Assignment:

DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Submitted to: Dr. KOMAL SINGH Submitted By: SAYEDA JAN Class: MA-III Dept: Public Administration Date:

2 Introduction The concept of sustainable development (also, sustainable community development) emerged as an issue in the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio. There, proposals to advance interests such as biodiversity conservation and control of greenhouse emissions were met with skepticism by many nations of the south. They believed that their economic development would be undermined if such proposals were implemented. The concept of sustainable development was incorporated into the treaties that emerged from the Earth Summit to reconcile tensions between desires for economic development and environmental protection. Most definitions of sustainable development are based on intergenerational equity. This concept is well captured by the idea that "...the current generation must not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their material needs and enjoy a healthy environment."3Advocates of sustainable development generally agree that the present use of natural resources should not result in a diminished standard of living for future generations. However, interpretations of how sustainability can be achieved fall into two distinct camps which naturally lead to different definitions of sustainable development.

Meaning and Definition: Sustainable development means a development which should last long or in simple words a development which could extend to the generations to come. There exist some people on the earth who are just living their lives without paying any attention and caring for the next generations lot, these people live their present lives and compromise that who knows what could happen tomorrow, so live the present and forget about the future. The concept of sustainable development was developed in order to encourage the present generation to live their lives as such that the future generation is not harmed. The term sustainable development was used by Brundtland Commission, which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development, as development, that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of generations to meet their own needs. Thus, sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet the human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for the generations to come.

3 The concept of sustainable development was developed in order to care for the future life or for the future generation, that is, when we consume anything from the natural resources we should be curious enough for the generation to come. Concepts like sustainability are used quite often in speeches especially when talking about the environment or energy. Developing communities that are sustainable or closer to it are important. Learn why this can be a positive goal in the long run. Right now most communities are developed based on the idea that everyone will always have cars. Most of the time they are zoned so that residential and commercial areas are far enough away that someone needs a vehicle of some sorts to actually get from place to place. When a community is developed with sustainability in mind there are closer shops to homes. This helps and encourages people to walk or bike to do their shopping versus having to use vehicles which require external sources of energy some of which are limited or will eventually become limited. This will keep shops and work places closer to home so that using extra energy to get from place to place is not needed. Another part of sustainable development is food. For most people who get a salad, for example, many of the pieces of that salad came from more than five hundred miles away. There is nothing wrong about mass produced food. One concern is the energy cost to transport the food vast distances. If there was ever a shortage on what is now cheap energy, having produce out of season would not be possible. In the context of sustainable development, foods would be grown and produced locally to provide a significant portion of this produce to reduce the need to ship it from hundreds of miles away. A third area that could be changed would be the housing materials used. There are some natural building methods that could work as opposed to using some of the materials that are currently used in homes. While this isn't absolutely necessary, it is a consideration since natural homes could use the local resources and continually expand without dependence on other sources. Perspective on Sustainable Development: Two Traditional Views The concept of sustainable development (also, sustainable community development) emerged as an issue in the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio. There, proposals to advance interests such as biodiversity conservation and control of

4 greenhouse emissions were met with skepticism by many nations of the south. They believed that their economic development would be undermined if such proposals were implemented. The concept of sustainable development was incorporated into the treaties that emerged from the Earth Summit to reconcile tensions between desires for economic development and environmental protection.

