THE CONCEPTS AND CHALLENGES OF

SUSTAINABILITY
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

What is sustainability?
• One of the pillars of Natural Resources and
Environmental Economics (NREE)
• Literally, to sustain means “to make it last” or “to make
it endure”
• Sustainable development refers to devt that can be
continued after an activity – either indefinitely or for
some defined period
• Standards of living do not have to decline when
achieving sustainability
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Sustainability is about the treatment of future generations:

– the concern of fairness in the allocation of a resource over
time;

– Inter-generational justice/ Inter-generational equity

– The Brundtland Report (1987), named after the then PM of

Norway, then chair of the UN World Commission on E & D,
defined SD as “development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”
– Ever achievable?
 The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Philosophical & ethical questions:

–What are the values, tastes & preferences of future
generations? Can we compare these over time?
–What is the responsibility of the current generation in
dealing with the future generation?
–How can the current generation act on behalf of the
future generation?
–What is to be sustained? How long?
–Is the total quantity of natural capital a known
quantity?
–How much of this natural capital should be left for
the future generation?
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Objectives of SD (UNEP):
– Integration of conservation & devt
– Satisfaction of basic human needs
– Achievement of equity (inter & intra) and social justice
– Provision and maintenance of diversity
• Cultural, biological/ecological, political, income sources,
etc.
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Sustainable
Development

Ecological / Social/Political /
Economic
Environmental Institutional
Sustainability
Sustainability Sustainability

Not mutually exclusive; not alternative explanations

The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of economic sustainability

• In economics, sustainability means the capacity
to maintain development given the underlying
processes

• Accordingly, SD involves maximizing the NBs of

economic development, subject to maintaining
the services and quality of Natural resources over time
 The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of economic sustainability

• The goal - providing the typical person “alive in the
future” with a standard of living, including both
material and environmental welfare, at least as high as
that enjoyed by the typical person living today
– Typical person? Stratify & Sample

• Do you think SA has been able to achieve that during

the last 50 years?
 The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of economic sustainability

Capital: Human-created capital & Natural capital

Neoclassical economists share two underlying

assumptions:
– Substitutability in production
• (e.g., solar, wind, and biomass technologies for energy), and
– Technological progress will uncover these substitutes
as natural capital gets scarce – recycling, changing
waste into wealth, etc.

– Are these assumptions acceptable? What evidence

can we see from current development?
 The concepts and challenges of sustainability
Concept of economic sustainability
• It implies acceptance of the following rules:
– Utilize renewable resources at rates less than or equal to the
natural rate of regeneration
– Optimize the use of non-renewable resources, subject to
substitutability between the resources and technology
• Ensure future non-negative changes in income per capita; equal
economic opportunities now & in the future
• Re-invest resource rents
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

A simple analogy of the issue of sustainability, assuming

substitutability
Suppose the total value of capital (K + H + N) is
R10,000,000, and you put it in a bank where it earns 10%
interest per year (i.e., R1,000,000)
a) If you spend exactly R1,000,000 / year, what would
happen to the amount in the bank?
b) If you spend more than R1,000,000 / year, what
would happen to the amount in the bank?
c) If you spend less than R1,000,000 / year, what would
happen to the amount in the bank?

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 The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of social / institutional / political sustainability

• Focuses on processes rather than outcomes or

constraints
• Consensus building through negotiations
• Institutional development
• Sustainability as a problem of governance
 The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of social / institutional / political sustainability

• NRs and environmental issues are built into:
– social norms, values, culture, and traditions,
– social structures and cohesions,
– evolution of institutions,
– power structures,
– governance mechanisms
to ensure inter-generational equity
The concepts and challenges of sustainability

Concept of social / institutional / political

sustainability
Major challenges of sustainability:
• High inequality (POVERTY & ENVIRONMENT),
• Gender disparity,
• Social exclusion and incoherence,
• Institutional failures / enforcement problems, etc.
 Concept of environmental sustainability

• Does the current development trajectory cause any

negative and/or positive environmental impacts?
• Is there pollution or land degradation caused?
• Is biodiversity enhanced or total system carbon reduced?
• Impacts on specific ecosystem goods and services?

Examples of indicators/ aspects to check:

- land use and land status;
- water quality and quantity;
- carbon stock;
- depth of forest floor;
- abundance, richness and heterogeneity of species.
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Weak Vs Strong Sustainability

The concepts of weak vs strong sustainability

• Weak sustainability - the maintenance of KT (K+H+N);

resource rents are fully re-invested in KT

• Strong sustainability - the maintenance of the value of

the stock of natural capital (N);
– Non-use of non-renewable resources?
– Stock of renewable resources (N) should not
decline over time
Weak vs Strong Sustainability
The concepts of weak vs strong sustainability

Suppose,

Q = Q( K , H , N )

For strong sustainability, N should be non-declining

For weak sustainability, the sum of K, H & N should be

non-declining

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