UNIT - I

Conceptual Background
ARC – 6203: Sustainable Development and Climate
Change
First Semester

Prepared by
Sasmita Chand
Assistant Professor
Ph. D. (Env. Sc. & Engg.)
 UNIT I
• Introduction: Concept of Sustainable Development,

• Environmental activism and its impacts,

• Eco-Development,

• Pollution,

• World Conservation Strategy and responses,

• Carbon Footprint; Ecological Footprint,

• Concepts of Carrying Capacity,

• Climate Change and Challenge for Sustainable Development.

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Introduction: Concept of Sustainable Development

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 Sustainable Development
"Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Source: www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper3/sustainable-development-3

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 Sustainable Development
• This most widely accepted definition of Sustainable Development was given by
the Brundtland Commission (1983) in its report Our Common Future (1987).
• Sustainable development has become an essential question of international
environmental policy, at least since the summit of the United Nations in Rio 1992.
• According to the definition of the Brundtland Report in 1987, a development is
sustainable when it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED), 1987).
• The SDGs represent an ambitious plan to enhance peace and prosperity,
eradicate poverty and protect the planet. They are recognized globally as
essential to the future sustainability of our world.

(Rennings and Wiggering, 1997)

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 Elements of Sustainable Development
Three core elements of sustainable development are:
• Economic growth,
• Social inclusion and
• Environmental protection.

Sustainable development depends on how well we balance social,

economic and environmental objectives or needs when making decisions
today.

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On 19 July 2014, the UN General Assembly's Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly.

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•Goal 1: No Poverty
•Goal 2: Zero Hunger
•Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being for people
•Goal 4: Quality Education
•Goal 5: Gender Equality
•Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
•Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
•Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
•Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
•Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
•Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
•Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
•Goal 13: Climate Change
•Goal 14: Life Below Water
•Goal 15: Life on Land
•Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
•Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

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Environmental activism and its impacts

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 Environmental activism
An environmental activities as a social or political movement, for the conservation of
environment or for the improvement of the environment.

Environmental activism has become pivotal for environmental law enforcement, compliance
and regulation, as well as for mobilizing social movements of collective concern.

The environmental movements favour the sustainable management of natural resources.

The movements often stress the protection of the environment via changes in public policy.
Many movements are centred on ecology, health and human rights.

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 Major Environmental Movements in India

1.Bishnoi Movement
Aim: Save sacred trees from being cut down by the king’s soldiers for a new
palace.
Year: 1700s
Place: Khejarli, Marwar region, Rajasthan state.
Leaders: Amrita Devi along with Bishnoi villagers in Khejarli and surrounding
villages.

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2. Chipko Movement
Aim: The main objective was to protect the trees on the Himalayan slopes from
the axes of contractors of the forest.
Year: 1973
Place: In Chamoli district and later at Tehri-Garhwal district of Uttarakhand.
Leaders: Sundarlal Bahuguna, Gaura Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi, Chandi
Prasad Bhatt, Govind Singh Rawat, Dhoom Singh Negi, Shamsher Singh Bisht
and Ghanasyam Raturi.

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3. Save Silent Valley Movement
Aim: In order to protect the Silent Valley, the moist evergreen forest from being
destroyed by a hydroelectric project.
Year: 1978
Place: Silent Valley, an evergreen tropical forest in the Palakkad district of Kerala,
India.
Leaders: The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) an NGO, and the poet-
activist
Sughathakumari played an important role in the Silent Valley protests.

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4. Jungle Bachao Andholan

Aim: Against governments decision to replace the natural sal forest with Teak.

Year: 1982
Place: Singhbhum district of Bihar
Leaders: The tribals of Singhbhum.

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5. Appiko Movement
Aim: Against the felling and commercialization of natural forest and the ruin of
ancient livelihood.
Year: 1983
Place: Uttara Kannada and Shimoga districts of Karnataka State
Leaders: Appiko’s greatest strengths lie in it being neither driven by a personality
nor having been formally institutionalised. However, it does have a facilitator in
Pandurang Hegde. He helped launch the movement in 1983.

