CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Subject: ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mr. Hrishikesh Manu Nayan Kanwar

Roll no.- 947

(7th Semester)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very thankful to everyone who has supported me, for I have completed my project effectively and
moreover on time. I am equally grateful to Mr. Hrishikesh Manu. He gave me the support and guided
me in different matters regarding this topic. He has been very kind and patient while suggesting me the
outlines of this project and correcting my doubts I thank him for his overall support. I am thankful to
my friends who have helped me find out relevant materials for my project.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my parents as they have helped me a lot in gathering
different information, collecting data and guiding me. I also thank my friends who were there with
their suggestions and comments for my project.

NAYAN KANWAR

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 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4

Chapter 1: Economic development and the environment................................................................8

Chapter 2: Sustainability and its historical development..............................................................12

Chapter 3: Principles of Sustainable Development.......................................................................18

Chapter 4: Multiple Dimensions of Sustainable Development.....................................................24

Chapter 5: Sustainability The ideas viability dream or reality?.............................................28

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................29

Bibliography..................................................................................................................................31

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Method of Research:

For the purpose of research, the researcher has used the Doctrinal Method of Research. The Research
is entirely a Library-based Research, where the researcher has made use of books, law journals,
magazines, law reports, legislations, internet websites, etc., for the purpose of research.

Hypothesis:

The researcher believes that sustainable development is not a goal, but an on-going process and thus
continuous efforts are needed to save the environment.

Aims and Objectives:

The project research work on the topic sustainable development aims to understand the concept and
different issues related to it. Relevant cases and case laws will also be referred for better understanding
of the topic.

Sources of Data:

Both primary and secondary sources are used for collection of the relevant data:

Books
Bare act
Internet

Method of Writing:

The method of writing followed in the course of this research paper is primarily analytical.

Mode of Citation

The researcher has followed the bluebook method of citation throughout the course of this
research paper.

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 INTRODUCTION

The concept of sustainable development arises from a new worldview, which sees the survival,
continued progress, and maintenance of the human community as dependent on the continued
health and viability of the earths life support systems. The term sustainability derives from the
Latin root sus-tinere, which means to under-hold or hold up from underneath, implying
robustness and durability over time. Accordingly, sustainability depicts a paradigm that seeks to
protect the planets life support systems to ensure longevity for humans and other species. 1

Sustainability is related to the quality of life in a community -- whether the economic, social and
environmental systems that make up the community are providing a healthy, productive,
meaningful life for all community residents, present and future. 'Sustain' does not mean that
nothing ever changes. Nor does it mean utopia that nothing bad ever happens. Sustainability is
not about maintaining the status quo or reaching perfection. A sustainable community seeks to
maintain and improve the economic, environmental and social characteristics of an area so its
members can continue to lead healthy, productive, enjoyable lives there.
Sustainability does not mean sustained growth. At some point, a sustainable community stops
getting larger but continues to change and improve, to develop in ways that enhance the quality
of life for all its inhabitants. Sustainable development improves the economy without
undermining the society or the environment. Sustainable development focuses on improving our
lives without continually increasing the amount of energy and material goods that we consume.
A sustainable community does not consume resources -- energy and raw materials -- faster than
the natural systems they come from can regenerate them. We are currently living unsustainable
lives. If we are not careful how we use and dispose of resources, our children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren will have a poorer, more polluted world to live in.

A sustainable community is one where development is not unlimited growth; rather it is the
enhancement of what already exists in the community. A sustainable community is not stagnant;

1 David V.J. Bell & Yuk-kuen Annie Chueng, Introduction to Sustainable Development, JCAPS
available at: http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c13/e1-45.pdf.

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sustainability does not mean things never change. On the contrary, it means always looking for
ways to improve a community by strengthening the links between its economy, environment and
society. A sustainable community is also not a utopia. It is not a community where nothing ever
goes wrong. Sustainability does not mean that businesses never fail or that people never go
hungry or that pollution never happens. Sustainable means that when problems arise, we look for
solutions that take into account all three parts of the community instead of applying a quick fix in
one area that causes problems in another.

With the summer of 1972, Stockholm staged the first UN Conference held specifically to
consider global environment conditions. 113 countries Heads of State and high government
officials discussed over the growing environmental issues of the world to come up with an
Action Plan for the cure of these unnumbered problems. 2 It started a war against the deteriorating
conditions of the environment. The world has since then seen a number of International
Conventions and bodies like the International Organizations, the Non-Governmental
Organization (NGOs) in the form of International as well as domestic legislations. Countries
independently, to provide a better life to its citizens have come up with numerous legislation to
guide industries and other activities to be followed.

In 1987 the Brundtland Report recognized that economic development taking place today could
no longer compromise the development needs of future generations. This concept of sustainable
development aimed to encourage people to reflect on the harm economic development was
having on both the environment and on society. Building upon this, the Rio Earth Summit in
1992 represented a major step forward towards the goal of achieving sustainability, with
international agreements made on climate change, forests and biodiversity. Out of the Earth
Summit came Agenda 21, a blueprint for sustainability in the 21 st century. By championing the
concept of sustainable development, Agenda 21 provides a framework for tackling todays social
and environmental problems, including air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, health,
overpopulation, poverty, energy consumption, waste production and transport issues.

