Sustainability in the here and now

🌐 It’s 50 years since the concept took root. What now?

Anita Makri

Jun 03, 2022

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Sustainability took root in a time of turmoil.

It’s pretty amazing to think that notions of what ‘development’ means were reshaped in the public sphere over a few short months in the early 1970s.

In March 1972, a team of economists and scientists—known as the Club of Rome—published The Limits to Growth, one of the first reports to forecast catastrophic consequences if humans kept on exploiting the Earth’s limited supply of natural resources.

—It’s one of those ideas that change how you see the world, and I still remember how it felt to first read about it some two decades later, sat at a long table in the wood-panelled Geography department of my alma mater—

Then in early June of that same year, the United Nations held the first global conference on the environment in Stockholm, known since then as the Stockholm Conference. It was the first high-profile forum to platform ‘sustainable development’, and to link environmental protection and living conditions.

It became a pivotal moment, laying the foundations for environmental institutions that we now take for granted.

A Nature editorial published this week has more on the legacy over the ensuing years—and on missteps along the way.

There’s little doubt the event was a breakthrough that propelled regulation and policy instruments which continue to support global environment and development agendas to this day. In addition to the series of follow-on actions signposted in the editorial, it’s worth noting that the Stockholm Conference paved the way for the Brundtland Report that in the mid-1980s coined the classic definition of ‘sustainable development’:

“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

But, as we all know, this goal remains elusive.

On that note: Nature also calls out this week’s Stockholm+50 international meeting—designed as “both commemoration and call to action”—as a missed opportunity for the present-day sustainability agenda to gain political traction.

Here’s the thing. Back in the early seventies, part of the reason “the time was ripe for an environmental agenda to enter the world stage” was a nascent unease over the limits and costs of economic growth. This unease would only grow after the Stockholm Conference, with the 1973 oil crisis and the worldwide recession of the mid-1970s.

Such moments of entropy—or uncertainty, or unpredictability—are opportunities for change. And now, we have our own moment to seize.

Fifty years ago, that change was about environmental awareness. What’s today’s version?

I’ve explored this question by talking to a few experts in the field recently. My take-away is this: that the key is to reformulate the sustainability argument in a way that casts the environmental agenda as no different from the economic and prosperity agenda—and persuades politicians to move in the right direction.

When Limits to Growth began to ask questions over the link between natural resources and economic activity, the idea was new and controversial. It’s now understood that environmental issues have consequences for economies, societies and governance. But the dominant model of economic growth and development still excludes evidence on the impact of relying on ecosystems.

The divide between systems that govern nature and human prosperity is artificial, but it’s persistent.

In the here and now, the real opportunity for meaningful change lies in integrating sustainability into the tough economic choices that countries face today. Food, energy, living standards, poverty—these crises are preoccupying politicians the world over. It’s the moment to marshal focused evidence that shows how policies guided by sustainability can chart a way out.

The UN gives the right message with its Stockholm+50 concept note. But this thinking needs to go beyond concept notes.

That would be leadership equal to that which set off a momentous shift in how we think about development half a century ago.

TREND TO WATCH

Monkeypox infections are now starting to crop up across the Global South. Within Africa, where the disease is endemic, Nigeria has faced an unusual outbreak of monkeypox since 2017. But requests for help to understand the reasons didn’t get much of a response, according to Chikwe Ihekweazu, former director general of Nigeria’s CDC, who has said incidents of infection only got attention when they were exported out of Africa. Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo is battling the world’s largest outbreak. It’s still not clear why the virus has started to show an unusual pattern of spread outside the African continent. But we may now actually have a chance of finding out.

UNDER THE RADAR

Across the world, refugees and migrants continue to perish while seeking safe haven from violence and disaster. And for the first time ever, the number of forcibly displaced people has breached the 100 million mark. The rise is driven by conflict, such as the invasion of Ukraine and conflict in Afghanistan and parts of Africa—but acute natural disasters such as floods, droughts and cyclones, are still the main reason people flee their homes.

Based on Briefings published May 31 + May 24.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Vaccines bring optimism as COVID cases soar in South America - WaPo
Africa finally has enough COVID shots. Is it too little, too late? - Politico + Reuters
The pandemic’s true health cost: how much of our lives has COVID stolen? - Nature

DEVELOPMENT & RIGHTS

Mauritius protests: "When people feel lost, they resort to revolt" - African Arguments
Egypt’s bread crisis awakens old fears of political unrest - WSJ
The Xinjiang Police Files: Faces from China’s Uyghur detention camps - BBC + Sensemaker

HUMANITARIAN

Food crisis is soaring across Africa - ICRC + Reuters
Dozens dead, millions stranded as floods ravage Bangladesh and India - Guardian
Four million people hit by floods in Bangladesh: UN - France24

ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE

Climate change is harming a vital tool to combat it: forests - Axios
Debt suffocates African nations’ ability to respond to climate change - FT
Climate change ravages Iraq as palm trees make way for desert - Al Jazeera
Climate change boosted odds of record heat in Pakistan and India -WaPo

HEALTH

Global pollution kills 9 million people a year - AP
Mozambique records first wild polio case for three decades - Telegraph

From the week’s global soundtrack 🌐

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