Response to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s
Action Agenda for Sustainable
Development 2015-2030
By
Alan N. Connor
The ten
proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are appropriate. They are
intended to establish a framework for implementing sustainable development post
2015 when the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) expire. The
terminology in some is very broad, general and amorphous and subject to a
variety of interpretations. To some extent, that too is appropriate. Because
need, ecology, resources and culture vary from community to community---rural
agricultural vs. urban industrial, temperate vs. tropical vs. arctic---
different goal definitions and specifics are appropriate for different places. Strategy
and tactical action has to vary from place to place to account for those
variations.
The report
defines problems and barriers to achievement of MDG goals and targets. It sets
a general frame for modifying the means to approach some of those targets via
the SDGs that are slated to replace the 2000-2015 MDGs. But specific strategies are often absent.
The
authors argue correctly that going back to doing Business As Usual (BAU) prior
to the 2008 financial collapse, will not enable sustainable development. They
point out that it was a major cause of the failure to reach most MDG targets as
well as the cause of the 2008 recession. Nevertheless, they advocate
instituting and continuing much of the same global big business investment in
developing countries and global institutional control of critical systems—eg:
energy, transportation, international relations and trade.
They are
for the inclusion of the poor, near poor and workers of the World in global and
national policy conversations. A strategy for including them is not discussed.
The report mentions, in a number of places, giving them power to participate.
Leaders of multi and transnational corporations, international institutions,
multi and transnational corporations do not voluntarily share or give up power.
It has to be taken. Too often it has been taken or attempted to be taken by violent
revolution. We need a strategy of inclusion that by passes that.
There is
hope now days that the transfer of some power to the common people, so they can
participate in and actually influence the conversations, will be nonviolent. We
saw that two years ago in Tunisia. I saw it work in the city of Dayton, Ohio in
the 70s. A number of civil societies and NGOs in developing countries are
speaking up. Some have written responses to this report and to the High Level
Panel’s (HLP) report on the Post 2015 Agenda. Because they may have support of
their governments and their sheer numbers, they may be able to defy extant
leaders and institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with immunity .
The
Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was composed of members of a
number of professional, business, academic, scientific and civic organizations.
One is the International Society of
Ecological
Economics (ISEE) of which I am a member, although I am not an economist. They mean well. But most have no idea of what
the poor and near poor have been up against for centuries. Many, maybe most
network members have been indoctrinated in conventional, neo-classical
economics and
and cling
to those theories and practices.
Although in their report they claim those BAU practices have failed and
will continue to do so, thinking of another paradigm is difficult. Some of
their proposals are tweaks of that paradigm.
In their
draft, they support a global economy and global governance. They give lip
service to localization but do not really support it. For those from poor,
developing countries or from any country, to participate in policy
conversations effectively their power will have to be accepted by those now in
power.
(The red print is my thoughts or what I think needs to be included.)
1
Sustainable
development has four dimensions according to the network. They are (1) Economic
Development to end extreme poverty, (2) Social Inclusion, (3) Environmental
Sustainability and (4) Good Governance.
Economic
Development is not defined or described. I assume that since it is a term in
that has been in wide use by many for a
number of years, the network assumed no definition for the purposes of their
discussion
was needed. Extreme poverty is defined as household income below $1.25 per day.
That is extreme. There are other definitions I won’t mention here.
Social
Inclusion is not defined. To me, it means including all people in policy making
conversations at all levels of government from local municipal to global. It
also means including all people’s access to natural resources, education, work,
health care and other community opportunities.
Environmental
Sustainability means staying within Earth’s planetary boundaries. That is, do
not extract or
harvest
Earth’s resources at rates faster than the resources can reproduce or
regenerate themselves.
Good Governance
is non-corrupt, transparent, socially just and open to participation of all
interested and concerned people---i.e. it is inclusive.
The
Ten Sustainable Development Goals
1.
Eradicate Extreme Poverty: Poverty that is not extreme is not
defined. What they are shooting for by implication is prosperity for all. The network’s major strategy is “adopt
sustainable agricultural methods worldwide, also maintain a clean water
supply—no ag chemical or livestock pollutants. Stabilizing
population and producing food primarily for local community consumption and
sustainability is not mentioned. Community food and natural resource
sovereignty are not mentioned, nor is any means of production other than
agriculture. Later in 7, productive cities are discussed.
2.