2 Id.

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Agenda 21 requires each country to draw up a national strategy of sustainable development.
Following Agenda 21 the UK Strategy bases its vision of sustainable development on social
equality, environmental protection, conservation and preservation of natural resource and
maintenance of high employment and economic growth. This strategy is implemented through
the framework of local government via Local Agenda 21, engaging local communities to become
part of the process, and monitored by a series of sustainability indicators.

Sustainable development is an approach that aims towards preserving the environment to such
extent so that it may be enjoyed and benefit our future generations the way it has to us. It is an
aim to preserve the environment to save it for the future generations to come. In many cases,
primarily because the results of long-term sustainability analyses depend on the particular
resources focused upon.In 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, commonly known as the Earth Summit, the concept of sustainable development
received the approval of over 140 governments.

It is said by many environmentalists that Sustainable development is a process, not a goal that
could be achieved in a few years of time. The process could only be started by following the
procedural elements of Sustainable elements strictly and uniformly, not only by industries but by
the masses. To reach that level the world would need to follow the pillars of sustainable
development which are social justice, economic growth and environmental protection.
According to the classical definition given by the United Nations World Commission on
Environment and Development in 1987, development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is
usually understood that this intergenerational equity would be impossible to achieve in the
absence of present-day social equity if the economic activities of some groups of people continue
to jeopardize the well-being of people belonging to other groups or living in other parts of the
world. Imagine, for example, that emissions of greenhouse gases, generated mainly by highly
industrialized countries, lead to global warming and flooding of certain low-lying islands
resulting in the displacement and impoverishment of entire island nations.3

3 TATYANA D. SOUBBOTINA, BEYOND ECONOMIC GROWTH AN INTRODUCTION

TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, 2nd ed. (2004).

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 Chapter 1: Economic Development and the Environment

Countries are unequally endowed with natural resources. For example, some countries benefit
from fertile agricultural soils, while others have to put a lot of effort into artificial soil
amelioration. Some countries have discovered rich oil and gas deposits within their territories,
while others have to import most fossil fuels. In the past a lack or wealth of natural resources
made a big difference in countries development. But today a wealth of natural resources is not
the most important determinant of development success. Consider such high-income countries as
Japan or the Republic of Korea. Their high economic development allows them to use their
limited natural wealth much more productively (efficiently) than would be possible in many less
developed countries. The productivity with which countries use their productive resources
physical capital, human capital, and natural capital is widely recognized as the main indicator
of their level of economic development.

The natural environment plays an important role in supporting economic activity. It contributes:

directly, by providing resources and raw materials such as water, timber and minerals that
are required as inputs for the production of goods and services; and
indirectly, through services provided by ecosystems including carbon sequestration,
water purification, managing flood risks, and nutrient cycling.

Natural resources are, therefore, vital for securing economic growth and development, not just
today but for future generations. The relationship between economic growth and the environment
is complex. Several different drivers come into play, including the scale and composition of the
economy particularly the share of services in GDP as opposed to primary industries and
manufacturing and changes in technology that have the potential to reduce the environmental
impacts of production and consumption decisions whilst also driving economic growth.

With many key natural resources and ecosystems services scarce or under pressure, achieving
sustained economic growth will require absolute decoupling of the production of goods and

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services from their environmental impacts.4 This means consuming environmental resources in a
sustainable manner whether by improving the efficiency of resource consumption or by
adopting new production techniques and product designs. It also means avoiding breaches in
critical thresholds beyond which natural assets cannot be replaced and can no longer support the
desired level of economic activity. Existing commitments to avoid dangerous climate change
exemplify the need for absolute decoupling, requiring a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,
even in the face of an expanding global economy.

Economic growth involves the combination of different types of capital to produce goods and
services. These include:
produced capital, such as machinery, buildings and roads;
human capital, such as skills and knowledge;
natural capital, for example, raw materials we extract from the earth, carbon sequestration
services provided by forests and soils; and
social capital, including institutions and ties within communities.

Natural capital is different from other types of capital for a number of reasons. Some elements of
natural capital have critical thresholds beyond which sudden and dramatic changes may occur;
some have finite limits; changes to natural capital are potentially irreversible; and impacts extend
across many generations. Therefore, while natural capital is used to generate growth, it needs to
be used sustainably and efficiently in order to secure growth in the long run. This is most
obvious in the context of non-renewable resources such as oil and minerals, but the rate of
consumption of renewable resources such as forests and fisheries and of ecosystem services such
as biodiversity and carbon sequestration must also be considered relative to their rate of recharge
and replenishment and any critical thresholds they exhibit.5

4 Absolute decoupling occurs when the environmentally relevant variable is stable or decreasing
while the economy continues to grow.

5 Theodre Panyote, Economic Growth and the environment, 2 ECONOMIC SURVEY OF

EUROPE (2003) available at: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/ead/pub/032/032_c2.pdf.

