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This article provides information about the concept of sustainable development as defined in our common future:
The definition of the concept of Sustainable Development put forward in the report titled Our Common Future is: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It contains within it two key concepts:
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i. The concept of “needs”, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
ii. The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organisation on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs”.
In order to understand the meaning of the definition, it is essential to understand the core issues addressed in the above definition. First is the issue of economic growth. The economic growth is not only considered essential for poverty reduction but also for meeting human needs and aspirations for better life.
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Second is the issue of limitations of the environment’s ability to meet the needs of the present and future generations. Due to the pressures generated by growing societal needs, societies are using modern technologies for extracting and utilising natural resources, which are limited. If we continue to exploit existing limited natural resources, future generations will not be able to meet their own needs.
Thus, environment’s ability to meet present and future generations’ needs has certain limits. This realisation is clearly reflected in the definition. Thus, the concept of “sustainable development” is based on an integrated view of development and environment; it recommends pursuance of development strategies in order to maximise economic growth from a given ecological milieu on the one hand, and to minimise the risks and hazards to the environment on the other; for being able to meet the needs and aspirations of the present generation without compromising the ability to meet those of the future generations. K.R. Nayar looks at the concept of “sustainable development” as a political instrument and is critical of many aspects of the Commission’s definition.
He argues that, “the concept of sustainable development has emerged from those countries which themselves practice unsustainable resource use”, and further adds that “the politics of ‘sustainable development’ is that at present it is anti-south, anti-poor, and thereby anti- ecological”.
Nayar also comments that, “the need” with reference to sustainable development is affluence rather than basic, or opulence rather than squalor. Because, when basic needs become an integral component of a developmental model, the question of unsustainability does not arise”. He further adds, “The cyclical relationship between poverty and environmental degradation is conceptualised in simplistic terms”.
The assumption is that, as poverty increases, natural environments are degraded and when environments degrade, the prospects for further livelihood decrease, environmental degradation generates more poverty, thus accelerating the cycle. While the basic factors which generate poverty are kept outside this framework, it also does not consider the role of lopsided development which degrades the ‘natural’ capital, and the issue of artificially inflated impact of the poor on an already lower quality of ‘natural capital’ set in motion by factors other than poverty”.
While uncovering the implicit political motive behind the Western concern for curtailment of population growth in the developing countries for sustainable development, Nayar expresses the view that, “sustainable development is visualised as a solution to make available raw materials on a continuous basis so that the production system, the expanding market and the political system are not threatened. The raw materials in the developing countries, therefore, need to be protected and their population growth curtailed so that resources would remain easily available.”
Again, in his opinion, “The Not-in-My-Back-Yard or Nimby syndrome is mainly responsible for ecologically unsustainable development projects including hazardous industries shifting out of these countries to developing countries. When the aim is to suggest patchwork solutions to the unsustainable production system of the north, population growth in the south automatically becomes the target of the debate on sustainable development”.
In short, the above definition of “sustainable development” implies that: (i) we should direct our efforts towards redressing the damage already done to the environment by earlier unsustainable patterns of economic growth and, (ii) we should follow such a pattern of development which avoids further damage to the planet’s ecosystem and ensures meeting of the needs of present as well as future human generations.
The report, Our Common Future also recommends that in order to move on the path of sustainable development, all nations are required to bring about certain policy changes.
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It has been noted that the “critical objectives for environment and development policies that follow from the concept of sustainable development include:
(i) reviving growth;
(ii) changing the quality of growth;
(iii) meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation;
(iv) ensuring a sustainable level of population;
(v) conserving and enhancing the resource base;
(vi) reorienting technology and managing the risk; and
(vii) merging environment and economics in decision-making”.
Regarding suitable strategy, the report, Our Common Future, notes in its broadest sense that the strategy for sustainable development aims to promote harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature. In the specific context of the development and environment ….the pursuit of sustainable development requires:
(i) a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision-making,
(ii) an economic system that is able to generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis,
(iii) a social system that provides for solutions to the tensions arising from disharmonious development,
(iv) a production system that respects the obligation to preserve the ecological base for development,
(v) a technological system that can search continuously for new solutions,
(vi) an international system that fosters sustainable patterns of trade and finance, and
(vii) an administrative system that is flexible and has the capacity for self-correction. These requirements are more in the nature of goals that should underlie national and international action on development.