sustainable development

Question 1

technocratic transformation

Answer 1

finding the right combination of technologies to meet rising demands in greener ways (e.g. wind power or innovation to reduce ozone hole)

Question 2

marketised transformation

Answer 2

pricing, creating markets and property rights regimes that allow for ‘green accumulation’ (e.g carbon emissions trading)

Question 3

state-led transformation

Answer 3

re-embedding markets in stronger frameworks of state control (e.g tax breaks for renewable energy industries or Kyoto Protocol)

Question 4

citizen-led transformation

Answer 4

bottom-up led green transformations (e.g youth strikes or greenbelt)

Question 5

limits to growth

Answer 5

(1972) - a book that suggested we would soon reach the Earth’s carrying capacity, and launching the term sustainable development into the modern sustainability discourse

Question 6

Greenbelt movement

Answer 6

(1977) - indigenous, grass roots, non-governmental organisation in Kenya. Focus on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building

Question 7

carbon emissions trading

Answer 7

(2005) - countries that go over their quota on CO2 emissions can buy carbon credit from countries which do not meet their quotas, doesn’t really encourage reductions if they can just buy it

Question 8

kyoto protocol

Answer 8

(2005) setting greenhouse gas emissions targets for developed countries. principle of common but different responsibilities. 192 parties

Question 9

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Answer 9

• A universal set of 17 goals, targets and indicators to be reached by 2030 built on millennium development goals

Question 10

goal 1

Answer 10

no poverty

Question 11

goal 4

Answer 11

quality education

Question 12

goal 9

Answer 12

innovation, industrialisation and infrastructure

Question 13

goal 15

Answer 13

life on land

Question 14

goal 13

Answer 14

climate action

Question 15

critiques of SDGs

Answer 15

1. The notion of inclusive and sustained economic growth is a paradox and oxymoronic
2. economic growth requires industrialisation, competition for increasingly scarce resources and increasing social inequality
3. non human species excluded - anthropocentric bias
4. we are reaching ecological limits to economic growth
5. sdgs contradict one another
6. some are synergistic and others require trade-offs

Question 16

Redcliff (2005)

Answer 16

“Justice will also be subordinate to sustainability or sustainability will be subordinate to justice”

Question 17

Redclift (2017)

Answer 17

roots in forestry and fisheries

Question 18

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987)

Answer 18

“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Question 19

UN Definition of SD

Answer 19

• to make the world a better place for everyone, without destroying possibilities for the next generations
• social progress, economic development and climate + environment

Question 20

Lele (1991)

Answer 20

“the phrase sustainable development has become pervasive”

Question 21

International institute for development

Answer 21

• 1972 - Limits to growth
• 1992 - Earth summit
• 2005 - Kyoto Protocol
• 2012 - Rio 20+

Question 22

SDG’s for the capitalist order

Answer 22

• sustained economic growth
• adapting policies that increase productive capacities and productive employment
• tyranny of poverty
• global partnerships - failure to recognise different starting points
• structural transformation to promote productivity in LEDCs
• sovereignty over wealth, resources and economic activity
• economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature

Question 23

SDGs against capitalist order

Answer 23

• inclusive
• global solidarity?
• humanity lives in harmony with nature
• heal our planet
• economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature