SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The research paper submitted in complete fulfilment of the course Sociology of

Development for obtaining the degree B.A. L.L.B. (Hons.) during the academic
session 2020-2021.

Submitted by

Dakshita Dubey

Roll No. - 2117

Submitted To

Dr Shakil Ahmad

September, 2020

Chanakya National Law University,

Nyaya Nagar,

Mithapur,

Patna, 800001.
 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 Dr Shakil Ahmad. I take this opportunity to express
my deep sense of gratitude for his guidance and encouragement which sustained my efforts on all
stages of this project.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to my friends, who helped me immensely with
materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have completed it in the present
way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents and all those unseen hands that helped me
out at every stage of my project.

THANK YOU

NAME: Dakshita Dubey

ROLL NO: 2117

COURSE: B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)

SEMESTER: 2020-2021 (3rd)

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 5

Chapter 1: Economic Development and the Environment ............................................................. 8

Chapter 2: Sustainability and its Historical Development ............................................................ 12

Chapter 3: Principles of Sustainable Development ...................................................................... 19

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

Chapter 5: Sustainability – The idea’s viability – Dream or Reality? .......................................... 28

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 30

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 earth’s 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 planet’s 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;
sustainability does not mean things never change. On the contrary, it means always looking for

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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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 today’s social and
environmental problems, including air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, health,
overpopulation, poverty, energy consumption, waste production and transport issues.

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

2
Id.

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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

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

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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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
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

6
Id.
7
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/pb13390-economic-growth-
100305.pdf.
8
GEORGESCU-ROEGEN, THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS (CAMBRIDGE, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY PRESS) (1971).
9
H. Daly, Steady-state Economics (San Francisco, Freeman & Co.); 2nd ed. (1977).

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environment and even economic activity from itself, economic growth must cease and the world
must make a transition to a steady-state economy.

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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 humanity’s 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 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

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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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 world’s 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 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

12
Id.
13
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/jhtext_ch02.pdf.

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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 1970′s 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 earth’s capacity to sustain life. 14

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 planet’s 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

14
http://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/only-one-earth-stockholm-and-beginning-modern-environmental-
diplomacy
15
http://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/promote-sustainable-development/index.html

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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

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

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

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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 President’s 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.
Their charge : to seriously change the President’s 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

17
http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html

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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 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

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

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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 one’s magnifying glass) is one that can endure into the future,
providing a decent way of life for all its members—it 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 reason—and because the best mitigation
efforts also tend to be locally based—we 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 remember
that, although the list of principles is useful, each of them has the potential to overlap and inter-

20
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/environment-and-sustainable-development-1853-1.html
21
http://Envirocentre2005/downloads/ECOWEB1.pdf

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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 life—or
“livability”—differs 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 community’s 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 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

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

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

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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
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

24
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm
25
http://www.precautionaryprinciple.eu/

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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 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

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

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

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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 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

29
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2006/sd_timeline_2006.pdf
30
Giddens, A. The Constitution of Society, Oxford: Polity Press (1984).
31
B. Smart, Michel Foucault, London: Tavistock/Ellis Horwood (1985).

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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 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

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

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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
'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.

33
F. Capra, Uncommon Wisdom, London: Fontana. (1988).
34
P. Feyerabend, Farewell to Reason, New York: Bower (1987).

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 Chapter 5: Sustainability – The idea’s 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 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

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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 George’s principles of conditional title to nature’s
wealth, will restructure monopoly capitalism to democratic-cooperative-(superefficient)-
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.

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

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