1. Sustainable Development Flashcards
What are the SDGS? Define them
SDGs are 17 qualitative Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN. They aim at ensuring prosperity and sustainability. The UN set these out through a consultation process, and they elaborated the goals through different targets. The SDGs are the successors of the MDGs.
How do the SDGs differ from past global governance efforts? (Name two)
- All countries are seen as developing countries
- Specifically global, not just on developing countries such as the MDGs
- They are not legally binding in treaties, while MDGs were
What are the main governance characteristics of the SDGs?
- Not legally binding, have no ‘teeth’ cannot ‘bite’
- National/country specific interpretations and indicators are needed
- Global inclusive goal setting
What are three pros of the SDGs?
- Awareness raising
- Reflect concrete problems back to us
- Inclusive: SDGs make no difference about development level
- Bottom-up approach
What are three cons of the SDGs?
- Legally non-binding
- Vague
- Weak institutional arrangements
- Ignores power relations
- Impossibility to maximise all the goals
- Stakeholder oriented and leeway for national choice and preferences
- Quantitative: hard to monitor progress
- No mention of climate justice or environmental justice
What is needed for the SDGs in order to succeed? Name three things.
- An increasing formalization of commitments
- All countries need to stick to the SDGs
- Agreement on the meaning of “sustainable development”
- Need a way to measure genuine progress through indicators
When was the term “development” first coined in an international context and by whom?
- The first use of the word “development” in an international context was by US president Truman during inaugural speech.
- In his rhetoric about ramping up industrial production in order to kick off globalization, critically viewed, he equated “development” with “capitalism”.
- Thus, in the US, development had an economic incentive.
What are the two historical development eras after WW2 in the west?
- 1944 - 1978: Keynesianism: Capitalism but with a strong role for government and state. This was the paradigm in the west and ended with the Cold War.
- 1978 - now: Neoliberalism: Was kicked off by Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK. It let private actors free and reduced taxing to let the economic activity run its course.
Name three characteristics of MSD
- It does not challenge the dominant capitalist industrialized model.
- It does not get to the root of climate change, which are CO2 emissions.
- The focus is on the market to achieve sustainability.
- MSD rejects the idea that there are environmental limits to growth.
- It puts on emphasis on technology and innovation, which needs to save us.
- There is an assumption that poverty can avoid environmental destruction.
- Presents the market as a solution rather than the problem
Name five countertendencies of MSD
- Ecosocialism
- Ecoanarchism
- Deep ecology
- Eco-feminism
- Political ecology
- Decoloniality
- Degrowth
Name three characteristics of ecosocialism
- It is based on Marxist thought
- Ecosocialism holds the strong notion that in capitalism, those in control profit at the expense of others.
- Ecosocialism sees environmental racism as a by-product of capitalism
- In his work, Marx does mention the instrumental values of nature. There is more Marx in environmental though than might at first appear. Marx suggests that in various ways, the capitalist system is unsustainable.
What does eco-feminism seek to highlight?
- Eco-feminism highlights the double subjugation of women and nature by the patriarchy.
- The coercive relations between humans and non-human nature are the result of a gendered process of exploitation.
- The structured oppression of women by men is reflected in imperialism and capitalism.
When was the term Sustainable Development first coined?
The term SD was first coined in 1980 by the IUCN and then in 1987 in the Brundtland Report. (Adams, 2009)
What was the reason that Imperial Britian in the 1900s embraced ecological science?
The idea was that science could be used to serve the imperial commerce. Science had strong links with agriculture, fisheries, disease, population, anthropology, and so on. (Adams, 2009)
What is the main point made by Adams (2009) in chapter 2: sustainable development?
Adams argues that environmental thinking as been happening in the west for a long time, and from the 1900s, people, organizations and governments became increasingly aware of the environmental limits of the world. In order to control these limits, sustainable development became a policy agenda. (Adams, 2009)
What is the main point made by Adams (2009) in chapter 5: mainstream sustainable development?
Adams is critical of mainstream sustainable development because it does not challenge the dominant capitalist industrialization model. Adam splits MSD up into three strands: market environmentalism, ecological modernization, and environmental populism.
What is market environmentalism? (Name three characteristics and provide a source)
- One of the three MSD strands
- Blames environmental damage on the misallocation of resources
- Resists the notion that fundamental change is needed
(Adams, 2009)
What is ecological modernization? (Name three characteristics and provide a source)
- One of the three MSD strands
- Beliefs that the state and the market should work together to protect the environment
- High belief in innovation, competition and technological change
- Modernization is compatible with ecological sustainability
(Adams, 2009)
What is environmental populism? (Name three characteristics and provide a source)
- One of the three MSD strands
- Puts power with civil society
- Focus on meeting basic human needs
- Focus on poverty
- Bottom-up approach
- Neo-Malthusianism
(Adams, 2009)
What is Shiva’s position within eco-feminism?
Shiva argues that the destruction of the forest and the displacement of women were both structurally linked to the reductionist and capitalist paradigm of science. The core of Shiva’s analysis is an essentialist proposition: that men and women are essentially different, and that women are closer to nature than men.
What is Val Plumwood’s position within eco-feminism?
Val Plumwood critiques the notion of ‘special’ connection between women and non-human nature, and argues for an anti-dualistic ‘critical ecological feminism’ that challenges, among others, the dual categories of human/nature and man/woman.
What is the main point made in the paper by Biermann, et all (2017)?
Biermann et la. are critical of whether the SDGs can guide us in the right direction, especially considering the absence of clear vision and an idea of what long-term sustainable development in the Anthropocene means.
What is the main point made by Adams (2009) in chapter 7: countercurrents in sustainable development?
Adams examines critiques of developmentalism. His main argument is that we should shake off the belief that development involves a progression towards better conditions, and that we can learn from countercurrent movements, in particular from political ecology.
According to Adams (2009), why should radical green ideas be taken seriously?
- They are still alive today
- These organisations have pushed radical approaches at the meetings that resulted in MSD
