Lecture 2: Theory – Sustainable development; problems and hopes Flashcards
The first debate is about that economic growth and the protection and preservation of our environmental needs are antagonistic. Elaborate on this
Economic growth and environmental protection/preservation don’t match. Better environment means less growth basically. Growth means more resource use/depletion, consumption and pollution. This affects nature negatively. In this way, the environment is always negatively affected by growth. We cannot ‘sustain’ our ‘current’ way of life.
If we will not interact in a health way with our planet, we face major problems
–> a radical different society is needed
Explain the second debate about economic growth and technological innovation that will help humans to outsmart ecological crises.
This is really about the assumption that we ‘will figure something out’ as long as we keep innovating. However, countries that can keep innovating make more changes. Maybe because they have more resources and such.
Chris also talked about added issues. Tell me what these issues contained.
A strong awareness rose that social inequalities and severe poverty undermine environmental protection.
In between the debates, the notion of sustainable development gained traction. In origin, this is labelled as a compromise. How so?
On the one hand we need to protect and anticipate problems (sustainable) and on the other hand we want to have economic growth: people oout of poverty in more welfare situations (growth). We need a level of growth to be able to innovate. It needs to be a balance
Relate the compromise of sustainable development to decoupling. What is it?
Decoupling is about decoupling growth and environmental pollution. It’s about on-going economic growth with less environmental damage or impact
What are reactive policies about, what is their goal?
It focused on protecting and cleaning up.
- They were designed for setting restrictions on development-oriented aspects, not the developments themselves;
- Inspired by the central command and control policies for
control and certainty
- Dominated by environmental standards, extensive permit
systems and clean-up operations.
Explain how the ‘reactive policy’ thing ties into the quote of Simonis about damage control and the general notion about this.
- They are made to try and manage the side effects a little bit better. Different types of development / economies.
- Reactive forms of Environmental Policies are increasingly unable to respond to negative impacts of economic development
- Tendency is not ‘let’s go for 40 dB’ bc that’s good for the environment. It’s just ‘oh it’s 54 so that’s good’.
- Permit only regulates that you are within the boundaries
We’re not polluting too much so it’s fine.
efforts are made for environmental protection when damage to the environment has already occured. They are repairs to the process of economic growth. The policies react to damages but does not prevent them.
Why is there an incomplete environmental revolution? Use two aspects to explain how this work: coordinated action. Governance and sustainability forces.
- “demand for coordinated action and solution strategies from
across sectoral divisions” -> the social, economic, and
environmental dimensions of socio-environmental all need to be
simultaneously adressed
2/ “governance for sustainability forces confrontation with the
reality that governance needs to be as much about change as it is
about stability” -> transformative action
Explain the coordinative model of governance rq
It’s about relying on capacity of the state to coordinate policies and interventions in society. Top-down, technical rationale approach.
What are the limits of the coordinated model?
- Functional specialization can cause fragmented and incoherent policies. This is improved if you face interrelated issues
- Complex issues are hard to fully oversee.
- The state has lost power and legitimacy; they depend on others to govern as well
- There are multiple contested ideas on what is ‘good’, ‘rational’ and ‘true’.
What is Environmental Policy Integration (EPI)?
It’s integration of environmental objectives into other governance activities and sectors.
What are goals of EPI?
Achieving sustainable development and preventing environmental damage
Removing contradictions between policies as well as within policies
Realise mutual benefits between sectors and the goal of making policies mutually supportive.
What are differences between Vertical Policy Integration and Horizontal Policy integration?
VEPI =
- the extent to which a policy sector has taken environmental objectives on board
- no overarching strategy
HEPI =
- the extent to which a government has developed an overarching strategy
- Requires cross-sectoral actions, but is still coordinated by the strategy.
What are doubts with EPI?
- It is not clear what criterion is used to judge ‘integration’: when is a policy balanced or coherent?
- What about non-governmental actors, we still rely on government/state control
- What about the priority given to the environment?
What is the difference between internalization and integration?
internalization = ‘be aware of consequences’
Integration = ‘integrate ambitions’