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The formation of capital whether produced, human, social or natural is vital for economic
growth. Declining levels of some natural assets for example, the use of minerals and metals in
manufacturing can be acceptable as long as the decision to deplete them reflects the real costs
of environmental resources, taking into account their scarcity and how substitutable they are, and
only if adequate investments are made in other types of capital. However, where environmental
resources have critical thresholds beyond which they cannot be substituted for by other types of
capital, interventions to prevent these thresholds from being exceeded must be considered.6

The role of environmental policy is to manage the provision and use of environmental resources
in a way that supports improvements in prosperity and wellbeing, for current and future
generations. There are a number of reasons why government intervention is needed to achieve
this. In particular, market failures in the provision and use of environmental resources mean that
natural assets would be over-used in the absence of government intervention. These market
failures arise from the public good characteristics of the natural environment; external costs and
benefits where the use of a resource by one party has impacts on others; difficulties in capturing
the full benefits of business investment in environmental R&D; and information failures.7

Will the world be able to sustain economic growth indefinitely without running into resource
constraints or despoiling the environment beyond repair? What is the relationship between a
steady increase in incomes and environmental quality? Are there trade-offs between the goals of
achieving high and sustainable rates of economic growth and attaining high standards of
environmental quality? For some social and physical scientists such as GeorgescuRoegen 8 and
Meadows et al., growing economic activity (production and consumption) requires larger inputs

6 Id.

7Tim Everett et. al., Economic Growth and the Environment, 2 DEFRA (2010) available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69195/pb13390-
economic-growth-100305.pdf.

8GEORGESCU-ROEGEN, THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS (CAMBRIDGE,

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS) (1971).

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of energy and material, and generates larger quantities of waste by-products. Increased extraction
of natural resources, accumulation of waste and concentration of pollutants will therefore
overwhelm the carrying capacity of the biosphere and result in the degradation of environmental
quality and a decline in human welfare, despite rising incomes. 9 Furthermore, it is argued that
degradation of the resource base will eventually put economic activity itself at risk. To save the
environment and even economic activity from itself, economic growth must cease and the world
must make a transition to a steady-state economy.

9 H. Daly, Steady-state Economics (San Francisco, Freeman & Co.); 2nd ed. (1977).

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 Chapter 2: Sustainability and its Historical Development

In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm
brought the industrialized and developing nations together to delineate the rights of the human
family to a healthy and productive environment. A series of such meetings followed, e.g. on the
rights of people to adequate food, to sound housing, to safe water, to access to means of family
planning. The recognition to revitalize humanitys connection with Nature, led to the creation of
global institutions within the UN system.10

In 1980, the International Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources (IUCN)
published the World Conservation Strategy (WCS) which provided a precursor to the concept of
sustainable development. The Strategy asserted that conservation of nature cannot be achieved
without development to alleviate poverty and misery of hundreds of million of people and
stressed the interdependence of conservation and development in which development depends on
caring for the Earth. Unless the fertility and productivity of the planet are safeguarded, the
human future is at risk.11

Ten years later, at the 48th plenary of the General Assembly in 1982, the WCS initiative
culminated with the approval of the World Charter for Nature. The Charter stated that "mankind
is a part of nature and life depends on the uninterrupted functioning of natural systems".

In 1983, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) was created
and, by 1984, it was constituted as an independent body by the United Nations General
Assembly. WCED was asked to formulate A global agenda for change. In 1987, in its report
Our Common Future, the WCED advanced the understanding of global interdependence and the

10 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, History of Sustainable

Development available at: http://www.uncsd2012.org/history.html.

11 https://www.earthcouncilalliance.org/rio20/

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relationship between economics and the environment previously introduced by the WCS. The
report wove together social, economic, cultural and environmental issues and global solutions. It
reaffirmed that "the environment does not exist as a sphere separate from human actions,
ambitions, and needs, and therefore it should not be considered in isolation from human
concerns. The environment is where we all live; and development is what we all do in attempting
to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable." In 1993, UNCED instituted the
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) to follow-up on the implementation of Agenda
21.

In 2002, ten years after the Rio Declaration, a follow-up conference, the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD) was convened in Johannesburg to renew the global
commitment to sustainable development. The conference agreed on the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation (JPOI) and further tasked the CSD to follow-up on the implementation of
sustainable development.12

On 24th December 2009 the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution agreeing to hold the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in 2012 - also referred to as
'Rio+20' or 'Rio 20'. The Conference seeks three objectives: securing renewed political
commitment to sustainable development, assessing the progress and implementation gaps in
meeting already agreed commitments, and addressing new and emerging challenges. The
Member States have agreed on the following two themes for the Conference: green economy
within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and institutional
framework for sustainable development

Since UNCED, sustainable development has become part of the international lexicon. The
concept has been incorporated in many UN declarations and its implementation, while complex
has been at the forefront of worlds institutions and organizations working in the economic,
social and environmental sectors. However, they all recognize how difficult it has proven to grant
the environmental pillar the same recognition enjoyed by the other two pillars despite the many

12 Id.

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calls by scientists and civil society signalling the vulnerability and precariousness of the Earth
since the 1960s.13

Technically it started in 1969 with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It was
centered to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under
which man and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic and other
requirements of present and future generations.

In July, 1970, President Nixon submitted to Congress a reorganization plan proposing the
establishment of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an independent agency in the
executive branch of the federal government. The plan proposed bringing together 15 components
from five executive departments and independent agencies.

In December 2, 1970, the EPA began its operations, the job of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency is to improve and preserve the quality of the environment, both national and global. EPA
works to protect human health and the natural resources on which all human activity depends.

Stockholm Meeting was a big event of the 1970s where the UN meet on the Human
Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. This meeting is where developed countries voiced concern
about the environmental implications of worldwide development, while countries that were still
developing raised their own continuing need for industrial development. Therefore the idea of
sustainable development was born out of an effort to find an understanding between the
development requirements of the countries in the Southern Hemisphere and the conservation
demands of the developed states in the North. The meeting increased awareness of the world
environmental issues and set in motion events which lead to the general acknowledgment of the
concept of sustainable development as a method of realizing the development requirements of
all folks without having to sacrifice the earths capacity to sustain life.14

13 http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/jhtext_ch02.pdf.

