Chapter 2

Areas of sustainable development

2.1 climate change
Climate change, periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about as a result of changes in
the atmosphere as well as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic,
chemical, biological, and geographic factors within the Earth system. Climate change, periodic
modification of Earth’s climate brought about as a result of changes in the atmosphere as well
as interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic, chemical, biological, and
geographic factors within the Earth system.
Climate is often defined loosely as the average weather at a particular place, incorporating such
features as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and windiness. A more specific definition
would state that climate is the mean state and variability of these features over some extended
time period. Both definitions acknowledge that the weather is always changing, owing to
instabilities in the atmosphere. And as weather varies from day to day, so too does climate
vary, from daily day-and-night cycles up to periods of geologic time hundreds of millions of
years long. In a very real sense, climate variation is a redundant expression—climate is always
varying. No two years are exactly alike, nor are any two decades, any two centuries, or any two
millennia.
CAUSES

 The brightness of the Sun continues to increase as the star ages and it passes on an
increasing amount of this energy to Earth's atmosphere over time.
 Fossil-fuel combustion, deforestation, rice cultivation, livestock ranching, industrial
production, and other human activities have increased since the development of
agriculture and especially since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
 Greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and
water vapour, absorb infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and reradiate it
back, thus contributing to the greenhouse effect.
 Ice sheets, sea ice, terrestrial vegetation, ocean temperatures, weathering rates, ocean
circulation, and GHG concentrations are influenced either directly or indirectly by the
atmosphere; however, they also all feed back into the atmosphere and influence it in
important ways.
 Periodic changes in Earth's orbit and axial tilt with respect to the Sun (which occur over
tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years) affect how solar radiation is
distributed on Earth's surface.
 Tectonic movements, which change the shape, size, position, and elevation of the
continental masses and the bathymetry of the oceans, have had strong effects on the
circulation of both the atmosphere and the oceans.
OUTCOMES

 Human societies have changed adaptively in response to climate variations, although

evidence abounds that certain societies and civilizations have collapsed in the face of
rapid and severe climatic changes.
 The complex feedbacks between climate components can produce "tipping points" in
the climate system, where small, gradual changes in one component of the system can
lead to abrupt climate changes.
 The history of life has been strongly influenced by changes in climate, some of which
radically altered the course of evolution.
 The most familiar and predictable phenomena are the seasonal cycles, to which people
adjust their clothing, outdoor activities, thermostats, and agricultural practices.
2.2 Natural disaster
Natural disasters are catastrophic events with atmospheric, geological, and hydrological origins
(e.g., droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, landslides) that can cause fatalities, property
damage and social environmental disruption. A natural disaster is an event caused by a natural
hazard. The latter is defined by UNSDR as “a natural process or phenomenon that may cause
loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services,
social and economic disruption, or environmental damage” – e.g., an earthquake, hurricane, or
drought (UNSDR, 2009: p. 20). In order to analyze natural hazards, experts look at their speed,
area of impact, magnitude, and duration (UNSDR, 2009). Natural hazards such as earthquakes
occur in short periods of time and impact small areas, while other hazards such as droughts
develop over long periods of time and impact large areas. Furthermore, some natural hazards
follow a geographic distribution like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that often occur along
tectonic plates on land or the ocean floor (Leaning and Guha-Sapir, 2013).

Natural disasters are common, devastating and impact a large number of people annually. In
recent years, there have been a series of major natural disasters including earthquakes in Haiti
(2010), earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan (2011) and Nepal (2015), floods in Pakistan
(2013 and 2010) and India (2013), hurricanes in the United States (2005 and 2012), and
typhoons in Philippines (2011 and 2013). The impact of such large disasters is tremendous.
Consequences of Natural Disasters
Natural disasters have a significant impact on the public health and well-being of populations
affected. Negative health impacts can be direct (e.g., injuries) or indirect (e.g., malnutrition and
increase in infectious diseases). In the aftermaths of a natural disaster, these health issues are
compounded by the damage done to health systems, water and sanitation infrastructure, and
the displacement of communities affected. Displacement is quite common after major natural
disasters due to increased homelessness. In 2014, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology
of Disasters (CRED) estimated that 1 298 848 people were left homeless due to natural
disasters. In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, majority of displaced populations live in
temporary crowded shelters with little to no access to water and food especially during the first
few days. Such living conditions are ideal for the spread of infectious diseases increasing
morbidity and mortality among the displaced populations. There are many infectious diseases
known to spread in such crowded environments including diarrheal diseases, measles, bacterial
meningitis, acute respiratory diseases, malaria and dengue fever, and tetanus, among others.
Consequently, to respond to a natural disaster, public health workers have to treat injuries that
require immediate medical attention while also implementing systems to prevent and reduce
the spread of infectious diseases.

Natural disasters also cause a huge economic burden. From 2000 to 2009, natural disasters
caused $891 billion in damage worldwide (Kellet and Sparks, 2012). The high cost of natural
disasters is attributed to their destruction of expensive and essential infrastructure (e.g., roads
and buildings). In terms of health and economic losses, low-income countries are
disproportionately affected by natural disasters. Even though high-income countries have
higher industrial damage when natural disasters occur, the proportion of losses in relation to
the gross national product demonstrates a higher financial burden for low-income countries
(McDermott et al., 2011). This increases foreign aid dependency for low-income countries since
they need additional funding for reconstruction and economic recovery efforts. These
challenges illustrate the need to link emergency disaster response efforts to long-term
development projects to sustain recovery.
Types of Natural disaster
Earthquakes
We'll begin with earthquakes. An earthquake occurs when the earth releases pent-up energy
and causes the ground to shake. Earth's ground is made up of several very large pieces of land
called tectonic plates. Most earthquakes occur when these plates rub against each other in
some way. These same plates also create mountains when they push against each other. As the
mountains are formed, earthquakes may be felt. Sometimes, people cause earthquakes when
they do mine blasts or nuclear tests.
Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones
Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones refer to the same weather phenomenon, where a really
large storm swirls in circles. You'll see the cloud of the storm turning in a spiral, touch down on
the ground, and then reach toward the sky. When a storm reaches a wind speed of over 74
miles per hour, it gets classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone depending on where the
storm is located. The storm is called a hurricane if it happens in the Atlantic and northern
Pacific. If the storm occurs in the northwestern part of the Pacific, then it is called a typhoon. In
the southwestern Pacific and the Indian Ocean, the same type of storm is called a cyclone.
Tsunamis
A tsunami consists of huge waves caused by either an underwater earthquake or volcanic
eruption. In Japanese, the word means 'harbor wave.' These waves can get as high as 100 feet
and aren't the gentle waves that you surf on. No, these are destructive waves that can knock
down buildings, trees, and anything else in their path.
Floods
A flood is an overflow of water that covers the earth. This overflow can damage buildings and
cars in its path. In a severe flood, the water can seep into houses and completely cover them,
ruining everything. And, if people get caught up in the flood, they can be washed away with the
flood and drown.
Mudslides
Mudslides occur when the ground gets so wet that whatever dirt is on the ground turns into a
liquid mass and flows, like a flood, rapidly down a steep slope. When people or animals get
caught up in the mudslide, it becomes very difficult to get out, as the mud drags them down. If
not rescued, they may die.
Avalanches
An avalanche is when you have a bunch of snow, ice, or rocks falling rapidly down a slope,
usually a mountainside. You might have seen movies where someone is standing next to a
mountain with a bunch of snow on top. He or she yells out something and then you see all the
snow tumble down the slope toward him or her. That's an avalanche. Avalanches can bury
people and animals alive.
2.3 Waste management
The process of waste management involves treating solid and liquid waste. During the
treatment, it also offers a variety of solutions for recycling items that aren’t categorized as
trash. The entire idea thus boils down to re-using garbage as a valuable resource and given our
current environmental climate, this process is extremely vital for all households and businesses.
