The document discusses key concepts related to sustainable development including: 1. The origins of sustainability in resource management and its adoption by the Brundtland Commission to mean "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." 2. Debates around weak and strong sustainability regarding the substitutability of natural resources with human-made capital. 3. The difference between a welfarist view of sustainability focused on preference satisfaction versus a need-based approach considering basic human needs.

1. Sustainable development
Week 8

2. Early use of the term ‘sustainability’
To sustain something is to maintain it over a period of time
The concept of sustainability originates in resource management (agriculture, fisheries,
etc.) to describe a sustainable yield for that resource
Where X is e.g. fishing stock, topsoil, water to irrigate crops
If I extract/use a certain amount of X at T1, will it be possible for that amount of X to
be extracted/used at all times subsequent to T1?
If yes, then the extraction is sustainable
If no, then the extraction is unsustainable

3. The concept of sustainable development
The World Commission on Environment and Development was established in 1983 by
the United Nations Secretary-General
Its chair was Gro Brundtland, then Prime Minister of Norway (hence ‘Brundtland report’)
Its report, Our Common Future (1987), coins the term ‘sustainable development’:
‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’
World Commission on Environment and Development 1987. Our Common Future, chapter
2, point 1. Online at:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf
Q: How does this concept of sustainable development differ from the idea of
sustainability in resource management?

4. The concept of sustainable development
[1] ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’
World Commission on Environment and Development 1987. Our Common Future,
chapter 2, point 1.
[2] Sustainable development is development that ‘use[s] the world’s resources in a way
that is fair to members of future generations’
A. Kernohan 2012. Environmental ethics: an interactive introduction, Ontario: Broadview
Press, p. 308.
Q: How do definitions [1] and [2] differ?

5. The difference between economic growth and development
‘It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary condition of capital and population
implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as
ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for
improving the Art of Living, and much more likelihood of its being improved, when
minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on.’
J. S. Mill 1848. ‘Of the Stationary State’, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. IV, Ch. VI.
https://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlP.html?chapter_num=64#book-reader

6. Why consistently improving GDP is not = sustainable development
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services produced
within a country in a given time period. GDP is not a measure of overall well-being (it doesn’t
measure e.g. human rights records). It does not even measure material well-being, because:
(a) Measures of GDP do not indicate the distribution of goods and services sold
(b) Measures of GDP do not record unpaid goods and services (e.g. housework, child care,
production for home use). These include some valued environmental services, whether by
humans (e.g. recycling) or by animals, plants & ecosystems (e.g. pollination, oxygen production,
water filtration)
(c) Measures of GDP include goods and services that cater to a need whose cause it would be
better to remove (e.g. paid security services, commuting expenses, accident treatments). These
include environment-related goods and services it would be better not to need (e.g. pollution
clean-up, pest extermination)
(d) Measures of GDP do not record the costs of resource depletion (incl. pollution), as these are
born by future generations

7. The Brundtland report (1987)
‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’
(‘Our Common Future’, ch. 2, point 1)
This defines sustainable development in terms of needs
Some needs are more ‘basic’ than others (ch. 2, point 43).
So, their satisfaction should take priority
‘[T]he goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of
sustainability in all countries’ (‘Our Common Future’, ch. 2, point 2)

8. What does sustainable development require?
(according to the Brundtland report)
[1] Not to endanger natural systems that support life: the atmosphere, waters, soils, etc.
[2] Not to ‘overexploit’ the world’s resources so that the ability of future generations to meet
their needs is compromised (this is not to say non-renewables may not be used)
[3] Conservation of species
[4] Minimisation of pollution
[5] ‘Demographic developments … in harmony with … changing productive potential’
[6] Changes in the quality of growth to less material-intensive and energy-intensive activities
and improved efficiency
‘The simple duplication in the developing world of industrial countries’ energy use patterns is
neither feasible nor desirable’ (‘Our Common Future’, ch. 2, point 62)
[7] Increasing the domestic market in developing countries

9. Barriers to sustainable development
[1] Inequalities
(i) which impede the poor from challenging powerful companies who e.g. pollute
(ii) which narrow the poor’s options, making it v. costly for them to live sustainably
[2] State weakness (no secure monopoly on legitimate force in a territory)
Because states are necessary for overcoming assurance problems - by means of taxes,
subsidies, laws, education
[3] Nonalignment of jurisdictions with spaces of impacted environments
E.g. energy policies in one jurisdiction cause acid precipitation in another
This matters, due to the weakness of international cooperation (no world state - see [2])
[4] Limited research incentives in market economies
Commercial organizations aim to produce innovations with market value (in a context of
sectoral fragmentation), rather than public goods

10. But more positively…
‘The history of technological developments also suggests that industry can adjust to
scarcity through greater efficiency in use, recycling, and substitution’ (‘Our Common
Future’, ch. 2, point 63).
The conventional economic view is that resource scarcity leads to price rises that lead to
technological change that get around resource scarcity problems, in the form of:
i. Innovations in extraction making it less costly to extract deposits previously thought
too poor to use (applicable e.g. to scarce minerals like lithium)
ii. Innovations in recycling that extend the uses of a finite resource (e.g. paper)
iii. Innovations in devising substitutes for scarce resources (e.g. wind or solar power for
fossil fuels)

11. And what about recent innovations in data and technology?
These include: data storage, smart phone apps, robotics, artificial intelligence (or ‘AI’),
nanotechnology, autonomous vehicles, drones, 3D printing, blockchain
Positive examples (that increase mitigation, transparency, accountability)
‘Didi’ car-pools approx. 2m passengers in China, taking 1m vehicles off the roads per day
Data monitoring platforms (e.g. Global Fishing Watch) use sensors and satellite imagery
to track and monitor activity within important environmental systems
Real-time info on GHG emissions could be tracked by anyone
Q: Could blockchain be used for carbon trading by individuals? Every individual on the
planet could be allocated a carbon budget, which was tradable.
World Economic Forum 2017. Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the Earth,
Geneva, p. 11. Online at:
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_the_4IR_for_the_Earth.pdf

12. Climate compatible development
A ‘triple win’ strategy involving:
Mitigation; Adaptation; Development
E.g. distribute renewable energy (mitigation)
that benefits health (adaptation) by reducing
reliance on charcoal burning and provides
opportunities for livelihood diversification
(development).
T. Mitchell and S. Maxwell 2010. Defining Climate Compatible
Development, Climate and Development Knowledge Network
(CDKN) and Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Policy Brief.
http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CDKN-CCD-
Planning_english.pdf
E. L. Tompkins et al 2013. An Investigation of the Evidence of Benefits
from Climate Compatible Development, Centre for Climate Change
Economics and Policy, Working Paper No. 124, Sustainability
Research Institute, Paper No. 44, https://cdkn.org/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/An-investigation-of-the-evidence-of-
benefits-from-climate-compatible-development.pdf

13. Weak sustainability and strong sustainability
Sustainability concerns a general condition of life, rather than a particular resource
But may a given type of resource be substituted for any other?
The greater substitutability, the more flexibility in achieving sustainable development
Natural resources (e.g. particular organic and inorganic physical items, biodiversity)
Human-made resources (e.g. machines, roads, buildings, knowledge, social networks)
Q: May any natural resources be substituted by a human-made resource?
Proponents of ‘weak’ sustainability: sustainability requires that the overall level of
resources not decline, because any resource is substitutable
Proponents of ‘strong’ sustainability: sustainability also requires the level of natural
resources not decline, because they are not substitutable by human-made resources (we
are unable to duplicate a resource to serve the same function, e.g. the Ozone layer)

14. Weak and strong sustainability
Robert Solow, an American economist and winner of the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize:
‘A sustainable path for the economy is thus not necessarily one that conserves every
single thing or any single thing. It is one that replaces whatever it takes from its
inherited natural and produced endowment, its material and intellectual endowment.
What matters is not the particular form that the replacement takes, but only its
capacity to produce the things that posterity will enjoy’
R. Solow 1993. ‘An almost practical step toward sustainability’, Resources Policy,
September, p. 168.
Q: Is this an example of weak or strong sustainability?

15. Sustainable development: the welfarist view
‘“Sustainability” … implies something about maintaining the level of human well-being so
that it might improve but at least never decline’
D. Pearce 1993. Economic Values and the Natural World. London: Earthscan, p. 48.
Q: How does this view of sustainability differ from the Brundtland report’s?

16. Needs and preferences
Needs ‘constitute the set of means and ends that constitute a fully functioning human life in a
particular context’
(L. Hamilton 2005. ‘The political philosophy of needs and weak states’ in M. Ayogu and D.
Ross (eds) Development Dilemmas: The Methods and Political Ethics of Growth Policy, p. 177)
Person A has a need for x if x is a means or end in A’s full human functioning
Full human functioning has
[a] a health component, ‘vital needs’: food, clothing, shelter, mobility, rest, entertainment
[b] an agency component, ‘agency needs’: autonomy, intersubjective recognition and active and
creative expression that provide feelings of safety, self-esteem, confidence and courage
(L. Hamilton 2003. The Political Philosophy of Needs, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Preferences, by contrast, reflect a person’s desires at a particular time, and their beliefs.
Preferences are measured by the intensity of desire, or by how much a person is willing to pay

17. Sustainable development: the welfarist view
In mainstream economics, well-being is understood in terms of preference satisfaction
Sustainable development is then development that at least maintains and if possible
improves levels of human preference satisfaction.

18. Two concepts of substitutability
Q: What is meant by saying that one thing is a substitute for another?
We can distinguish two concepts of substitutability
[1] One thing is a technical substitute for another if it realizes the same purpose
E.g. saccharine is a technical substitute for sugar as a sweetener
E.g. wind power is a technical substitute for coal power as a source of energy
[2] One thing is a welfare substitute for another if it realizes the same level of welfare for
an agent (if they are equally preferred)
E.g. beer is a welfare substitute for sweetened tea if the agent is indifferent between beer
and sweetened tea
If we agree that a good that satisfies one need cannot be replaced by a good that satisfies
another need, the different dimensions of need are limits on substitutability

19. Two concepts of substitutability
Q: What kind of substitutes are these examples of?
[1] Human waste removal technologies as a substitute for a wetland
[2] A new school as a substitute for a wetland
[3] Technologies for increasing the earth’s albedo as a substitute for removing greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere
[4] More programmes on television as a substitute for the loss of birds
[5] Plastic furniture as a substitute for wood furniture

20. Are connections to particulars a dimension of well-being?
People build up connections with particular places.
Is the enjoyment of these connections a dimension of well-being that cannot be
compensated along another type of dimension of well-being?
Perhaps it belongs to the need for affiliation/community and losses in this dimension
cannot be compensated in other dimensions
If so, then a need-based account of sustainable development imposes a further limit on
substitutability (sustainability may require particular natural or human-made resources
to be maintained)

21. The choices of future generations
‘[O]ne of the defining characteristics of human beings is their ability to form their own
conceptions of the good life. It would be presumptuous - and unfair - of us to
preempt their choices in the future … What this suggests is that the requirement is to
provide future generations with the opportunity to live good lives according to their
conception of what constitutes a good life. This should surely include their being able
to live good lives according to our conception but should leave other options open to
them.’
(B. Barry 1999. ‘Sustainability and intergenerational justice’, in A. Dobson (ed.) Fairness
and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 103-104.)

22. Class discussion
Read:
[1] J. O’Neill 2017. ‘Sustainability’, in D. Moellendorf and H. Widdows (eds) The Routledge
Handbook of Global Ethics, London: Routledge, pp. 401-415.
and consider:
Q: to what extent do debates over sustainability reflect views on the use of
markets to solve environmental problems?