14 http://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/only-one-earth-stockholm-and-beginning-
modern-environmental-diplomacy

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Out of the Stockholm Meeting, the UN Environmental Program was formed to license the
concept of environmentally-sound development. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP provided the
UN with an agency to look at the planets growing environmental and development issues with a
view to recommending to nationwide states and world bodies on suitable actions. The work of
the UNEP helped launch, among other stuff, the World Environmental Academic Programme
(IEEP ) in 1975 and the World Conservation Technique in 1980.15

On December 1983, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the PM of Norway, was asked by the Secretary
General of the UN to chair a special independent commission, the World Commission on
Environment and Development called the WCED.

Its mission: to examine vital environmental and development issues around the planet and
fashion practical suggestions to address them. A second target was to bolster global cooperation
on environmental and development issues. And, eventually, the commission wanted to raise the
level of knowledge of and dedication to viable development on the side of people, associations,
companies and govts.

When the commission was organised, some wanted it to be restricted to environmental problems
only. Nevertheless they suspected that environmental quality and supportable development were
to inseparable ideas which should be linked in compound a world technique. With this
established, the commission therefore outlined viable development as development that fulfills
the requirements of the present without risking the capability of generations to come to meet
their own needs.

A further end result of the WCED report, was the UN Meeting on Environment and
Development. A two year series of preparatory conferences finished in the Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro, June 1992. This marked the second meeting of global leaders to talk about
environmental and development issues and was significantly bigger than its precedent the
Stockholm Meeting held twenty years before.16

15 http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/promote-sustainable-development/index.html

16 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced

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The Earth Summit was bigger not just in the level of collaboration by the states of the Earth
Summit, but also in the extent of issues it tried to address. Over a hundred heads of state and
central authority attended the Earth Summit and 170 countries sent delegations. As an element of
the Earth Summit, countrywide leaders had a chance to sign world conventions on global
warming and biodiversity, a Declaration of Environment and Development and an Agenda for
the 21st Century ( a.k.a. agenda twenty-one ), which looked to create a strong effort to teach
folks about the state of both environment and development, and to help them to make calls which
can lead to supportability. Secretary General of UNCED, Maurice Robust , summarised Agenda
twenty-one as, a program of action for a tolerable future for the human family and an initial step
toward making sure the world will change into a more just, secure and wealthy habitat for all
humanity. Agenda twenty-one called on all nations of the planet to try a thorough process of
planning and action to achieve supportability. As well as worldwide agenda, this document also
detailed a role for towns and counties.

Chapter twenty-eight of Agenda twenty-one ( known as Local Agenda twenty-one ) states :

Local authorities construct, operate and maintain commercial, social and environmental
substructure, oversee planning processes, build local environmental policies and rules, and as
the level of state nearest the folks, they play a very important part in teaching, mobilizing and
replying to the general public to plug supportable development.

On the anniversary of the Earth Summit in June 1993, President Clinton signed an executive
order creating the Presidents Council on Tolerable Development. The Council was established to
assist in the creation of U.S. Policies which will inspire industrial expansion, job creation, and
environmental protection. In his address to the country he revealed, Every country faces a
challenge to spot and implement policies that may meet the requirements of the present without
sacrificing the future. America will face that test with the assistance of this Council and the
concepts and experience that its members bring to this crucial task.17

The twenty-five member Council built new partnerships among delegates from industry,
administration ( including U.S. Cupboard members ) and environmental, work, and civil rights
associations to develop bold fresh approaches to integrate business and environmental policies.
17 http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html

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Their charge : to seriously change the Presidents vision of tolerable development into a concrete
plan.

Their first work concluded in Feb 1996, with the publishing of their report titled, Sustainable
America : A New Understanding for Wealth , Opportunity, and A Good Environment for the
Future. In Jan 1997, the Commission issued its 2nd major report titled, Building on
Understanding : A Progress Report on Supportable America. Secretary General of UNCED,
Maurice Powerful , summarised Agenda twenty-one as, a program of action for a viable future
for the human family and a primary step toward making sure the world will change into a more
just, secure and wealthy habitat for all humanity.

Agenda twenty-one called on all nations of the Earth to do a complete process of planning and
action to reach supportability. As well as worldwide agenda, this document also detailed a role
for towns and counties. Chapter twenty-eight of Agenda twenty-one ( known as Local Agenda
twenty-one ) states : Local authorities construct, operate and maintain commercial, social and
environmental sub-structure, oversee planning processes, build local environmental policies and
rules, and as the level of state nearest the folk, they play a crucial role in teaching, mobilizing
and replying to the general public to push viable development.18

Starting in April 2001, preparation for the World Meeting for Viable Development to be held in
Johannesburg, S.A. occurred at the local, nationwide, sub-regional, regional and worldwide
levels. Talks took place addressing not only Agenda twenty-one, but also facing new vital issues
the world is facing in this century with globalization.

There were 4 world PrepComs held in preparation for WSSD. The World Conference on
Tolerable Development ( WSSD ) marked the ten year anniversary of the 1992 Earth Peak , the
U. N Meeting on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. WSSD happened
from Aug twenty-six Sep four, 2002 in Johannesburg, S. A. It presented an expedient
opportunity for presidencies, United States agencies, multilateral money establishments, NGOs,
and civil society to reinvigorate their world commitment toward viable development. Roughly
sixty thousand folks from around the world attended the Peak. The Peak resulted in a chain of

18 http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm2.htm

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commitments in 5 concern areas that were backed up by particular administration statements on
programs, and by partnership initiatives. The 5 concern areas included water, energy, health,
farming and biodiversity. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Worldwide Affairs Paula Dobriansky
identified U.S.