“Waste management or Waste disposal is all the activities and actions required to
manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes amongst other things,
collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste together with monitoring and regulation.
It also encompasses the legal and regulatory framework that relates to waste management
encompassing guidance on recycling etc.”
You will find there are eight major groups of waste management methods, each of them
divided into numerous categories. Those groups include source reduction and reuse, animal
feeding, recycling, composting, fermentation, landfills, incineration, and land application.
Various Methods of Waste Disposal
Although there are many methods of disposing of waste, in this section let’s take a look at some
of the most commonly used methods that you should know about waste management.
Landfills
Throwing daily waste/garbage in the landfills is the most popularly used method of waste
disposal used today. This process of waste disposal focuses attention on burying the waste in
the land. Landfills are commonly found in developing countries.
There is a process used that eliminates the odors and dangers of waste before it is placed into
the ground. While it is true this is the most popular form of waste disposal, it is certainly far
from the only procedure and one that may also bring with it an assortment of space.
This method is becoming less these days although, thanks to the lack of space available and the
strong presence of methane and other landfill gases, both of which can cause numerous
contamination problems.
Landfills give rise to air and water pollution which severely affects the environment and can
prove fatal to the lives of humans and animals. Many areas are reconsidering the use of
landfills.
Incineration/Combustion
Incineration or combustion is a type disposal method in which municipal solid wastes are
burned at high temperatures. The process eventually converts them into residues and gaseous
products.
The biggest advantage of this type of method is that it can reduce the volume of solid waste to
20 to 30 percent of the original volume. Additionally, it also decreases the space they take up
while also reducing the stress on landfills.
Incinerators are primarily used in thermal treatment where solid waste materials are converted
to heat, gas, steam, and ash. Incineration is also widely popular in countries where landfill
space is no longer available, such as the US and Japan.
Recovery and Recycling
Resource recovery is the process of taking useful discarded items for a specific next use. These
discarded items are then processed to extract or recover materials and resources or convert
them to energy in the form of useable heat, electricity or fuel.
Recycling is the process of converting waste products into new products to prevent energy
usage and consumption of fresh raw materials. Recycling is the third component of Reduce,
Reuse and Recycle waste hierarchy.
The idea behind recycling is to reduce energy usage, reduce the volume of landfills, reduce air
and water pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and preserve natural resources for
future use.
Plasma gasification
Plasma gasification is another form of waste management. Plasma is primarily an electrically
charged or highly ionized gas. Lighting is one type of plasma that produces temperatures that
exceed 12,600 °F.
With this method of waste disposal, a vessel uses characteristic plasma torches operating at
+10,000 °F which is creating a gasification zone till 3,000 °F for the conversion of solid or liquid
wastes into a syngas.
During the treatment of solid waste by plasma gasification, the waste’s molecular bonds are
broken down as a result of the intense heat in the vessels and the elemental components.
Thanks to this process, the destruction of waste and dangerous materials are found. This form
of waste disposal provides renewable energy and an assortment of other fantastic benefits.
Composting
Composting is an easy and natural bio-degradation process that takes organic wastes i.e.
remains of plants and garden and kitchen waste and turns into nutrient-rich food for your
plants.
Composting, normally used for organic farming, occurs by allowing organic materials to sit in
one place for months until microbes decompose it.
Note that composting is often deemed to be one of the best methods of waste disposal as it
can turn unsafe organic products into safe compost. The process, however, has its downsides.
Some people have found it to be slow, while others have observed that it takes a lot of space.
Waste to Energy (Recover Energy)
Waste-to-Energy, also widely recognized by its acronym WtE is the generation of energy in the
form of heat or electricity from waste.
Waste to energy (WtE) process involves the conversion of non-recyclable waste items into
useable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes. This type of so energy is a
renewable energy source as non-recyclable waste can be used over and over again to create it.
WtE can also help reduce carbon emissions by offsetting the need for energy from fossil
sources. Over time, this reduces global warming and makes our environment better.
2.4 Global Warming
Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-
industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning,
which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term is
frequently used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both
human- and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. It is most
commonly measured as the average increase in Earth’s global surface temperature.
Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global
average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a number that is
currently increasing by 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. Most of the
current warming trend is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) the result of
human activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over decades to
millennia.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the global annual temperature has increased in total by a little
more than 1 degree Celsius, or about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Between 1880—the year that
accurate recordkeeping began—and 1980, it rose on average by 0.07 degrees Celsius (0.13
degrees Fahrenheit) every 10 years. Since 1981, however, the rate of increase has more than
doubled: For the last 40 years, we’ve seen the global annual temperature rise by 0.18 degrees
Celsius, or 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit, per decade.
Causes of global warming
Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants collect in the
atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface.
Normally this radiation would escape into space, but these pollutants, which can last for years
to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. These heat-
trapping pollutants—specifically carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and
synthetic fluorinated gases—are known as greenhouse gases, and their impact is called the
greenhouse effect.
Though natural cycles and fluctuations have caused the earth’s climate to change several times
over the last 800,000 years, our current era of global warming is directly attributable to human
activity—specifically to our burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas,
which results in the greenhouse effect. In the United States, the largest source of greenhouse
gases is transportation (29 percent), followed closely by electricity production (28 percent) and
industrial activity (22 percent).
Curbing dangerous climate change requires very deep cuts in emissions, as well as the use of
alternatives to fossil fuels worldwide. The good news is that countries around the globe have
formally committed—as part of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement—to lower their emissions by
setting new standards and crafting new policies to meet or even exceed those standards. The
not-so-good news is that we’re not working fast enough. To avoid the worst impacts of climate
change, scientists tell us that we need to reduce global carbon emissions by as much as 40
percent by 2030. For that to happen, the global community must take immediate, concrete
steps: to decarbonize electricity generation by equitably transitioning from fossil fuel–based
production to renewable energy sources like wind and solar; to electrify our cars and trucks;
and to maximize energy efficiency in our buildings, appliances, and industries.
2.1.6 Production and consumption
Sustainable Consumption and Production (known as SCP) is about doing more and better with less. It is
also about decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency
and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
We are currently consuming more resources than ever, exceeding the planet’s capacity for generation. In
the meantime, waste and pollution grows, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Health,
education, equity and empowerment are all adversely affected.
Crucially, SCP can contribute substantially to poverty alleviation and the transition towards low-carbon
and green economies. To do this, SCP requires building cooperation among many different stakeholders
as well as across sectors in all countries.
Sustainable consumption and production refers to “the use of services and related products, which
respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and
toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or
product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations”.
SCP is a holistic approach and is about systemic change. It is built around three main objectives:

 Decoupling environmental degradation from economic growth. This is about doing more and
better with less, increasing net welfare gains from economic activities by reducing resource use,
degradation and pollution along the whole life cycle, while increasing quality of life. ‘More’ is
delivered in terms of goods and services, with ‘less’ impact in terms of resource use,
environmental degradation, waste and pollution.
 Applying life cycle thinking. This is about increasing the sustainable management of resources
and achieving resource efficiency along both production and consumption phases of the lifecycle,
including resource extraction, the production of intermediate inputs, distribution, marketing, use,
waste disposal and re-use of products and services.
 Sizing opportunities for developing countries and “leapfrogging”. SCP contributes to poverty
eradication and to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For
developing countries, SCP offers opportunities such as the creation of new markets, green and
decent jobs as well as more efficient, welfare-generating natural resource management. It is an
opportunity to “leapfrog” to more resource efficient, environmentally sound and competitive
 technologies, bypassing the inefficient, polluting, and ultimately costly phases of development
followed by most developed countries.

2.1.7 Natural laws and ecological principles

Natural law (NL) as a system of unshakable principles, rights and values determined by the
objective social nature of man and independent from the specific state regimes. The NL is
considered an ideal model or prototype for the formation of a positive (current) law, i.e. the NL
is manifested in the course of the historical development of society. The NL is recognized as
ideal, being reflected in legal axioms, from which other legal norms follow in a sequence of
theoretical justification.
