Growth, Prosperity & Jobs for All within Planetary Boundaries

with a Focus on Youth and Women

Dr. Mark Roseland, Centre for Sustainable Community Development

School of Resource and Environmental ManagementSimon Fraser UniversityVancouver, Canada

www.sfu.ca/cscd; www.rem.sfu.ca roseland@sfu.ca

Communitas Coalition for Sustainable Cities & Regions in the New UN Development Agenda

Communitas Experts Workshop, UN, NYC5-6 December 2013

Two huge and potentially conflicting challenges

1) Growth, Prosperity and Jobs for All, including women and youth, vs.

2) Getting/staying within planetary boundaries

How to address each without worsening the other?

The territorial dimension

This dilemma is further complicated by increasing urbanization and the changing role of cities

But first…. what planetary boundaries must we be within?

The Ecological Footprint

Courtesy: Mathis Wackernagel, Global Footprint Network

human population (2013): 7.1 billion

average eco- footprint/person: 2.7 gha

biocapacity per person: 1.7 gha

overshoot (EF – biocapacity) 1.0 gha

58% overshoot

The Global Ecological Deficit(comparing supply and demand)

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global biocapacity: 12.0 billion hectares

current human eco-footprint: 19.0 billion hectares

The

Glo

bal P

ictu

re Economic and material growth today is being financed by the liquidation of essential, non-substitutable self-producing natural capital and at the expense of global life support systems. We are in violation of Hicksian sustainability criterion.

We do not share well.

* The wealthiest 20% of humanity take home 70-75% of income (consumption); the poorest 20% survive on about 2% of income (purchasing power parity). More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.* in cities: increasing phenomena of urban poverty and exclusion * poverty in cities increasingly linked to the informal economy, where women and youth are often locked in * Urban poverty is also increasingly segregated; inequalities are concentrated mainly in slums, especially in the developing world (est. 1/3 of population)

Business As Usual

Practitioner Experience

An explosion of “eco-city” frameworks, standards and indicators

Local authorities using sustainable community initiatives

Gaps re: funding, power, shared vision and framework, coordination, mandate

Thinking About Targets

In the Rio+20 outcome document ‘The Future We Want’, Member States agreed that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be:• Action-oriented• Concise• Easy to communicate• Limited in number• Aspirational• Global in nature• Universally applicable to all countries while taking into

account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities.

Review of Targets Proposed by Others

* UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network* UN Habitat* Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)• CIGI and Korea Development Institute,

proposed renaming this Goal as: “Inclusive Growth for Dignified Livelihoods and

Adequate Standards of Living”

Communitas Proposed Targets

Target 1: Bring global, national and city-region production and consumption within planetary boundaries Country-level targets should be established consistent with living within our ecological means. A 58% reduction in average ecological footprints implies a 65% reduction on average in Europe, and 80% in North America by 2030. The ecological footprints of many developing countries are currently well below their bio-capacity and would, therefore, be set at a higher level, allowing for growth in their use of bio-capacity.

Communitas Proposed Targets

Target 2: Redirect subsidies to fossil fuel and resource-based industries by 10% per annum towards the sustainable development of economic sectors relevant to each country and its territories in order to foster social and territorial cohesion From 2016-2030, set a target of a 10% per annum reduction of government subsidies to fossil fuel and resource-based industries and use the savings to fund training, investment and job creation. For instance, for unemployed fishers – save the fisheries and biodiversity while helping people find and create work in alternative, more environmentally benign sectors.

Communitas Proposed Targets

Target 3: Build the Urban Green Economy Reconcile the potentially conflicting global agendas of reducing poverty and averting climate catastrophe by building the green economy. Specific actions required include: • prioritizing government investment and spending in areas that stimulate the greening of economic sectors;• limiting spending in areas that deplete natural capital; and • employing taxes and market-based instruments to shift consumer preference and promote green investment and innovation

Communitas Proposed Targets

Target 4: Invest in Green Infrastructure, also at the city-region scale, for social cohesion and community resilience

Infrastructure has great influence on how sustainable or unsustainable our cities are. As infrastructure needs to be built or replaced, governments at all levels have a tremendous opportunity to invest in green infrastructure as a way of providing universal access to basic services (transportation, energy, wastewater and stormwater management, upgrading slum housing), while at the same time stimulating necessary economic growth (at least in developing countries), creating jobs, and alleviating poverty.

Communitas Proposed Targets

Target 5: Invest in capacity building for prosperous communities, with a focus on youth and women unemployed or locked into the urban informal economyCommunity capacity building is based on individual capacity building, especially education and training. Capacity building should specifically include education and training for disadvantaged and/or marginalized populations, including youth and women unemployed or locked into the urban informal economy.

Links to Other SDGs

Linked with all, but particularly with:• Participatory democracy, poverty and inequalities

reduction• Universal access to affordable and quality public and

social services and utilities, including housing, water & sanitation, transport and energy

• Linkages with rural development, including food security and resources provision; and

• the cross-cutting theme of transformational partnerships and multi-level governance for sustainable city-region development.

Moving Forward

• This paper supports the case for an urban SDG.• Green growth is the only way to have growth,

prosperity and jobs for all while getting/staying within planetary boundaries.

• One key to advancing sustainable development is to better enable cities and regions to address global as well as local development challenges

• Integration of economic, social and environmental objectives is critical.

Example sustainability assessment frameworks

International framework schemes• Eco2 Cities (World Bank)• One Planet Communities (BioRegional)• Climate + Program (Clinton Climate Initiative)• Community Capital Tool (Simon Fraser University)

Municipal indicator use• Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)• Menlyn Main, Pretoria (South Africa)• Tianjin Binhai Eco-City (China)

National & municipal indicator use• BREEAM Communities• German urban sustainability frameworks• Greenest City 2020, Vancouver (Canada)• Low-Carbon Cities China • Surat/Gandhinagar Solar Cities (India)• Victoria Harbour, Melbourne (Australia)

Community Capital Framework

21

One Way to Build Community Capacity

Researchers/Academics

Local Govts/Practitioners

Sustainability

Communities

25

What is Pando?

Pando.scA free, multi-lingual online community with a professional focus, where researchers, academics, and public- and private-sector practitioners focused on local sustainability challenges can share knowledge, network, and collaborate.

Moving Forward – 2

• Need framework that is grounded in sustainable development theory and address all aspects of sustainability (at least ecological, economic, and social); integrates competing interests; includes all levels of government and stakeholders; measures progress; and provides a common language to talk about sustainable development

• indicators used must provide balance between scientific imperatives and public participation; they should also show what is possible

• be adaptable within a “universal” framework; recognize uniqueness of place; acknowledge and address regional vs. local indicators; allow for public input and engagement

• must enable monitoring performance and outcomes over time; they should also be scalable in terms of effort and cost