Goals for the 2002 World Conference for Viable Development (WSSD ) in Johannesburg, S. A. .
The US plans to work in co-operation with executives, the non-public sector and NGOs to reach
supportable development initiatives to reduce the quantity of folk getting by without clean
drinking water; augment access to scrub energy, lessen hunger and increase rural productiveness;
guarantee universal access to basic education; stem AIDS and reduce TB and malaria; and
manage and preserve forests and seas.19

19 http://www.globalissues.org/article/366/world-summit-on-sustainable-development

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 Chapter 3: Principles of Sustainable Development
The Sustainable Development Act defines certain principles that must be incorporated into the
interventions of all departments and agencies. In a sense, these principles are a guide for action
within a perspective of sustainable development. They are an original reflection of the principles
of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, a fundamental text that affirms
international commitment to sustainable development.

The concept of sustainability is based on the premise that people and their communities are made
up of social, economic, and environmental systems that are in constant interaction and that must
be kept in harmony or balance if the community is to continue to function to the benefit of its
inhabitants now and in the future. A healthy, balanced society (or nation, or community,
depending on the strength of ones magnifying glass) is one that can endure into the future,
providing a decent way of life for all its membersit is a sustainable society. Sustainability is an
ideal toward which to strive and against which to weigh proposed actions, plans, expenditures,
and decisions. It is a way of looking at a community or a society or a planet in the broadest
possible context, in both time and space.20

Although it adopts a broad perspective, in practice the pursuit of sustainability is fundamentally a

local endeavor because every community has different social, economic, and environmental
needs and concerns. And in each community the quality, quantity, importance, and balance of
those concerns is unique (and constantly changing). For that reasonand because the best
mitigation efforts also tend to be locally basedwe tend to speak of sustainability mostly in
terms of local actions and decisions.

There are six principles of sustainability that can help a community ensure that its social,
economic, and environmental systems are well integrated and will endure. 21 We should

20 http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/environment-and-sustainable-development-
1853-1.html

21 http://Envirocentre2005/downloads/ECOWEB1.pdf

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remember that, although the list of principles is useful, each of them has the potential to overlap
and inter-relate with some or all of the others. A community or society that wants to pursue
sustainability will try to:

1. Maintain and, if possible, enhance, its residents quality of life. Quality of lifeor
livabilitydiffers from community to community. It has many components: income,
education, health care, housing, employment, legal rights on the one hand; exposure to crime,
pollution, disease, disaster, and other risks on the other. One town may be proud of its safe
streets, high quality schools, and rural atmosphere, while another thinks that job opportunities
and its historical heritage are what make it an attractive place to live. Each locality must define
and plan for the quality of life it wants and believes it can achieve, for now and for future
generations.22

2. Enhance local economic vitality. A viable local economy is essential to sustainability. This
includes job opportunities, sufficient tax base and revenue to support government and the
provision of infrastructure and services, and a suitable business climate. A sustainable economy
is also diversified, so that it is not easily disrupted by internal or external events or disasters, and
such an economy does not simply shift the costs of maintaining its good health onto other
regions or onto the oceans or atmosphere. Nor is a sustainable local economy reliant on
unlimited population growth, high consumption, or nonrenewable resources.

3. Promote social and intergenerational equity. A sustainable communitys resources and

opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background,
religion, or other characteristics. Further, a sustainable community does not deplete its resources,
destroy natural systems, or pass along unnecessary hazards to its great-great-grandchildren.

4. Maintain and, if possible, enhance, the quality of the environment. A sustainable

community sees itself as existing within a physical environment and natural ecosystem and tries
to find ways to co-exist with that environment. It does its part by avoiding unnecessary

22 The Future We Want. Outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development June 2012, Para 247.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/733FutureWeWant.pdf

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degradation of the air, oceans, fresh water, and other natural systems. It tries to replace
detrimental practices with those that allow ecosystems to continuously renew themselves. In
some cases, this means simply protecting what is already there by finding ways to redirect
human activities and development into less sensitive areas. But a community may need to take
action to reclaim, restore, or rehabilitate an already-damaged ecosystem such as a nearby
wetland.

5. Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its decisions and actions. A community
is resilient in the face of inevitable natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes,
floods, and drought if it takes steps to ensure that such events cause as little damage as possible,
that productivity is only minimally interrupted, and that quality of life remains at (or quickly
returns to) high levels. A disaster-resilient community further takes responsibility for the risks it
faces and, to the extent possible, is self reliant. That is, it does not anticipate that outside entities
(such as federal or state government) can or will mitigate its hazards or pay for its disasters.

6. Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions. Participatory

processes are vital to community sustainability. Such a process engages all the people who have
a stake in the outcome of the decision being contemplated. It encourages the identification of
concerns and issues, promotes the wide generation of ideas for dealing with those concerns, and
helps those involved find a way to reach agreement about solutions. It results in the production
and dissemination of important, relevant information, fosters a sense of community, produces
ideas that may not have been considered otherwise, and engenders a sense of ownership on the
part of the community for the final decision.

