Sustainable_Development

[pic] ENGR 516: Engineering for Sustainable Development Assignment #1 Research on the term Sustainable Development Presented to Prof. Salah El Haggar By Mohamed Elhadidi SID: 900-010-417 (February 2010) Sustainable Development term and as a trend is a multi dimensional one, it originated in developmental, economic and environmental studies, but extends to have relevance in engineering and other fields. This paper aims at exploring the concept, addressing its history, definition, importance and mechanisms of implementing such trend. I- History of the Concept: Several resources give credit to both Eva Balfour, founder of the Soil Association, the International Institute for Environment and Development, and Wes Jackson, the American geneticist and biodynamic farmer for coining and inventing the term sustainable development. Moreover, most commentators agree the term came to being out of the emerging environmental movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which was concerned about the sever and negative impacts of human activity on the planet that would make the patterns of development unsustainable hurting the future generations, Rachel Carison’s work “Silent Spring” is an example of the manifestations of such movement.[1] The first major international recognition enjoyed by the concept was during the United Nations Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. Despite the fact that the term wasn’t referred to explicitly, the international community agreed that development and environment could be managed in a mutually beneficial way rather treated as separate realms or mutually exclusive.[2] In the 1987 and after 15 years a semi definition to the term appeared in the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development titled “Our Common Future” and often referred to as the Brundtland Report. This definition is now deemed the 'classic' definition of sustainable development.[3] The next year, the Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced Canada's intention to establish an international institute devoted to advancing sustainable development which is now know as The International Institute foe Sustainable Development (IISD). This idea arose from recommendations of a Canadian National Task Force on Environment and Economy to address Canadian follow-up to the Our Common Future report.[4] Since then IISD has aimed at “promoting change towards sustainable development, through research and through effective communication of findings, engaging with decision-makers in government, business, NGOs and other sectors to develop and implement policies that are simultaneously beneficial to the global economy, the global environment and to social well-being”[5] The concept of sustainable development received the most attention during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as major world leaders recognized it as the major challenge remains today. The summit marked the first international attempt to draw up action plans and strategies for moving towards a more sustainable pattern of development. Over 100 Heads of State with representation from 178 national governments, together with several civil society organizations attended it.[6] Moreover, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg in 2002, it was attended by 191 national governments, UN agencies, multilateral financial institutions and other major groups to assess progress since Rio. The Summit delivered three key outcomes: a political declaration, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, and a range of partnership initiatives, key commitments included those on sustainable consumption and production, water and sanitation, and energy.[7] II- Definition of Sustainable Development: Sustainable development means different things to different people, but the most frequently quoted definition is from the report Our Common Future previously referred to, it sees sustainable development as the "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[8] On another note we fine the IISD defining sustainable development as “the notion that humanity should strive to develop the economy in a manner that does not damage the integrity of ecosystems and social well-being. It's about working toward a better life for all people for today and for the future.”[9], which actually supports the definition of the Our Common Future Report. The definition contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, which should be given the highest priority; 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."[10] III- Importance of Sustainable Development: Sustainable development as a concept and policy is of great importance; Thomas Davis argues that this is due to two main reasons. The first is that sustainable development has two primary pillars: Economic development and the consumptive use of the world's natural resources in ways that are sustainable. Populations need and have to consume, in other words, with the realization that resources are finite, and part of our job as human beings is to preserve the human future on this planet into a limitless future, secondly because of the inequitable distribution of resource consumption.[11] More and more people believe that if we continue in our current consumption when it comes to development where 80 percent of the world's resources are used by 20 percent of the people; we will need at least two more planets to supply the resources we'll need to sustain life. However, we don't have two other planets to draw from. Aside from that, there are the ecological issues to consider, too. Humans are developing the world so fast that we lose up to 137 species daily in just the tropical rain forests. This rings bells and proves how important the issue of Sustainable Development is.[12] Sustainable development is also important because it isn't something limited to a certain society or another as one state's practices effect bordering states, and one country's practices touch the whole world. All countries are dependent on one another, and thus achieving sustainable development benefits both local and global economies. Sustainable Development helps the global community reverse loss of environmental resources such as Biological diversity, Forests, and the Ozone layer. Sustainable development also brings about long term changes that provide things like affordable housing and safe drinking water; it also helps build a stronger community, and empowers people to start to meet their own needs.[13] IV- Mechanisms of Implementation: There are many ways to implement Sustainable Development. One major attempt to achieve that was led by the Millennium Project which was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2002 to recommend a concrete action plan for the world to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people. It was headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and was an independent advisory body and presented its final report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to the Secretary-General in January 2005. The Millennium Project was then asked to continue operating in an advisory capacity through the end of 2006.[14] The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges. The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.[15] The eight MDGs break down to[16]: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development The report also specified ways to achieve such goals including reducing the proportion of people less than a dollar a day by half, achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all including women and young people, reducing the people who suffer from hunger, ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling, eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels, achieving universal access to reproductive health, reducing maternal and child mortality rates, halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, providing universal access to treatment, integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reversing the loss of environmental resources, reducing the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation , developing further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system and last but not least addressing the special needs of the least developed countries.[17] List of References 1- http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 2- http://www.iisd.org/about/timeline.asp, 13/2/2010 3- http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I, 15/2/2010 4- http://www.iisd.org/about/faq.asp, 13/2/2010 5- http://www.iisd.org/sd/, 13/2/2010 6- http://www.menominee.edu/sdi/whatis.htm, 15/2/2010 7- http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Why_Is_Sustainable_Development_Importantm, 15/2/2010 8- http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm#01, 15/2/2010 9- http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml, 15/2/2010 10- http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml, 15/2/2010 [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic] ----------------------- [1] http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 [2] http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 [3] http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 [4] http://www.iisd.org/about/timeline.asp, 13/2/2010 [5] http://www.iisd.org/about/timeline.asp, 13/2/2010 [6] http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 [7] http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-sustainable-development.html, 12/2/2010 [8] http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I, 15/2/2010 [9] http://www.iisd.org/about/faq.asp, 13/2/2010 [10] http://www.iisd.org/sd/, 13/2/2010 [11] http://www.menominee.edu/sdi/whatis.htm, 15/2/2010 [12] http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Why_Is_Sustainable_Development_Importantm, 15/2/2010 [13] http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Why_Is_Sustainable_Development_Importantm, 15/2/2010 [14] http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm#01, 15/2/2010 [15] http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/who/index.htm#01, 15/2/2010 [16] http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml, 15/2/2010 [17] http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml, 15/2/2010