Transcript The Question of Sustainable Development

SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
THE GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT –
LECTURE 16 BA1 AND BED 1
THE ENVIRONMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT
Learning outcomes:
 To get an
appreciation of the
key issues relating to
the environment and
development.
 To gain an
understanding of the
concept of
‘sustainable
development’.
 To be able to
critically review the
role of global
agencies in the
market-environment
relationship.
 To understand
solutions and
futures.
QUESTION?
WHAT DO YOU PERCEIVE TO BE THE
MAIN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?
YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL
FOOTPRINT
Find out your impact on the planet with WWF's Footprint
Calculator. Visit http://www.wwf.org.uk/calculator
THE DEBATE -THE
BRUNDTLAND REPORT
The environment - long abused
and disregarded - first entered the
lexicon of development in 1987
when an independent commission,
the World Commission on
Environment and Development
(led by Gro Harlem Brundtland)
presented its landmark report, Our
Common Future, to the United
Nations General Assembly.
The ‘Brundtland Report’ as it is
now known, offered the first
definition of sustainable
development to the world by
suggesting that: ‘Sustainable
Development is development that
meets the needs of present
generations without compromising
the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.’
THE QUESTION OF ‘SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT’
 On November 18, 1992, some of the World's
senior scientists from 70 countries, including
102 of the living scientists who are Nobel
Laureates, signed and sent an urgent
warning to government leaders of all
nations as part of the United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development (the "Earth Summit") held in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. According to this
warning:
 "A new ethic is required - a new responsibility
for caring for ourselves and for the Earth. We
must recognise the Earth's limited capacity to
provide for us.... We must no longer allow it to
be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great
movement, convincing reluctant leaders and
reluctant governments and reluctant peoples
themselves to effect the needed changes."
AN URGENT PROBLEM
It will be useful to recall Agenda 21 of
the Rio 1992 Earth Summit. The first
part of Section 5.3 of the document
says:
"The growth of world population and
production combined with
unsustainable consumption patterns
places increasingly severe stress on the
`life supporting' capacities of our
planet. These interactive processes
affect the use of land, water, air, energy,
and other resources."
The Greenhouse Effect:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/s
ci_nat/04/climate_change/html/greenho
use.stm
THE MARKET VERSUS ECOLOGY
International Monetary Fund,
World Bank and World Trade
Organisation all insist on exportled economic growth which
necessitates a greater investment
of natural resources in commodity
production in the agricultural
sector.
Sustainable lifestyles based on the
production of food crops have
been abandoned to facilitate the
cultivation of cash crops for
export. This method makes greater
and greater demands on the local
environment and involves the
intensive use of pesticides rather
than natural and traditional
farming methods.
Aggressive economic growth does
not necessarily lead to sustainable
development.
TNCS AND ‘GREENWASHING’
 Private corporations
often use the
terminology of
sustainable development
to ‘greenwash’ their
activities and pass
themselves off as
responsible corporations
and ‘good citizens’ in
relation to the
environment.
 The practice has been
particularly notable in
the oil industry, which is
renowned for its
pollution of the natural
environment in the
countries where it
operates.
THE WEST’S CONSUMPTION
Isagani Serrano, vicepresident of the Philippine
Rural Reconstruction
Movement, pointed out
that: ‘The US, with only 4
per cent of the world’s
population but consuming
44 percent of the world’s
energy resources, has got a
lot to cut down, give up,
and share with the rest of
the world.’
http://www.2a.com.tr/other/graph2.gif
THE EXAMPLE OF EMISSIONS
 Following years of
negotiation for poisonous
emissions control, the US
negated decades of
progress by state and nongovernmental
organisations alike by
deciding not to sign up to
the Kyoto protocol which
aimed to reduce emissions.
 This decision was taken by
the US’s Bush
administration, which
depended upon strong
financial ties with the oil
industry.
THE CONSEQUENCES
Trade and economic issues
tend to dominate
government agendas with
environmental policies
developing in the
unsympathetic context of a
neo-liberal ethos.
However, mounting concern
about erratic weather
patterns, global warming,
air pollution and ‘dirty’
industries should be
reflected in urgent
international action to
recognise the causes of these
effects.
Petroleum Imports
BBC EDUCATION
SLIDES ON CLIMATE
CHANGE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_chan
ge/html/climate.stm
CLIMATE CHANGE
AND THE IMPACT
THE KYOTO
PROTOCOL
It took one year for the
member countries of the
‘Framework Convention
on Climate Change’ to
decide that the
Convention had to be
augmented by an
agreement with stricter
demands for reducing
greenhouse-gas
emissions. The text of
the Kyoto Protocol was
adopted unanimously in
1997. It entered into
force on 16 February
2005.
WHAT KYOTO MEANS
The Protocol's major feature is that it has mandatory
targets on greenhouse-gas emissions for the world's
leading economies which have accepted it. These
targets range from -8 per cent to +10 per cent of the
countries' individual 1990 emissions levels "with a
view to reducing their overall emissions of such
gases by at least 5 per cent below existing 1990
levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012."
http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.
php
THE UNITED NATIONS
2007 GROUND
BREAKING REPORT
‘Working Group II Contribution to
the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) - Climate
Change 2007: Climate Change
Impacts, Adaptation and
Vulnerability’
Outlining the report's findings,
Martin Parry, co-chairman of IPCC
Working Group II, said evidence
showed climate change was having
a direct effect on animals, plants
and water. "For the first time, we
are no longer arm-waving with
models; this is empirical data, we
can actually measure it”.
THE IPCC FINDINGS
Key findings of the report include:
• 75-250 million people across Africa could face water shortages by 2020
• Crop yields could increase by 20% in East and Southeast Asia, but
decrease by up to 30% in Central and South Asia
• Agriculture fed by rainfall could drop by 50% in some African countries
by 2020
• 20-30% of all plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction if
temperatures rise between 1.5-2.5C
• Glaciers and snow cover expected to decline, reducing water availability
in countries supplied by melt water.
The report states that the observed increase in the global average
temperature was "very likely" due to man-made greenhouse gas
emissions.
The scientific work reviewed by IPCC scientists includes more than
29,000 pieces of data on observed changes in physical and biological
aspects of the natural world.
Eighty-nine per cent of these, it believes, are consistent with a
warming world.
SOLUTIONS
The United Nations
Environment Programme
http://www.unep.org/Them
es/climatechange/
UN Factsheet on Climate
Change
http://www.unep.org/Them
es/climatechange/PDF/fac
tsheets_English.pdf
COPENHAGEN 7-18TH DECEMBER
2009– ‘THE LAST CHANCE’
 "A clean and healthy
future depends on all of
us. The EU and US, as the
world's leading industrial
economies, have a duty of
leadership to reduce
our collective carbon
emissions and kick start a
new, more sustainable
economic policy agenda
for the future of our planet
and our children's
children."
http://en.cop15.dk/
www.alde.eu
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/m
ay/01/q-and-a-copenhagen-summit
CLIMATE CHANGE
Video Shots on the effects of
Climate Change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/te
ch/8389547.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/te
ch/8390366.stm
WEBSITES
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Earth Summit http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html
Statistics for environment and development www.ids.ac.uk
www.sustainable-development.gov.uk
International Institute for Environment and Development
www.iied.org
International Institute for Sustainable Development www.iisd.ca
Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org
Global Environment Facility http://www.gefweb.org/
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/portal/climate_change/defaul
t.stm
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/sights_n_sound
s/index.html
Copenhagen 2009 - http://en.cop15.dk/
http://www.erantis.com/events/denmark/copenhagen/climateconference-2009/index.htm