Brundtland Green Establishments

An establishment is green because it undertakes reduction, reuse, recovery and recycling

projectsresource conservation projects in other words. An establishment is Brundtland
because it also implements actions centred around the themes of democracy, sharing,

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cooperation, equity, solidarity, respect, peace and human rights, which are highlighted in the
Brundtland Report.23

Brundtland Green Establishments are institutions that have taken on the mission to promote
the development of critical and responsible citizens able to take action to make the world worthy
of their aspirations. The approach of a BGE is to think, teach, educate and act to create a society
that embraces the values of ecology, pacifism, solidarity and democracy.

Establishments with BGE status are recognized for their daily initiatives promoting sustainable
development. Each year, they must renew their status as a green establishment, which is
conditional upon specific guidelines.

Precautionary principle:

This principle plays a significant role in determining whether development process is sustainable
or not. This principle underlies sustainable development which requires that the development
activity must be stopped and prevented if it causes serious and irreversible environmental
damage. The emergence of this principle marks a shift in the international environmental
jurisprudence- a shift from assimilative capacity principle to precautionary principle.

Principle 6 of the Stockholm declaration contains assimilative capacity principle which assumes
that science could provide the policy makers with necessary information and means to avoid
encroaching upon the capacity of the environment to assimilate the impacts and it presumes that
relevant technical expertise would be available when environmental harm is predicted and there
would be sufficient time to act in order to avoid such harm. This principle is based on the
assumption the scientific theories are certain and adequate.24

The uncertainty of scientific proof lead to a shift from assimilative capacity principle to
precautionary principle. Principle 11 of the world charter for nature contained the precautionary

23http://www.iisd.org/sd/#one

24 http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm

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principle that proclaims that any activity which is likely to cause damage to the environment
shall be avoided. This document was a soft law though.

This principle was conceptualized under principle 15 of the Rio declaration which provides: in
order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by the
states according to their capabilities.25 Where there are threats from serious and irreversible
environmental damages, lack of scientific certainty shall not be used as reason for postponing
cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

Polluter pays principle:

This was developed by the OECD nations. This was a soft law and the members were not bound
by it. The principle basically means that the producer of goods or other items should be
responsible for the costs of preventing or dealing with pollution which the process causes this
includes environmental cause as well as the damages.

The Brundtland report,1987 insisted on internalization of the environmental cost of economic

activities. This effectuated the spirit of the polluter pays principle.26

Principle 16 Rio Declaration proclaims that the natonal authorities should endeavor to promote
the internationalization of the environmental costs and the use of economic instruments, taking
into account the approach that the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of pollution, with
due regard to the public interest and without distorting international trade and investment.

Public Trust Doctrine:

The natural resources are the res communis or res nullius. But for the sake of convenience the
government shall be considered as the owner of such property. The state shall hold the property
as trustee and the public shall be the beneficiaries. The ownership of the state shall be limited

25 http://www.precautionaryprinciple.eu/

26 www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all

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and it shall not use the property for its own purpose or any other purpose which shall be against
the interest of the public and shall hamper the enjoyment of the property by the public.27

27 http://www.shrdc-isb.org.pk/Report/SDG-WorkshopReport1.pdf

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 Chapter 4: Multiple Dimensions of Sustainable Development

To establish an adequate conceptual framework within which to explore the idea of sustainable
development we need therefore to identify the multiple dimensions of the concept. There are
three dimensions which require our urgent attention: the economic, the political, and the
epistemological dimensions.

The economic dimension

As we saw in the discussion of environmental accounting, much of the economic argument has
been conducted at the level of present and future anticipated demand, assessing the costs in
foregone economic growth of closer attention to environmental factors. It was John Stuart Mill,
in his Principles of Political Economy (1873), who emphasised the idea that we need to preserve
Nature from unfettered growth, if we are to preserve human welfare before diminishing returns
begin to set in. With hindsight we can appreciate the full significance of Mill's observations. This
tradition, which we would identify today as part of the alternative, sustainable tradition of
thought, was largely opposed to the views of most orthodox economists, who either followed
Malthus or, later, Ricardo. The Malthusian tradition emphasised the importance of the ratio of
population to natural resources, and has given rise to a 'population ethic', espoused by Neo-
Malthusians like Garret Hardin (1968).28 In contrast, the Ricardian tradition, which has been at
the centre of economics this century, took a much more 'optimistic' view of the relationship
between economic growth, population and resources. The optimistic Ricardian view was that,
following the promethean spirit, human ingenuity and the advances of science were capable of
'putting back' the day of judgment, when population would begin to overtake resources. This
optimism was shaken, but not essentially destroyed, by the publication of Limits to Growth in
the early 1970's.

The political dimension

The political dimension of sustainability comprises two separate, but related, elements: the
weight to be attached to human agency and social structure, respectively, in determining the

28http://portal.unesco.org/education

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political processes through which the environment is managed; and the relationship between
knowledge and power in popular resistance to dominant world views of the environment and
resources. In both cases it is useful to draw on a body of emerging social theory, which has
evolved and gained currency while environmentalism has risen to prominence. The problem of
human agency in relation to the environment is well recognised in the literature, especially by
geographers. It is also a central concern of sociologists, although rarely linked to environmental
concerns per se. The British sociologist Anthony Giddens has devoted considerable attention to
what he describes as a theory of 'structuration', which would enable us to recognise the role of
human beings within a broad structural context, in seeking to advance their own, or group,
interests. He notes that "...human agents.. have as an inherent aspect of what they do, the
capacity to understand what they do while they do it.". 29 It is their knowledgeability as agents
which is important. Although Giddens does not apply his ideas specifically to environmental
questions, they have clear utility for any consideration of the political and social dimensions of
sustainability. An examination of the way power is contested helps us to explain human agency
in the management of the environment, as well as the material basis of environmental conflicts.
In this sense it is useful to distinguish between the way human agents dominate nature - what we
can term "allocative resources"30and the domination of some human agents by others -
"authoritative resources" in Giddens' phrase. Environmental management, and conflicts over the
environment, are about both processes: the way groups of people dominate each other, as well as
the way they seek to dominate Nature. Not surprisingly, the development, or continuation, of
more sustainable livelihood strategies carries important implications for the way power is
understood between groups of people, as well as for the environment itself. The Green agenda is
not simply about the environment outside human control; it is about the implications for social
relations of bringing the environment within human control. The second question of importance
in considering the political dimension of sustainability, is the relationship between knowledge
and power, a dimension often overlooked by observers from developed countries when they turn
their attention to poorer societies. As we shall see in a moment, the consideration of
epistemology in sustainable development carries important implications for our analysis, since it

29 http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2006/sd_timeline_2006.pdf

30 Giddens, A. The Constitution of Society, Oxford: Polity Press (1984).

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strikes at the cultural roots of quite different traditions of knowledge. It is also important to
emphasise, however, that knowledge and power are linked, as Foucault observed in much of his
work.31 We can, following Foucault, distinguish three fields of resistance to the universalising
effects of modern society, and these fields of resistance are particularly useful in delineating
popular responses, by the rural poor in particular, to outside interventions designed to manage
the environment in different ways. The first type of resistance is based on opposition to, or
marginalisation from, production relations in rural societies. This is resistance against
exploitation, in Foucault's terms, and includes attempts by peasants, pastoralists and others to
resist new forms of economic domination, which they are unable to control or negotiate with.
The second form of resistance is based on ethnic and gender categories, and seeks to remove the
individual from domination by more powerful groups, whose ethnic and gender identity has
conferred on them a superior political position. In many cases the only strategy open to groups of
people whose environmental practices are threatened by outsiders, and whose own knowledge,
power and identity is closely linked with these practices, is to seek to distance themselves from
'outsiders' by, for example, reinforcing ethnic boundaries between themselves and others. Finally,
poor rural people frequently resist subjection to a world view which they cannot endorse, in
much the same way as people in developed countries often confront 'totalising' theories, such as
psychoanalysis or Marxism. In developing countries the development professionals frequently
have recourse to a body of techniques for intervening in the natural environment, which are
largely derived from developed countries' experience: 'environmental managerialism' is one way
of expressing these techniques. The refusal to be subordinated to a world view dominated by
essentially alien values and assumptions marks what Foucault terms "resistance against
subjection". In no way is it implied that resistance can be equated with political struggle,
whatever the basis of the resistance itself. Frequently people who are relatively powerless,
because their knowledge-systems are devalued, or because they do not wield economic power,
resist in ways which look like passivity: they keep their own counsel, they appear respectful
towards powerful outsiders, they simply fail to cooperate. Hi. The epistemological dimension
Sustainable development is usually discussed without reference to epistemological issues (ie.
those concerned with ways of acquiring knowledge and their integration into conceptual
systems). It is assumed that 'our' system of acquiring knowledge in the North, through the
31 B. Smart, Michel Foucault, London: Tavistock/Ellis Horwood (1985).

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application of scientific principles, is a universal epistemology. Anything less than scientific
knowledge hardly deserves our attention. Such a view, rooted as it is in ignorance of the way we
ourselves think, as well as other cultures' epistemology, is less than fruitful. 32 reminds us that
large-order cognitive maps are not confined to Western science, and that in Asia, for example,
systems of religious belief have often had fewer problems in confronting 'scientific' reasoning
than has the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The ubiquitousness of Western science, however, has led
to traditional knowledge becoming fragmented knowledge in the South today, increasingly
divorced from that of the dominant scientific paradigm. This observation echoes contemporary
Green thinking, too: in his conversation with Capra, Schumacher noted that "..because of the
smallness and patchiness of our knowledge, we have to go in small steps. We have to leave room
for non-knowledge.."33 The philosopher Feyerabend, in his influential book Farewell to Reason,
has distinguished between two different traditions of thought, which can usefully be compared
with 'scientific' and 'traditional' knowledge. The first tradition, which corresponds closely to
scientific epistemology, he calls the abstract tradition. This enables us "..to formulate statements
(which are) subjected to certain rules (of logic, testing and argument) and events affect the
statements only in accordance with the rules.. it is possible to make scientific statements without
having met a single one of the objects described.."34 He gives as examples of this kind of
tradition, elementary particle physics, behavioural psychology and molecular biology. In
contrast, the kinds of knowledge possessed by small-scale societies, in particular, Feyerabend
would label as historical traditions. In these epistemological traditions "..the objects already have
a language of their own" - the object of enquiry is to understand this language. In the course of
time much of the knowledge possessed by people outside mainstream science, especially in
developing countries, becomes encoded, in rituals, in religious observations and in the cultural
practices of everyday life. In societies which make an easy separation between 'culture' and

32 S. Goonatilake, Aborted Discovery: Science and Creativity in the Third World, London: Zed
Books (1984).

33 F. Capra, Uncommon Wisdom, London: Fontana. (1988).

34 P. Feyerabend, Farewell to Reason, New York: Bower (1987).

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'science' such practices can easily be ignored, although they are frequently the key to the way
environmental knowledge is used in small-scale rural societies.

