Sustainable development an overview; Part 2

Transcription

1 Sustainable development an overview; Part 2 Magdalena Svanström, Professor, Chemical Environmental Science, Chalmers University of Technology Complexity, goals and metrics Content: Human well-beeing within planetary boundaries? But what is human well-being? And what are planetary boundaries? How are these connected? A sustainable development trajectory What metrics of progress are useful? Or, should we deal with wicked systems in a different way? 1

2 World Happiness Report How can we fulfill basic human needs? What makes you happy? What is life quality? One theory: Not changing Universal Not exchangeable Need satisfiers often mistaken for needs cultural differences Source: Manfred Max-Neef at al., Human Scale Development: An Option for the Future, Development Dialogue, 1989:1 Read more: World Happiness Report 2015, Eds J Helliwell, R Layard and J Sachs Are people happy? Top ten and bottom ten: Mainly based on Gallup World Poll Despite the obvious happiness impacts of the financial crisis of , the world has become a slightly happier and more generous place also progress toward equality in the regional distribution of well-being 2

3 And what are planetary boundaries? Source: W Steffen et al., Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet, Science 2015;347 So, we are limited by planetary boundaries and the social foundation for human well-being; we need to find a way to live inside the doughnut Kate Raworth: 3

4 The MEA framework emphasises the connection between ecosystem services and human well-being Costanza points out the connections between capitals and human needs: Source: Costanza et al, Ecological economics, 2007, : Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being 4

5 Resource use Income BAU trajectory Decoupling SD trajectory Carrying capacity Limitations in resources, space and ecosystem functions Consumption Environmental impact ? Time But is economic growth a good metric can it measure the progress we want? World GDP per capita Source: Maddison project; 5

6 How we measure development will determine how we work for development Main theme in The Changing Wealth of Nations, World Bank, january 2011 Title refers to Adam Smith s The Wealth of Nations from 1776 the corner stone of national economy GDP has two fundamental weaknesses in terms of measuring development: measures production but not people s well-being does not show whether or not production can be continued in the future if it is sustainable Sachs: externalities and costs imposed on future generations Genuine Progress Indicator - GPI An attempt to measure whether a country's growth, increased production of goods, and expanding services have actually resulted in the improvement of the welfare (or well-being) of the people in the country Will be zero if the financial costs of crime and pollution equal the financial gains in production of goods and services, all other factors being constant Development of the precursors: Measured Economic Welfare (MEW) and the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) 6

7 USA AUSTRALIA Human Development Index (HDI) Launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 Used in the annual Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Takes into account: A long and healthy life (as measured by life expectancy at birth). Access to knowledge (today measured by two indicators: the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary, secondary and tertiary education). A decent standard of living (as measured by the GDP per capita expressed in purchasing power parity [PPP] US dollars). There is also an inequality-adjusted HDI, next slide 7

8 Small ecological footprint + High IHDI = Sustainable? IHDI includes life expectancy, education, GDP and the distribution of these within the population Low Source: Living Planet Report 2014, WWF, GFN and others Happy Planet Index (HPI) introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006 includes average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth and ecological footprint per capita good (green), bad (red) performance 8

9 Happiness HDI HPI GDP 9

10 Jeffrey Sachs: four objectives of a good society economic prosperity social inclusion and cohesion environmental sustainability good governance SDGs call for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic growth four complex interacting systems global economy social interactions Earth systems governance Can these be controlled or harnessed to generate human well-being? Can we solve problems embedded in wicked systems? 10

11 To reflect on and discuss over lunch: What is it that truly makes you happy? Is sustainable (economic) growth an oxymoron? What metric(s) of progress should we use in sustainable development? Are the SDGs part of a true SD trajectory? 11