Most definitions of sustainable development are based on intergenerational equity. This concept is well captured by the idea that "...the current generation must not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their material needs and enjoy a healthy environment."3Advocates of sustainable development generally agree that the present use of natural resources should not result in a diminished standard of living for future generations. However, interpretations of how sustainability can be achieved fall into two distinct camps which naturally lead to different definitions of sustainable development. Constrained Growth Advocates of the constrained-growth position argue that sustainable development is "...the pursuit of growth subject to environmental constraints."4 Constrained growth involves two separate stages. First, contractual arrangements based on ecological criteria must be established. Following this, the standard utilitarian objective of maximizing economic returns is pursued. This definition differs little from standard, neoclassical approaches to economic development. It simply qualifies utility maximization by adding ecological considerations. Although pursued in a slower and more ecologically sensitive manner, growth is still the primary objective, and it is this definition that dominates official discourse. For instance, the influential 1987 report prepared by the World Commission on Environment and Development,5 while extensively detailing the environmental consequences of unregulated growth, nevertheless concludes that sustainability depends on continued growth: "If large parts of the developing world are to avert economic, social, and environmental catastrophes, it is essential that global economic growth be revitalized."6 Such a conclusion, according to Korten, contradicts the Commission's own analysis, which concludes "... that growth and overconsumption are root causes of the problem."7 Continued growth, even if planned with ecological considerations in mind, ignores the mounting evidence which suggests that current demands now exceed what the ecosystem can sustain.8 Other critics of the constrained-growth approach argue that equating sustainable development with sustainable growth is contradictory and misleading.9 When sustainable development is used in such a context, it is often employed as a mechanism by which both governments and international aid agencies co-opt and placate opposition to growth.10 In short, critics of the constrained-growth approach to sustainable development see it as a smokescreen, which obscures the ecologically disruptive consequences of conventional development strategies.11

Resource Maintenance The resource-maintenance position is rooted in the above criticisms and emphasizes the maintenance of existing and future resources rather than continued growth. In the resource-maintenance approach, efforts are focused on minimizing the impact on the environment through limiting our use of natural resources while simultaneously meeting the material needs of people.12 Development is not achieved by determining a sustainable level of growth and pursuing traditional economic objectives. Rather, the protection of natural resources is an explicit goal placed on equal footing with economic considerations. The resource-maintenance approach requires a fundamental rethinking of our relationship to the environment, consumption patterns, and standards of living. It is most clearly (and some would say radically) articulated by proponents of the "deep ecology" movement, such as Arne Naess. Chief among the changes called for in the resource-maintenance approach are: an appreciation of the intrinsic value of the natural environment and all life forms; satisfaction of vital needs rather than desires; anti-consumerism and minimization of personal property; and, the use of simple and appropriate technology whenever possible.13 Above all, what distinguishes the resource-maintenance perspective from the constrained-growth model is the former's very different definition of development. From the resource-maintenance perspective, growth is defined as a "... quantitative expansion of the physical dimensions of the economic system, while development should refer to the qualitative change of a physically non-growing economic system in dynamic equilibrium with the environment."14 At the heart of this distinction is the idea that the earth is finite and non-growing, and that any physical subsystem must also eventually become non-growing. Hence, it makes no sense to speak of sustainable growth because the concept is contradictory.15 Sustainable development, however, focuses on resource maintenance and involves no such contradiction.

6 IMPORTANCE of SUSTAIBABLE DEVELOPMENT

If you are interested in living as green as possible, you have probably wondered, what is the importance of sustainable development? This question cuts right to the core of many intersecting issues in contemporary culture. Being as most western countries now operate as free market capitalist societies, the idea of development is essential for the continual expansion of new markets that capitalism requires. Despite the economic issues, there are very real human issues created when issues of development are considered. As the planet becomes more and more urbanized and people continue to move away from the agrarian life, cities are becoming megacities and towns are becoming cities. People need places to live and eat and work, so the more people move to populated areas the more those areas need to be developed. The underlying facet of this is what does all this growth and development mean for the environment? It is this last issue that makes the question, what is the importance of sustainable development? This article will discuss some of the major concerns behind the need for sustainable development.

So what is the Importance of Sustainable Development? The main reason people are concerned with sustainable development is because of the fact that the world is a place of finite materials. One only needs to recall the buffalo that used to range across the vast majority of the American plains or the giant redwoods and sequoias that used to tower over the mountains of the west to understand that there are not endless quantities of resources on the planet.