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6. Narmada Bachao Andholan (NBA)
Aim: A social movement against a number of large dams being built across the
Narmada River.
Year: 1985
Place: Narmada River, which flows through the states of Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Leaders: Medha Patker, Baba Amte, adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and
human rights activists.

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7. Tehri Dam Conflict
Aim: The protest was against the displacement of town inhabitants and
environmental consequence of the weak ecosystem.
Year: 1990’s
Place: Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand.
Leaders: Sundarlal Bahuguna

Ref: Appiko and NBA, The Hindu

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Source and impact of Pollution on environment

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 What is pollution?

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause
adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as
noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign
substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants.

• Pollution always has a source and a recipient.

• The source is where the pollution comes from, that is, where the pollution is released
into the environment.
• The recipient is where the pollution ends up, which may be a part of the environment
or people or animals that become contaminated or damaged.

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 What is pollution?

There are several different ways of classifying pollutants. They can be categorised by their
physical nature, by their source, by the recipient or by the sector of the environment
affected. In the following sections we will look at each of these classification groups.
• Physical nature of the pollutant: Pollutants may be in the form of gas, liquid, solid or
energy.
Sources:
• Point sources are identifiable points or places that you can easily locate.
• Example: a diesel truck that produces visible black exhaust fumes from its tailpipe and
Liquid waste released from a pipe into a river.
• A non-point source (also known as ‘diffuse pollution’) is one where it is difficult to
identify the exact origin of the pollution.
• Example: floodwater that washes all types of waste from the land into a river.

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 Source of pollution?
Domestic sources: pollution include toilets, latrines and wastewater from kitchens and
bathrooms. If these wastes are properly contained and prevented from getting into the
environment, they will not cause pollution.

Industry: the industrial sector has been on the rise, posing a serious problem to the
environment. Many industrial processes produce polluting waste substances that are
discharged to the environment, frequently through chimneys (to the air) or through pipes
Among the most polluting industries are food processing, tanneries and textiles with
processing plants and factories that produce liquid effluents which are discharged into
rivers, often without treatment.

Agriculture: agricultural activities are also and changing too. Nowadays, agricultural
activities use more pesticides and fertilisers, which contains phosphate and nitrate and if
these reach water bodies they can cause environmental problems.

Transport: The vehicles are using different types of fuel such as petrol, diesel, and blended
fuel (10% ethanol and petrol) and produce the black exhaust gas. The intensity of the
black colour is greater for poorly maintained vehicles, to the extent sometimes that causes
health hazards.

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 Pathways of pollution
Once released into the environment, the worst effects of many pollutants are reduced by
one or more of the following processes:
Dispersion – smoke disperses into the air and is no longer noticeable away from the
source.
Dilution – soluble pollutants are diluted in the water of a river or lake.
Deposition – some suspended solids carried in a river settle (are deposited) on the river
bed.
Degradation – some substances break down (degrade) by natural processes into different,
simpler substances that are not polluting.

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 Sector of the environment affected by pollution
Water pollution: Water pollution can affect surface water such as rivers and lakes, soil
moisture and groundwater in aquifers, and the oceans. Water pollution is characterised by
the presence of excess physical, chemical or biological substances that change the
qualities of the water and are capable of causing harm to living organisms.
Biological water pollutants are micro-organisms that are harmful to humans and other
forms of life. They are responsible for many different waterborne diseases. The main
groups of biological pollutants are bacteria, viruses, protozoa and helminths (worms).
Chemical water pollutants take many different forms depending on their source. They
include plant nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) used as fertilisers. Chemical pollutants
also include heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, lead and chromium, pesticides and
other persistent pollutants.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are also toxic to humans and wildlife. They include
many different synthetic organic chemicals manufactured for use as pesticides and in
industrial processes, e.g. DDT, aldrin and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).
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 Sector of the environment affected by pollution
Air pollution is defined as the presence in the air of abnormal amounts of chemical
constituents capable of causing harm to living organisms. It can exist at all scales, from
local to global, and can include gases and solid particles.
The most common sources of air pollution in the urban area include the burning of
biomass fuel by households, small businesses such as bakeries, manufacturing industries,
and vehicles.
Polluted air may contain particulate matter (such as black soot) and many different
gaseous chemicals such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur
oxides, ozone, nitrates, sulphates, organic hydrocarbons and many others.
The emission of black smoke is an indication of intense pollution. Gases such as carbon
monoxide and carbon dioxide are invisible and odourless. Carbon monoxide is very
dangerous to humans and produced by inefficient burning of fuel and if breathed in large
quantities it can be deadly. Carbon dioxide is an important pollutant that is involved in
climate change.
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 Sector of the environment affected by pollution
Soil and land pollution: Soil pollution, also called land pollution, is linked to water
pollution.
Liquid wastes containing toxic chemicals or pathogenic micro-organisms on the surface of
the land can seep slowly into the soil and may percolate down to contaminate
groundwater, which can affect people using springs or wells in the area.
The possible sources include open defecation, pit latrines or leaking storage containers for
industrial chemicals and wastes.
Solid waste can cause soil pollution and waste decomposes it produces a liquid
called leachate which trickles down into the soil. Leachate is a highly concentrated liquid
pollutant that may contain toxic chemicals and pathogenic micro-organisms as well as high
levels of organic compounds.

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MoEF Guidelines & Notifications

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• Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) was established in 1985,
which today is the apex administrative body in the country for regulating
and ensuring environmental protection and lays down the legal and
regulatory framework for the same. Since the 1970s, a number of
environment legislations have been put in place.

• The MoEF and the pollution control boards ("CPCB", i.e, Central
Pollution Control Board and "SPCBs", i.e, State Pollution Control
Boards) together form the regulatory and administrative core of the
sector.

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• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is
an Indian government ministry. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Shri
Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change.
• The ministry is responsible for planning, promoting, coordinating, and
overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes in
the country. The main activities undertaken by the ministry include
conservation and survey of the flora of India and fauna of India, forests and
other wilderness areas; prevention and control of pollution; afforestation,
and land degradation mitigation. It is responsible for the administration of
the national parks of India.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the cadre
controlling authority of the Indian Forest Service (IFS), one of the three All
India Services.

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Climate Change and Challenge for
Sustainable Development

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Climate Change Protocols & Conventions

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https://gradeup.co/environmental-conventions-and-protocols-notes-i

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Kyoto
Protocol

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https://gradeup.co/environmental-conventions-and-protocols-notes-i

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World Conservation Strategy and its
responses

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The World Conservation Strategy of 1980 is the first international document on living
resource conservation produced with inputs from governments, NGOs and other
experts. The report argues that for development to be sustainable, it should
support conservation rather than hinder it.

• The World Conservation Strategy (WCS) was commissioned by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) which together with the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) provided the financial support for its preparation and contributed to the
evolution of its basic themes and structure.

• The WCS has been prepared by IUCN and primarily reflects IUCN's views and
approaches it is intended that the Strategy represent a consensus of policy on
conservation efforts in the context of world development.

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The aim of the World Conservation Strategy is to help advance the achievement of
sustainable development through the conservation of living resources.
The strategies are :
1. explains the contribution of living resource conservation to human survival and to
sustainable development
2. identifies the priority conservation issues and the main requirements for dealing
with them
3. proposes effective ways for achieving the Strategy's aim.
1. The aim of the World Conservation Strategy is to achieve the three main
objectives of living resource conservation:
a. to maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems (soil, water
nutrients)
b. to preserve genetic diversity
c. to ensure the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems

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2. These objectives must be achieved as a matter of urgency because:
a. the planet's capacity to support people is being irreversibly reduced in both
developing and developed countries:
b. hundreds of millions of rural people in developing countries, including 500 million
malnourished and 800 million destitute, are compelled to destroy the resources
necessary to free them from starvation and poverty:
c. the energy, financial and other costs of providing goods and services are growing:
d. the resource base of major industries is shrinking:
3. The main obstacles to achieving conservation are:
a. the belief that living resource conservation is a limited sector,
b. the consequent failure to integrate conservation with development;
c. a development process that is often inflexible and needlessly destructive,
d. the lack of a capacity to conserve and the lack of support for conservation
e. the failure to deliver conservation-based development where it is most needed,

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4. The World Conservation Strategy therefore:
a. defines living resource conservation and explains its objectives
b. determines the priority requirements for achieving each of the objectives
c. proposes national and subnational strategies
d. recommends anticipatory environmental policies, a cross-sectoral conservation
policy and a broader system of national accounting
e. proposes an integrated method of evaluating land and water supplemented by
environmental assessments
f. recommends reviews of legislation concerning living resources
g. suggests ways of increasing the number of trained personnel
h. recommends greater public participation in planning and decision making
concerning living resource use
i. suggests ways of helping rural communities to conserve their living resources, as
the essential basis of the development they need.

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 Carbon footprint and ecological footprint
• An ecological footprint compares the total resources people consume with the land and water area that is needed to
replace those resources.
• A carbon footprint also deals with resource usage but focuses strictly on the greenhouse gases released due to burning of
fossil fuels.
• Greenhouse gas calculations make up a portion of an ecological footprint, but are not used in the same way as those in a
carbon footprint.
• Greenhouse gas waste from carbon-based fuels can be absorbed by the Earth even though it cannot be naturally
replenished within a human lifetime. That's why ecological footprints include estimates of the sea and forest-covered land
areas needed to absorb greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
• Carbon footprints usually are measured in units of carbon or carbon dioxide equivalents, without reference to land or
water areas, and are used primarily to heighten awareness of the impact of greenhouse gases on climate change. Both
calculations illustrate the impact of human activity on the environment.

Prepared by
Sasmita Chand
Assistant Professor
Ph. D. (Env. Sc. & Engg.)
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Carbon footprint and ecological footprint

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

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 Carrying capacity

• In ecology, carrying capacity is measured as the maximum load of an environment.

• The physical features present in the environment act as limiting factors (e.g. food, water, competition, etc.).
• Thus, the population limit can be expected to depend on these factors. In essence, food availability is an
important variable as it affects the population size of the species.
• It does so in such a way that if food demand is not met for over a given period of time the population size
will eventually decrease until the resources become adequate.
• By contrast, when food supply exceeds demand then the population size will soon increase and will stop
increasing when the source is consequently depleted.

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Carrying capacity

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

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References:

1. Follmann, A. (2016). The role of environmental activists in governing riverscapes:

The case of the Yamuna in Delhi, India. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic
Journal, (14).
2. Forsyth, T. (1999). Environmental activism and the construction of risk:
implications for NGO alliances. Journal of International Development: The Journal
of the Development Studies Association, 11(5), 687-700.
3. Nayak, A. K. (2015). Environmental movements in India. Journal of developing
societies, 31(2), 249-280.
4. https://homegrown.co.in/article/804041/10-environment-conservation-activists-
from-india-you-need-to-know-about
5. https://www.clearias.com/environmental-movements-in-india/
6. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/45037/7/07_chapter_01.pdf
7. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/153004/10/10_chapter%204.
pdf
8. http://kankyojoho.pref.aichi.jp/DownLoad/DownLoad/agenda-e.pdf
9. https://gradeup.co/environmental-conventions-and-protocols-notes-i
10. https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/wcs-004.pdf

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 Thank you…
DISCLAIMER:
This presentation is prepared for educational purpose only and makes no representation or warranty as to the
accuracy and completeness of the content. All copyrighted materials (including the images, texts and other
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presentation for educational purpose only.

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