19 TWO Conceptualising sustainable development Introduction As noted in the previous chapter, sustainable development is often understood in terms of the Brundtland Commission’s definition of “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987, 43). A sceptic might respond to Brundtland’s argument for sustainable development by observing that human welfare in Hong Kong and China has improved rapidly in recent decades despite environmentally unsustainable practices. One
51 FOUR Implementing sustainable development Introduction As we saw in the previous chapter, Garrett Hardin’s 1968 essay, ‘The tragedy of the commons’, describes how a village’s shared common land might be ruined because each villager has an individual incentive to overuse the commons for grazing his own animals (Hardin 1968). Hardin’s ‘tragedy’, which is the failure of a community to protect shared environmental resources, describes one common type of environmental problem that sustainable development policies are intended to avert. One important question
Drawing on practices and theories of sustainability, Environmental policy and sustainable development in China explores the prospects for achieving environmentally benign economic and social development in China and beyond. Using the Chinese ‘world city’ of Hong Kong as a backdrop and case study, it introduces major conceptions of sustainability, describes historical and political contexts for environmental policymaking, and analyses key challenges related to sustainable development, including air pollution, water quality, waste, transport and climate change. The book will be a valuable and unique resource for students, teachers and readers interested in environmental policy, sustainable development and ecological governance, especially in China and Hong Kong.
All of the author’s royalties from sales of this book will be donated by Policy Press to Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong) and WWF (Hong Kong).
43 THREE The capability approach, agency and sustainable development Elise Klein and Paola Ballon Introduction For the past 15 years, there has been a coordinated effort by the international community to track countries’ progress for addressing extreme poverty, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability, in a quantifiable manner or ‘target’ as framed by the Millennium Declaration Goals – MDGs. However millions of people have been left behind by such ‘progress’. Many live in
33 THREE Origins and critiques of sustainable development Introduction In the 1960s and 1970s increasing numbers of scientists and environmentalists began to argue that economic growth was imposing an unacceptable cost on the natural environment. They suggested that Western consumption habits, the rise in global population and economic growth should be constrained. At the same time, developing-world leaders were arguing that their countries should receive a better deal from international society. They argued that environmental concerns were less important
-ecological systems. This will enable new narratives and considerations to have voice and power within a participative, place-based and reflexive approach. To do this bureaucracy will need to be equipped with express purpose, new narratives, institutions, ways of knowing and measuring and tools. We can identify emergent forms of these alternatives in experiments in governing for sustainable development. Governing for sustainable development: the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 Contextualizing the Welsh case Wales is a largely rural, upland, coastal and
Part Two Contexts for sustainable development in China’s world city
13 2 The challenge of development: from economic to sustainable development Development is […] a far-reaching, continuous and positively evaluated change in the totality of human experience. (Harrison, 1988: xiii) The idea of development poses many challenges, both as a concept and as a practical means of shaping society. In this chapter we examine the ways in which the idea of development has evolved over time, why the idea has been vigorously contested, and what this means for the understanding and practice of international development today. What is