7 Sustainable development aims to establish a system of resource consumption that both meets the needs of human life and leaves the environment healthy enough to continue to produce the resources future generations will need. The scope of sustainable development is massive, and many areas of life can fall under this broad umbrella. The following are some of the most important issues to sustainable development, but bear in mind that this is a very limited list:

Fresh Water - This is one of the most essential issues facing the species since humans have walked on the earth. Of the planet's water, 97.5 percent of it is salt water and of the 2.5 percent that is fresh, 2 percent of that is frozen in the polar ice caps. This means all of the humans and animals on the world survive on less the 1 percent of the planet's total water supply. The problem is that the population is increasing the demand for water while the supply is decreasing due to issues like pollution. In order to become more sustainable, humans need to take action. Agricultural systems must become more efficient worldwide and some subsidies on water that make it very inexpensive in certain areas should be lifted to allow the price to rise, which will encourage conservation.

Finance - It might sound a bit too much like Karl Marx for some people's liking, but one of the main issues of sustainable development is figuring out how to best distribute the world's wealth. In the United States, for example, 10 percent of the population controls 71 percent of the wealth. The top 1 percent of American citizens control 38 percent of the country's wealth, which leaves the poorest 40 percent controlling less than 1 percent of the wealth of the nation. In a free society, disparities are always going to exist, but the problem confronting the future is that these numbers are trending towards the wealthy owning more and more. A truly sustainable society would be interested in increasing all its citizens' access to resources.

Health - Health is inextricably linked to sustainable development. In areas where poverty is rampant and resources are not provided equally to all members of society, the individuals at the lower levels suffer tremendously in terms of health. Nutritious food is limited in these areas as well as access to adequate medicine and medical health professionals. When

8 infectious diseases like AIDS are brought into the mix, this issue quickly becomes an epidemic. These three issues are some of the most important issues to sustainable development, but other areas like agriculture, technology, sanitation, human settlements, biotechnology, and many others also play a role. Importance for the future generation Sustainable development includes passing on to future generations a stock of 'capital' that is at least as big as the one that our own generation inherited. Capital in this sense means the world's assets, these include money, buildings and less tangible assets such as the stocke of skills and social systems, as well as natural resources. Responsible use of all natural resources benefits both the next generation and companies (because the costs are reduced). It includes reducing the amount of resources that are used (input - e.g. iron and coal) for the amount of product (output - e.g. steel). The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), meeting in Paris in the autumn of 1997, passed the Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generations towards Future Generations. The Declaration recognized that the present generations have the responsibility of ensuring that the needs and interests of present and future generations are fully safeguarded. It stressed the importance of making every effort to ensure, with due regard to human rights and fundamental freedoms, that future as well as present generations enjoy full freedom of choice as to their political, economic and social systems and are able to preserve their cultural and religious diversity. And it maintained that the present generations have the responsibility to bequeath to future generations an Earth which will not one day be irreversibly damaged by human activity. Each generation inheriting the Earth temporarily should take care to use natural resources reasonably and ensure that life is not prejudiced by harmful modifications of the ecosystems and that scientific and technological progress in all fields does not harm life on Earth.

9 CONCLUSSION
To conclude we can say that the concept of sustainable development has got immense importance in nowadays and most of the scholars of the world are pointing out the threats that the future generation may experience, thus they are suggesting the present generation to be curious enough for the future generation while meeting their needs. The concept of sustainable development refers to a development which is durable that is caring for the generations to come. Following the principles of the sustainable development is significant not only for the future generation but also for the future generation that is because the cost of production could lessen and the productivity would go high. The United Nations has urged it as a responsibility of the present generation to care for the future generation.

10 Notes and References

Internet: http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com

Internet: http://www.sustainable-environment.org.uk Internet: http://ezinearticles.com Internet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development

O.P.D Dwivedi, Development Administration: From Underdeveloped to Sustainable Development, London, Macmillan, 1994.