Sustainable development
in managing tensions across the movement. The difficulty of achieving this is illustrated by Donald Trump pulling the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate changemitigation, as he declared it disadvantaged its national economy.
Environmental sustainability and sustainable development are phrases often used interchangeably, whereas environmental sustainability is a subset of the latter. Nevertheless, it is perhaps the most crucial issue to achieve in coming years owing to the immediate effects we are witnessing. Global warming, with all its long- term environmental harm, is a symptom of the world’s unsustainable resource usage. The emission levels of countries are often used to compare environmental performance. However, this is an inefficient way to identify high-emission perpetrators. Countries and their respective governments are not directly responsible for the emissions, but the individual industries and consumers within each country are. The Carbon Majors Report 4 found that just 100 companies have been responsible for 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. It suggests, amongst other things, that ‘systemic change on carbon emissions’ can be achieved if investors continue to pull out of fossil fuel-producing firms, such as Shell and BP, and increase investment in renewable energy companies. It has to be recognized that positive change is already in progress in some quarters. Almost 100 big companies, including Apple, Ikea and Google, have pledged to use 100% renewable power. Investors are displaying increased interest in environmentally friendly firms. However, further incentives can be provided to encourage firms to decrease their environmental impact; for example, a carbon tax involving the government setting a price that emitters must pay for each unit of greenhouse gases they release. Financial incentives could also be introduced by the Government in other areas to encourage firms to progress more sustainably. Sustainable economic growth can be thought of as a paradox, since the elements of the world economy form a subsystem of our earth’s ecosystem, which is a finite resource. Despite this, the developed and developing world alike drives for further output to beat international economic competitors. Currently, economic performance is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country over one year. However, as proposed by the economist Joseph Stiglitz, GDP cannot accurately represent the wealth of a country when it ignores inequalities. The USA has the world’s largest GDP, yet in 2018 the richest 20% earned 52% of all national income. This raises the question of ho w a population’s standard of living, and even its standing in the world, should be measured. For example, if a country experiences a major disaster its GDP will rise when medical care, building work and even funeral services are used but no one could consider that this improves the population’s wealth in a broader sense. GDP ignores numerous factors that affect a country’s wealth and wellbeing including public healthcare and education and pollution levels. Sustainable development calls for a drastic change in howmacroeconomic systems across the world measure their individual performances. There have been numerous new systems created as potential alternatives, such as Gross National Happiness (GNH) and the Happy Planet Index. 5 I propose the use of a Green Gross Domestic Product, which adjusts regular GDP measurements by subtracting value according to
4 Published in 2017 by the Climate Accountability Institute. 5 GNH: officially used by the Government of Bhutan, GNH measures the collective happiness and wellbeing of a population. The HPI combines wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality and ecological footprint. Wealthy Western countries do not rank highly on the HPI.
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