Learning Objectives: After completing this lesson, students will a) learn about the dimensions of sustainable development b) learn through an example as to how the interdependent issues of development contribute toward achieving sustainable development

1. Sustainable
Development:
An Introduction
Preeti Kana
Sikder
Assistant Professor
Department of Law &

2. Dimensions of Sustainable Development
Economic
How the markets
function
Societal
How our Communities
work
Environ
mental
What is our resources
Political
How Our
Governments
Function

3. The Brundtland Commission
Communicating the message that environment and
development were interdependent required a process
which carried authority and credibility to the North and
South, to government and the business sector, to
international organizations and civil society.
In 1983, the World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCED), also known as the Brundtland
Commission, was formed to hold hearings across the
globe and produce a formal report of its findings.

4. The Brundtland Commission
The report was issued after three years of hearings with
government leaders and the public worldwide on
environment and development issues.
Public meetings were held in both developed and
developing regions, and the process empowered
different groups to articulate their views on issues such
as agriculture, forestry, water, energy, technology
transfer and sustainable development in general.

5. The Brundtland Commission: 1987
 The Commission highlighted environmental problems such as
global warming and ozone layer depletion that were new at the
time. It expressed concern that the rate of ‘change is outstripping
the ability of scientific disciplines and our current
capabilities to assess and advise’.
 The Commission concluded that existing decision-making
structures and institutional arrangements, both national and
international, simply could not cope with the demands of
sustainable development.

6. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chairman, World
Commission on Environment and Development
 She was Norwegian Minister for Environmental Affairs from
1974 to 1979
 She became Norway's first female Prime Minister in 1981,
and later for two further terms.
 The second ministry was from 1986 until 1989 and this cabinet
became known worldwide for its high proportion of female
ministers: where eight of the total eighteen ministers, were
female.
 During her third ministry, the Norwegian government in 1993
took the initiative to sponsor secret peace talks between the
Government of Israel and the Palesntinians led by Yasser
Arafat. Norway had a high-profile involvement in promoting
Israeli-Palestinian peace.

7. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chairman, World
Commission on Environment and Development
 Brundtland was elected Director-General of the World
Health Organization in 1998. In this capacity, Brundtland
adopted a far-reaching approach to public health,
establishing a Commission on Macroeconomics and
Health, chaired by Jeffrey Sachs, and
addressing violence as a major public health issue.
 Under her leadership, the World Health Organization was
one of the first major employers to make quitting smoking
a condition of employment.
 Brundtland was recognized in 2003 by Scientific
American as their 'Policy Leader of the Year' for
coordinating a rapid worldwide response to stem
outbreaks of SARS.

8. The Concept of Sustainable Development
Needs
Limitations

9. The Concept of Sustainable Development
Meeting essential needs depends in part on achieving
full growth potential, and sustainable development
clearly requires economic growth in places where such
needs are not being met.
High levels of productive activity and widespread
poverty can coexist, and can endanger the environment.
Hence sustainable development requires that societies
meet human needs both by increasing productive
potential and by ensuring equitable opportunities for all.

10. The Concept of Sustainable Development
 Economic growth and development obviously involve changes in
the physical ecosystem. Every ecosystem everywhere cannot be
preserved intact.
 In general, renewable resources like forests and fish stocks need
not be depleted provided the rate of use is within the limits of
regeneration and natural growth. But most renewable resources
are part of a complex and interlinked ecosystem, and maximum
sustainable yield must be defined after taking into account system-
wide effects of exploitation.
 Sustainable development requires that the rate of depletion of non
renewable resources should foreclose as few future options as
possible.

11. In essence, sustainable development is a process of change in
which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments,
the orientation of technological development; and institutional
change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future
potential to meet
human needs and aspirations.
THE DEFINITION

12. “
”
…we need to get into that complexity. Any idea there's one
answer, one simple, magic formula, one explanation, one force at
work; we have to put that aside. We have to embrace complexity,
because we are talking about a complicated, interconnected set of
relations of a world economy that now spans all parts of the
world. And connects all people, all businesses, technologies in
flows of trade, finance, ideas, advertising, production systems,
but also connects us with the physical Earth, in unprecedented
ways.
The Nature of Sustainable Development

13. The World’s
Water Crisis
An Illustration

14. Education, Institutional
Development and Law
Enforcement
How are individuals in the real world to be persuaded
or made to act in the common interest?

15.  Many problems of resource depletion and environmental stress
arise from disparities in economic and political power.
 An industry may get away with unacceptable levels or air and
water pollution because the people who bear the brunt of it are
poor and unable to complain effectively.
 A forest may be destroyed by excessive felling because the
people living there have no alternatives or because timber
contractors generally have more influence then forest dwellers.

16. Diminishing Common Interest
With the surge of technological progress, the
growing ‘enclosure’ of common lands, the erosion
of common rights in forests and other resources,
and the spread of commerce and production for
the market, the responsibilities for decision making
are being taken away from both groups and
individuals
However, Boundaries of individual ownership and
political jurisdiction is not respected by ecological
interactions

17. It is not that there is one set of villains and another of
victims. All would be better off if each person took into
account the effect of his or her acts upon others. But
each is unwilling to assume that others will behave in this
socially desirable fashion, and hence all continue to
pursue narrow self-interest.
Communities or governments can compensate for this
isolation through laws, education, taxes, subsidies, and
other methods.

18. Equity and Common
Interest
Crucial Matter that leads to the ultimate Solution

19. Equity and Common Interest
 Well-enforced laws and strict liability legislation can
control harmful side effects.
Most important, effective participation in
decision-making processes by local communities can
help them articulate and effectively enforce their
common interest.

20. Problems arising from inequalities:
Winners vs Losers
Losers in environment/development conflicts include those
who suffer more than their fair share of the health, property,
and ecosystem damage costs of pollution
Monopolistic control over resources can drive those who do
not share in them to excessive exploitation of marginal
resources.
The differing capacities of exploiters to commandeer ‘free’
goods – locally, nationally and internationally – is another
manifestation of unequal access to resources

21. Problems arising from inequalities:
Winners vs Losers
 As a system approaches ecological limits, inequalities sharpen.
 Thus when a watershed deteriorates, poor farmers suffer more because
they cannot afford the same anti-erosion measures as richer farmers.
 When urban air quality deteriorates, the poor, in their more vulnerable
areas, suffer more health damage than the rich, who usually live in more
pristine neighbourhoods.
 When mineral resources become depleted, late-comers to the
industrialization process lose the benefits of low-cost supplies.
 Globally, wealthier nations are better placed financially and technologically
to cope with the effects of possible climatic change.

22. Sustainable
Development
Transitions to be made