«Sustainable development»: Two lost decades
The UN Rio+20 conference takes place in May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. Twenty years on from the first Earth Summit on Environment and Development, it will be seen whether the international community will eventually find the path of sustainable development despite two lost decades. What is needed is a post-growth economy.
At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit the international community committed itself to the path of sustainable development. That signalled the birth of «outward-looking domestic policy» and the promise of a new development paradigm. The «Agenda 21» action programme approved at the time states: «The only way to assure ourselves of a safer, more prosperous future is to deal with environment and development issues together in a balanced manner. […]. We must fulfil basic human needs, improve living standards for all and better protect and manage ecosystems.» In keeping with the polluter-pays principle, the industrialized countries assumed the main responsibility.
On the path of self-destruction
Developments over the past 20 years make a mockery of the Rio decisions. Key economic, social and environmental indicators are sounding the alarm. The earth's ecosystem is becoming increasingly out of joint. The ecological footprint of the industrialized countries exceeds what the earth can bear or regenerate. Deforestation continues unabated, the biodiversity is disappearing, clean water is becoming increasingly scarce and the oceans are being over-fished. The number of starving people is increasing, yet enormous areas are being used to grow fuel rather than food. The competition for non-renewable resources is becoming increasingly reckless. Climate change is the perfect illustration of our unsustainable production and consumption models.
Twenty years of «Rio» are tantamount to 20 years of collective policy failure. There was no will to introduce the paradigm shift. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded two years after the Earth Summit and the primacy of free trade established. Even as Heads of State insisted in Rio that the northern economic and development model could not be globalized, they were imposing it on the whole world through the WTO. Market opening was ensured through the possibility of harsh sanctions, whilst the environmental and social rules of Rio remained political and moral obligations. With the three Rio Conventions, which are binding international law, implementation has been and continues to be circumvented wherever possible – see the Kyoto Protocol.
The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created to support the implementation of Agenda 21. It was a weak body from the start with no binding decision-making power. Its influence and ambitions waned from year to year. If the international community is serious about a common path «to a safe and prosperous future», it must create and strengthen the necessary UN structures at Rio+20.
Is Green economy the answer?
The UN General Assembly wants the «green economy» to be one of the main topics at Rio+20. At the beginning of the year UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon wrote in a UN report on the subject that the development opportunities of poor countries were being jeopardized. They were fearful that the rich countries wanted to insulate their markets by means of higher environmental standards.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently calculated that two per cent of world gross domestic product would suffice to start the transition to a green world economy. It would be possible to achieve an environment-friendly market economy and fight poverty with USD 1,300 billion US-Dollar. UNEP does not question the growth imperative. According to UNEP Director Achim Steiner, «Economies must clearly continue to develop and grow. However, this development must not take place at the expense of life-sustaining systems on land, in the oceans or in the atmosphere, as they sustain our economic systems and hence all our livelihoods.»
The private sector has come together in the coordinated initiative «Business Action for Sustainable Development 2012» in preparation for Rio+20 and has joined in the preparatory work. So far no comparable initiative has emerged amongst NGOs from North and South. If civil society wishes to help shape the content of Rio+20, it must act with a united front, including in Switzerland. Without a shared concept of the meaning of the «green economy», it will have no say in Rio.
The «green growth» illusion
The OECD speaks of «green growth» rather than the «green economy». It will table a strategy shortly in that regard. That body is keen to bolster economic growth and simultaneously combat environmental crises. The European Union has adopted a «Strategy for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth 2020». These two instances show that the industrialized countries wish to combat the crises of the 21st century using the means that gave rise to them – still more growth.
There is a simple truth, which does not disqualify the adjective «green». Infinite growth is not possible in a finite world. Our earth is a finite space. Neither the ground nor non-renewable resources grow back. The biosphere is not growing. It cannot absorb pollutants endlessly. Efficiency and green technology alone are not enough to resolve climate change and the shortage of resources. The naive belief in efficiency is a major obstacle in the quest for human and environment-friendly development. Fred Luks, Sustainability Manager for UniCredit Bank Austria, reckons that staying below the 2 degrees climate-warming threshold at an average economic growth rate of three per cent until 2015 would require an efficiency factor of at least 43!
Sufficiency – the economics of enough
One concept scares politicians and environmental and development organizations like the plague: that of sufficiency. They are afraid of seeming to be grouchy advocates of sacrifice as well as obstructionists. It is undoubtedly simpler to distribute the benefits of growth more fairly than at present. Sufficiency means the economics of «enough». Written above the entrance to the Apollo Temple in Delphi is the phrase: «Not too much of anything.» This must well be the first known definition of sufficiency.
To stop the wastage of resources and the assault on nature, as well as allow poor countries room to develop, the industrialized world must re-examine its dependence on (fossil- based) growth. A sustainable economy that preserves livelihoods cannot only grow but must also contract in individual sectors.
There is no scenario for continuous and at the same time sustainable growth in a world that will have a population of 9 billion in 2015. What is needed instead is the fair distribution of what is available in order to afford all people on earth a life of dignity. The time has come to explore the conditions and possibilities of a post-growth economy. This is the policy challenge of the 21st century that must be tackled next year in Rio.
Rosmarie Bär was responsible for Sustainable Development at Alliance Sud from 1996 to 2010. She retired at the end of 2010.
Article published in: Alliance Sud News no. 67, Spring 2011
