The global sustainability challenge: From agreement to action

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues

Volumn 2, Issue 1-2, 2002, Pages 1-14

  Juma, Calestous ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Development; Environment; Firms; Global governance; Institutional change; Science and technology; Sustainability science; Sustainable development; Universities

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS; GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE; INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT; SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; SUSTAINABILITY;

EID: 0042378619     PISSN: 14666650     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2002.000985     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (19)

1. United Nations (1992) Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, United Nations, New York.
2. United Nations (2001) World Summit of Sustainable Development, Commission on Sustainable Development, Ninth Session, United Nations, New York, p.1.
3. For example, leaders agreed to halve, "by the year 2015, the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water", United Nations (2000) United Nations Millennium Declaration, United Nations, New York.
4. "Unfortunately, mismanagement of ecosystems abounds. Worldwide, human overuse and abuse of major ecosystems from rainforests to coral reefs to prairie grasslands have degraded or destroyed hectare upon hectare of once-productive habitat. This has harmed wildlife, to be sure, as the number of endangered species attests. But it has also harmed human interests by depleting the flow of the very goods and services we depend on", World Resources Institute (2001) World Resources Report, 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: the Flaying Web of Life, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, p.5.
5. The need to reorient technology to respond to sustainability challenges was well-articulated by the World Commission on Environment and Development: "First, the capacity for technological innovation needs to greatly enhanced in developing countries so that they can respond more effectively to the challenges of sustainable development. Second, the orientation of technology development must be changed to pay greater attention to environmental factors", World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, UK.
6. A glance at other regimes, most of them being less complex than implementing sustainable development, suggests maturation timeframes that range between 15 to 40 years. Their development is marked by experimental approaches characterized by global learning.
7. In fact, a large number of developing countries have spent the last decade formulating national environmental action plans (NEAPs) and action plans instead of devoting attention to the integration of environmental considerations into development goals. The NEAPs could achieve the same goals; the existence of competing formulations on environment and sustainable development calls for mechanisms that promote coherence and coordination at the international level.
8. Although the concept has its formal origins in the report of World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, [5] its elements had been advocated long before. In fact, the need to integrate development and environment was a major theme in the preparations for the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
9. "The evidence from the first decade of efforts to achieve sustainable development shows that, in general, societies do not know how to do it. But the widespread experience of local efforts and successes is instructive and suggests an ability of societies to learn on relevant scales. Hope for successfully navigating the transition in the future lies in conceptualizing sustainable development not as a knowable destination or computable trajectory, but rather a process of social learning and adaptive response amid turbulence and surprise", National Research Council (1999) Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, p.48.
10. Indeed, Our Common Future, [5] the 1987 report of the World Commission on Sustainable Development anticipated the difficulties posed by disciplinary approaches and departmental structures.
11. A few, for example, the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi, adjusted their legislative mandate to focus on implementing certain aspects of Agenda 21.
12. "A new field of sustainability science is emerging that seeks to understand the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society. Such an understanding must encompass the interation of global processes with the ecological and social characteristics of particular places and sectors. The regional character of much of what sustainability science is trying to explain means that relevant research will have to integrate the effect of key processes across the full range of scales from local to global", Kates, R.W., Clark, C., Corell, R., Hall, M., Jaeger, C., Lowe, I., McCarthy, J., Schellnhuber, H., Bolin, B., Dickson, N., Faucheux, S., Gallopin, G., Gruebler, A., Huntley, H., Jäger, J., Jodha, N., Kasperson, R., Mabogunje, A., Matson, P., Mooney, H., Moore III, B., O'Riordan, T. and Svedin, U. (2001) 'Sustainability science', Science, Vol. 292, No. 5517, p.641.
13. Juma, C. (2000) 'The UN's role in the new diplomacy', Issues in Science and Technology, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp.37-38.
14. There is ample evidence showing that the most effective United Nations agencies are focused on scientific and technical issues. UNEP itself enjoyed considerable respect when it relied on the best available scientific and technical information to guide its diplomatic work.
15. Alagappa, M. (2000) 'Environmental governance - the potential of regional institutions: introduction', in P. Chasek (Ed.) The Global Environment in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects for International Cooperation, United Nations University Press, Tokyo, pp.255-270.
16. For an example of the role of emergent implementation opportunities at the regional level, see Roman, M. (1998) The Implementation of International Regions: The Case of Amazon Cooperation Treaty, Department of Geography, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
17. For details, see Requier-Desjardins, D. (1999) 'Globalization and local sustainability: the case of the US-Mexico border', International Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.238-302. Not all the elements of the NAFTA agreement are appropriate for dealing with environmental issues. For a discussion of this issue, see von Montke, K. and Mann, H. (2001) 'Misappropriation of institutions: some lessons from the environmental dimension of the NAFTA investor-state dispute settlement processes', International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Vol. 1, pp. 103-119.
18. For details, see Requier-Desjardins, D. (1999) 'Globalization and local sustainability: the case of the US-Mexico border', International Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.238-302. Not all the elements of the NAFTA agreement are appropriate for dealing with environmental issues. For a discussion of this issue, see von Montke, K. and Mann, H. (2001) 'Misappropriation of institutions: some lessons from the environmental dimension of the NAFTA investor-state dispute settlement processes', International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Vol. 1, pp. 103-119.
19. "Environmental economists who have been concerned for many decades with market failures, and more recently with regulation failures, still commonly assume that firms operate efficiently. However, if the firm is considered as an organization of individuals who make decisions, the way in which routines change and individuals learn is essential in the determination of the organization's performance. Moreover, instead of reacting to pollution that already is, firms are turning to environmental strategies that target causes, rather than the consequences, of polluting activities. This new mindset requires the design of products and production processes, and because innovation is difficult, costly and uncertain, firms must also find new ways of integrating environmental issues into their organizational arrangements', Llerena, D. (1999) 'Integration of environmental issues in the firm: learning processes and coordination", International Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, No. 2, p.279.