Environment and sustainable Development: Developing Frameworks and Measurement

Criteria

Dr. Ritu SinghEmail: ritusingh@eesl.co.in

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL)

3 August 2015International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development (iCED)

Jaipur

Structure of lecture

Part I: Concepts related to Environment and Sustainable development

Part II: Case study

PART I: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPTS AND EVOLUTION

QUESTION

Why sustainable development?

Environmental Challenges

• Global warming or green house gas effect

• Deforestation

• Increase in air pollutants

• Depletion of earth’s ozone layer

• Depletion of non-renewable resources

Global Warming or Green House Gas Effect

• Caused by excessive emission of carbon dioxide from industry, transportation, heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings, energy production, deforestation and agriculture

• lead to thermal expansion of earth’s surface water, melting of glaciers and ice caps which cause destruction of beaches, coastal cities, catastrophic storms etc.

Deforestation

• Reduces earth’s carbon absorbing capacity, soil erosion, land desertification

• Intensive irrigation lead to water logging, salinization, ground water depletion

• Implication on food production – erosion of 24 billion top soil reduces the grain harvest by 6%

Air Pollutants

• High concentration of Sulphur dioxide – lung diseases

• Excessive lead in the air in Industrialized cities –damages circulatory, respiratory, and nervous system

• Nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide – viral infection, influenza, lung irritation, bronchitis, pneumonia

• Disposal of chemical wastes in water - pollutes water

Depletion of Earth’s Ozone Layer

• Caused by emission of chlorine and bromine

• Chlorine comes from chlorofluorocarbons (CFC11) used in production of refrigerants, air conditioners, foam, solvents

• Bromine comes from chlorofluorocarbons (CFC12) used in production of fire extinguisher

Depletion of natural resources

• Forests

- Direct use (timber, fuelwood, non-timber forest products such as bamboo, sandal wood, honey, gum, tendu leaves etc, and eco-tourism)

- Indirect use (the value of flood and drought control, watershed maintenance, carbon storage, etc)

- Optional values (willingness to pay either for conservation of forest for future use or for its own sake)

• Agricultural Cropland and Pasture land

• Sub-Soil Assets (coal, iron ore, petroleum, and natural gas)

• Freshwater (surface water and ground water)

Cities under Threat

• Tokyo, Japan – earthquake

• Mumbai, India – monsoons and flooding

• Mexico city, Mexico – pollution

• Sao Paulo, Brazil – crime and vice

• Seoul, Korea – overcrowding

• Lagos, Nigeria – inadequate sanitation and waste

QUESTION

What do you understand by sustainable development?

Sustainable Development

• Sustainable – resources intact

• Development – rise of income

Sustainable Development: Global Genesis

DEFINITION

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

– the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and

– the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.

(Chapter 2, Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

Sustainable Development

A timeline

National Action Plan For Climate Change

1. National Solar Mission

2. National Mission for Enhanced

Energy Efficiency

3. National Mission for a Green India

4. National Water Mission

5. National Mission for Sustaining

the Himalayan Ecosystem

6. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat

7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture

8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge

for Climate Change

Seek to slow down the growth of India’s emission

Seek to adapt to the effects of climate change

Service Mission and seek to create

knowledge on useful climate change

Components of Sustainable Development: Dominant View

• Three pillars of sustainable development– Economic

– Social

– Environmental

• Achievements– policy mainstreaming and

consensus building

– Responsible corporate conduct

– Formal and informal institutions working together

• Criticisms– Compartmentalized – Leading

to Isolated actions?

– An oxymoron?

– Fuzziness?

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Sustainable development

Inspired by Our Common Future, 1987;World Summit, 2005

Figure Three pillars of sustainable development

Governance

Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development Indicators

Sustainable Development Indicators

Source: Prepared by the Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD Task Force on Measuring Sustainable development, May 2013

Ranks of the G-7 countries by the selected indices

Source: Composite Indicators of Environmental Sustainability, OECD

Inclusive growth

Lets us reflect on the social, economic and environmental conditions

Speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction-- Mahatma Gandhi

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Pearls of wisdom

THANK-YOU