1. The First Law states that current population growth and/or growth in rates of
consumption of resources cannot be sustained.
2. The Second Law states that the larger the population of a society and/or the larger its
rate of consumption of resources, the more difficult it will be to transform the society to
a condition of sustainability.
Ecological principles
The principles of ecology were derived from years of observation about how things work in
natural systems, including Aldo Leopold’s observations and insights (many of them chronicled in
his now-famous Sand County Almanac…). Leopold broadened ecological thinking from a
biology-centered view to an ethical view and said, in Sand County Almanac, that
‘A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.’ in his book The Closing Circle, American
ecologist Barry Commoner reduced this concept to more specific principles which he called the
‘Four Laws of Ecology’.
1. Everything is Connected to Everything Else – ‘The system is stabilized by its dynamic self-
compensating properties; these same properties, if overstressed, can lead to a dramatic
collapse’.
2. Everything Must Go Somewhere – ‘One of the chief reasons for the present
environmental crisis is that great amounts of materials have been extracted from the
earth, converted into new forms, and discharged into the environment without taking
into account that everything has to go somewhere’.
3. Nature Knows Best – ‘The third law of ecology holds that any major man-made change
in a natural system is likely to be detrimental’.
4. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch – a simple warning that ‘every gain is won at
some loss’.
It is important for policy-makers at all levels of government observe these natural laws, or their
laws and policies will be counterproductive.
2.2 Cultural preservation and transformation
Culture is who we are and what shapes our identity. No development can be sustainable
without including culture.
In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development”, with 17 ambitious, universal goals to transform our world.
UNESCO ensures that the role of culture is recognized through a majority of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), including those focusing on quality education, sustainable cities,
the environment, economic growth, sustainable consumption and production patterns,
peaceful and inclusive societies, gender equality and food security.
From cultural heritage to cultural and creative industries, Culture is both an enabler and a
driver of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
Cultural sustainability as it relates to sustainable development (to sustainability), has to do with
the maintaining of cultural beliefs, cultural practices, heritage conservation, culture as its own
entity, and attempts to answer the question of whether or not any given cultures will exist in
the context of the future. Culture is defined as a set of beliefs, morals, methods, and a
collection of human knowledge that is dependent on the transmission of these characteristics
to younger generations. Sustainability is defined as the ability to sustain or continue. The two
concepts have been intertwined within social and political domains, and as such, have become
one of the more important concepts of sustainability. First mentioned in 1995, cultural
sustainability also presents viable options within the realm of social policy, providing solutions
to sustainable development issues. Cultural Sustainability can be regarded as a fundamental
issue, even a precondition to be met on the path towards sustainable development. However,
the theoretical and conceptual understanding of cultural sustainability within the general
frames of Sustainable Development remains vague and consequently, the role of culture is
poorly implemented in the environmental, as well as political and social policy. Determining the
impact of Cultural Sustainability is found by investigating the concept of culture in the context
of Sustainable development, through multidisciplinary approaches and analyses. This means
examining the best practices for bringing culture into political and social policy as well as
practical domains, and developing means and indicators for assessing the impacts of culture on
Sustainable Development. Cultural sustainability has always been categorized under the social
pillar of the three pillars of sustainability, but with recent developments within this field
considerations are being made in order to make Cultural Sustainability its own pillar, due to its
growing importance within social, political, environmental, and economic spheres. The
importance of cultural sustainability lies within its influential power over the people, as
decisions that are made within the context of society are heavily weighed by the beliefs of that
society.
UNESCO's work promoting cultural diversity, and UNESCO’s Culture Conventions, are key to the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
2.3 Human development and sustainable economics
Human development grew out of global discussions on the links between economic growth and
development during the second half of the 20th Century. By the early 1960s there were
increasingly loud calls to “dethrone” GDP: economic growth had emerged as both a leading
objective, and indicator, of national progress in many countries i, even though GDP was never
intended to be used as a measure of wellbeing ii. In the 1970s and 80s development debate
considered using alternative focuses to go beyond GDP, including putting greater emphasis on
employment, followed by redistribution with growth, and then whether people had their basic
needs met.
These ideas helped pave the way for the human development approach, which is about
expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which
human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on creating fair opportunities and choices
for all people. So how do these ideas come together in the human development approach?
People: the human development approach focuses on improving the lives people lead rather
than assuming that economic growth will lead, automatically, to greater opportunities for all.
Income growth is an important means to development, rather than an end in itself.
Opportunities: human development is about giving people more freedom and opportunities to
live lives they value. In effect this means developing people’s abilities and giving them a chance
to use them. For example, educating a girl would build her skills, but it is of little use if she is
denied access to jobs, or does not have the skills for the local labour market. The diagram
below looks at aspects of human development that are foundational (that is they are a
fundamental part of human development); and aspects that are more contextual (that is they
help to create the conditions that allow people to flourish). Three foundations for human
development are to live a healthy and creative life, to be knowledgeable, and to have access to
resources needed for a decent standard of living. Many other aspects are important too,
especially in helping to create the right conditions for human development, such as
environmental sustainability or equality between men and women.
Once the basics of human development are achieved, they open up opportunities for progress
in other aspects of life.
Choices: human development is, fundamentally, about more choice. It is about providing
people with opportunities, not insisting that they make use of them. No one can guarantee
human happiness, and the choices people make are their own concern. The process of
development – human development - should at least create an environment for people,
individually and collectively, to develop to their full potential and to have a reasonable chance
of leading productive and creative lives that they value.
The human development approach, developed by the economist Mahbub Ul Haq, is anchored
in Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities, often framed in terms of whether people are able
to “be” and “do” desirable things in life iii. Examples include
Beings: well fed, sheltered, healthy
Doings: work, education, voting, participating in community life.
Freedom of choice is central: someone choosing to be hungry (during a religious fast say) is
quite different to someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food.
As the international community seeks to define a new development agenda post-2015, the
human development approach remains useful to articulating the objectives of development
and improving people’s well-being by ensuring an equitable, sustainable and stable planet.
2.4 Inter connection: Society- Economy and Environment
When we think of a problem that the Galapagos Islands face, we can normally see that it
combines elements of the economy, society and the environment. For example the dumping of
household waste into the ocean is easy to recognise as an environmental problem; it is possible
that wildlife will be negatively affected by the waste. To find a sustainable solution, we have to
think about how much a recycling scheme would cost the authorities (economic) and whether
local people would benefit from the scheme (social). To find a sustainable solution to a
problem, we need to balance all three parts of sustainability at the same time.
The concept of the “triple bottom line,” now widely referred to as the three pillars of
sustainability – people, profits and planet – is hindering our ability to understand why the
system is not working for so many people. In reality, the environment contains human society,
which in turns contains the economy. A vibrant economy depends on the rule of law and
depends on people earning enough money to create a robust market for goods and services.
Society depends on having a stable climate that supports agriculture and that allows most (or
all) people to support their families and communities through the fruits of their labor.
The model of three pillars of environment, economy and equity (or people, profit, planet), is
misleading. The environment is the service provider that enables human society to exist.
Human society creates the conditions, rules and relationships that support economic activity.
Sustainable development requires balanced integration of economic, social and environmental
dimensions.
Integration of these three dimensions is an urgent shift in policy approach because of the
widening income
and other gaps in society and the breach of planetary boundaries, which places humanity
increasingly at risk.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its framework of 17 Sustainable
Development Goals
(SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 stress that
eradicating poverty and ensuring that no one is left behind are priorities for the global
community. The 2030 Agenda expresses the Member States’ determination to “protect the
planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production,
sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that
it can support the needs of the present and future generations.”
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underlines a global commitment to “achieving
sustainable development in its three dimensions—economic, social and environmental—in a
balanced and integrated manner”. Although there is global commitment to this integrated
agenda for development, the “how” of integration has not been well defined nor
communicated.
The work of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
(ESCAP) emphasizes the need for four normative shifts in policy to promote integration: