJohan Holmberg, 1992. Sustainable development means either that per capita utility or well-being is

increasing over time with free exchange or substitution between natural and man-made capital; or that per capita utility or well-being is increasing over time subject to non-declining natural wealth.

There are several reasons why the second and more narrow focus is justified, including: Nonsubstitutability between environmental assets (the ozone layer cannot be

recreated); Uncertainty (our limited understanding of the life-supporting functions of many

environmental assets dictates that they be preserved for the future); Irreversibility (once lost, no species can be recreated); Equity (the poor are usually more affected by bad environments than the rich).

Integration and Fundamental Change?Maurice Strong, 1992. Sustainable development involves a process of deep and

profound change in the political, social, economic, institutional, and technological order, including redefinition of relations between developing and more developed countries.

World Bank, 1992.. Sustainable development means basing developmental and

environmental policies on a comparison of costs and benefits and on careful economic analysis that will strengthen environmental protection and lead to rising and sustainable levels of welfare.

Sustainable Development as a Balance

Environment

EconomySociety

Sustainable development in China: China’s Agenda 21

China’s Agenda 211978 Open Door Policy, rapid

industrialization & urbanization serious environmental problems

June 1992: UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro

July 1992: the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) & the State Science & Technology Commission (SSTC) were appointed as the leading institutions for co-ordinating all ministries, departments and non-government organizations to work together to formulate China’s Agenda 21—’White Paper on China’s Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century’

China’s Agenda 21SDPC: socio-economic planningSSTC: research and developmentACCA21: The Administrative Centre for

China’s Agenda 21—secretariat set up in May 1994, http://www.acca21.org.cn/

March 25, 1994: China’s Agenda 21, the first national agenda 21 formulated after the 1st Earth Summit

China’s Agenda 21Four parts:

Comprehensive strategy and policy of sustainable development

Sustainable social developmentSustainable economic developmentRational utilisation of resources and

environmental protection

Agenda 21: a guide document for drawing up medium & long-term plans on socio-economic development: Five Year Plans & sectoral plans at different levels

Strategic SD Concepts:To promote the shift in economic structure & the mode

of economic development: improving quality of development in growth

Relying on science and technology: integrating science, education & the economy

To promote moral & ethical development & to strengthen democracy & legal systems

Control population growthPolicies and laws on utilization & protection of natural

resourcesControlling pollution & preventing soil erosion‘Help the poor’ programmesNational policy, legal system, decision making and

management coordination mechanisms for SD

Understanding Sustainable DevelopmentThere exists the limits to growth since

natural resource is finite. In other words, growth has its ecological constraints.

Since natural resource is finite, thus how to distribute these scarce resources is a very important issue. A more equal distribution system can relief the contradiction between intra-generation, intergeneration, and inter-species, which can secure a more sustainable future. In other words, growth has its moral constraints.

How to use scarce resources to meet our needs? Under the ecological and moral constraints, an efficient allocation mechanism (eg., market mechanism) is necessary for a sustainable development

Critiques on sustainable developmentDiscussions of sustainable

development and sustainable living are also criticized by some as overly anthropocentric.

Arguing against consumption and overpopulation on the grounds that they are depleting resources and threatening the well-being of present and future generations can ignore harms done to the natural world itself.

HomeworkGive your own view to the

following question （ less than 1500 words).

How does your country(or region) reflect a history of sustainable development?

Deadline ： 3.26