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 Chapter 5: Sustainability The ideas viability Dream or Reality?

Governments and the UN system have also marginalized sustain able development by failing to
articulate serious objectives and coherent strategies for its implementation. Agenda 21 embraced
every goal offered up in anticipation of the Rio summit, but it set no specific priorities or targets,
making it impossible to mobilize support for any strategy or to measure progress. At the 2002
World Summit on Sustainable Development, the process reached its lowest point with a
sprawling and incoherent plan. Participants endorsed eight broad Millennium Development
Goals (MDGS)-including the eradication of extreme poverty, the provision of universal primary
education, and the assurance of equality for women - that had been crafted at the UN'S
Millennium Summit two years earlier. Since then, the UN Secretariat has parsed these broad
objectives into 18 specific targets and 48 indicators. But the MDGS are already losing traction
because governments have limited power to directly affect these outcomes. Most of the world is
closer to meeting the MDGS now than it was a decade ago, but that is largely because human
welfare has generally been improving. (The most striking exceptions are found in the many
African countries that score worse today on most measures of human welfare.) The MDGS,
targets, and indicators do not constitute a strategy that informs the actions of governments,
companies, and NGOS. Most of what the MDGS envision is beyond the power of any enterprise
to deliver. Consider, for instance, the efforts that would be needed to meet the MDG to "develop
a global partnership for development." The indicators designed to measure compliance with this
goal include some activities that governments do control, such as the amount of untied official
development assistance (ODA) they offer, which, in the right settings, can help alleviate poverty.
But they also include special targets for ODA to small island nations and landlocked states that
serve no strategic purpose-reflecting these nations' special ability to manipulate UN
commitments to their narrow advantage. And regarding the indicators on which progress has
been most remarkable-access to phone services, computers, and the Internet-advances have been
the fortuitous by-product of technological development and have often reflected the accidental
wisdom of governments' decisions to let the market work on its own. The trouble with
sustainable development and the MDGS is that they reflect a diplomatic process that has devoted
too much effort to lengthening the international community's wish list and not enough to

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articulating and ranking the types of practical measures that are the hallmark of serious
policymaking. Governments might have wondered whether any given dollar in aid would be best
invested in water treatment, poverty alleviation, or structural adjustment, or if it would be better
to treat the causes of underdevelopment, such as corruption, or its symptoms, such as inadequate
health care. Yet these crucial questions are unanswered.

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 CONCLUSION

Sustainable development is largely about people, their well-being, and equity in their
relationships with each other, in a context where nature-society imbalances can threaten
economic and social stability. Because climate change, its drivers, its impacts and its policy
responses will interact with economic production and services, human settlements and human
societies, climate change is likely to be a significant factor in the sustainable development of
many areas (e.g., Downing, 2002). Simply stated, climate change has the potential to affect many
aspects of human development, positively or negatively, depending on the geographic location,
the economic sector, and the level of economic and social development already attained (e.g.,
regarding particular vulnerabilities of the poor, see Dow and Wilbanks, 2003). Because
settlements and industry are often focal points for both mitigation and adaptation policy-making
and action, these interactions are likely to be at the heart of many kinds of development-oriented
responses to concerns about climate change.

Recommendations:

1. Developing nations must ally together so as to negotiate equally with the allied imperial
centers.

2. There must be equal pay for equally-productive work to provide roughly equal buying
power relative to the talents and energy expended to all who are employed.

3. Sharing those productive jobs would melt the invisible economic borders which currently
guide the wealth into the hands of only the adequately paid. Each employable person now
need work only two to three days per week.

4. Elimination of the subtle monopolizations of land, technology, finance capital, and

information (Part IV), utilizing Henry Georges principles of conditional title to natures
wealth, will restructure monopoly capitalism to democratic-cooperative-(superefficient)-

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 capitalism and increase economic and social efficiency equal to the invention of money,
the printing press, and electricity.

5. Addressing population issues and sustainable development will alert the citizenry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Articles

1. David V.J. Bell & Yuk-kuen Annie Chueng, Introduction to Sustainable Development,
JCAPS available at: http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c13/e1-45.pdf.
2. H. Daly, Steady-state Economics (San Francisco, Freeman & Co.); 2nd ed. (1977).
3. Theodre Panyote, Economic Growth and the environment, 2 ECONOMIC SURVEY OF
EUROPE (2003). http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/ead/pub/032/032_c2.pdf.
4. Tim Everett et. al., Economic Growth and the Environment, 2 DEFRA (2010) available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69195/pb1339
0-economic-growth-100305.pdf.

Websites:

1. United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, History of Sustainable

Development available at: http://www.uncsd2012.org/history.html.
2. http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/jhtext_ch02.pdf.
3. www.worldbank.org

Books:

1. Capra, F. Uncommon Wisdom, London: Fontana. (1988).

2. Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law And The Economic Process (Cambridge, Harvard
University Press) (1971).
3. P. Feyerabend, Farewell to Reason, New York: Bower (1987).
4. S. Goonatilake, Aborted Discovery: Science and Creativity in the Third World, London: Zed
Books (1984).

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5. Tatyana D. Soubbotina, Beyond Economic Growth An Introduction To Sustainable
Development, 2nd Ed. (2004).

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