Development Within Planetary
Boundaries: Limit extraction
and harvesting of natural resources to the rate at which they can be
reproduced. Decouple resource use from income and economic growth. Shift to low
carbon energy sources for agriculture, transit, energy generation and
construction of buildings and infrastructure. Not
included were: reduce discarding goods to rates at which the ecosystem can
absorb them. That reduces pollution and helps maintain biodiversity. Also not
included --- as all ecological economists do---is coupling resource use with
local community ecological, economic and social sustainability and banning the
conversion of non-renewable resources to nonessentials.
3.
Effective
Learning for All Children and Youth for a Livelihood: Adopt
a lifecycle perspective on the learning needs of individuals of all ages. In
some communities and cultures, training for many traditional occupations has
been shunned or ignored. Starting in early childhood, access to learning those
occupations---farming, fishing,
forestry--- should be supported in ecologically sound ways .(Italics added for emphasis.) Societies need to (1) promote
and support the central role of teacher, especially the innovative teacher, (2) look beyond traditional and formal
schools (3) support and implement adult women’s functional literacy. Literate mothers enable
early childhood learning. Also vocational education and
apprenticeships to connect students with potential employers and jobs. Does not mention that
business, particularly multi and transnationals are not in business to create
jobs and employment. Local governments and communities must work to develop
economically, ecologically and socially sustainable work roles and enable local
people to learn to competently perform them and be justly compensated.
2
4.
Gender Equality, Social Inclusion, Human Rights: To me
this is one of the very broad and amorphous goals. Human Rights covers a lot of
territory. Discrimination of any group undermines sustainable development. The
strategy suggested for achieving this goal is instituting legal and
administrative reforms---actions---that
realize, not guarantee, the economic and
social rights, including equal access to basic public services and
infrastructure of all members of society. I would add: legally guarantee equal access of all members of the
community to the community’s natural and capital resources on the condition
that extraction, harvesting and use of such resource increases the probability
of community sustainability. Promote peace, eliminate violent civil
conflict. Missing
is a strategy for promoting peace---within communities, nations, the World---or
eliminating violent civil conflict.
5.
Achieve
Health and Well Being for All: Well being is not defined, therefore
amorphous to me. It could be defined as a minimum quality of life, a life style, standard of living all
of which might vary by person, place or culture. Socio-economic status or
minimum income level---a lot higher than $1.25 per day---might be used to
define it. The suggested strategy includes (1) deploy more community
health workers, (2) increase public investment in extension of primary health
systems, (3) develop and establish universal health coverage. But a strategy is needed to
do that.
6.
Improve
Agricultural Systems, Raise Rural Prosperity: Identifies
environmental problems in food production including human induced climate
change, inefficient
use of water and loss of bio-diversity. It IDs the malfunctioning of the ag-industrial
food chain but
specifies no particular mal-functions. Points to post harvest waste, which is
significant, and spoilage due to poor storage and processing systems. Does not address a worldwide
food distribution system that delivers food to the economic elites and bypasses
poor and working class communities, nor the export emphasis of industrial
agribusiness which prices agriculture labor out of the food market it produces.
Strategically, It does support enabling small land holders to produce
increased yields for and connect to local and wider markets.
Pushing soil
too hard usually requires chemicals that feed plants, degrade soil and pollute
ground and surface water via runoff. Claims net food production, worldwide, will
have to increase 70 percent by 2050 to feed the increasing population. It does not address reducing food waste by 70 percent or
more, population control or correcting the maldistribution problem. Bringing
more land into production is suggested. They do not consider what types of land should not be converted to
agriculture.
7.
Empower Inclusive, Productive, Resilient Cities: This is another amorphous one. Urban
populations and densities are projected to increase. Half the World’s
population now is Urban.
Problems are cited. Urban poverty and slums
being two major ones. The strategy is to reduce poverty, end slum formation and
increase productivity---of what?---and insure universal access to
infrastructure and services such as housing, water reticulation, sanitation,
waste and insuring
such universal access. It does argue for the use of modern
technologies, particularly information communication technology (ICT) to ”help
improve city governance, energy and resource use efficiency, delivery of
services and create employment opportunities.” ICT can underpin smart grids---maybe---for
urban power, water, transport, education and health care.
8.
Curb
Human Induced Climate Change and Ensure Clean Energy for All: Defines
the problem, its seriousness and its various aspects. Strategies include (1)
increase energy efficiency, (2) increase urban land use density, (3)
intelligent power grids, (4) increase use of renewable energy sources—possibly
nuclear---and carbon capture and sequestration, (5) reduce deforestation and
emission reduction in agriculture, (6) reduction of industrial GHG emissions. Local community cooperative
or municipal ownership of power generating, storage and transmission systems
emphasized and encouraged. Development of new technologies to
accomplish the above. The network claims that transformation of energy use in
the industrial and agricultural systems of the World---I would add developed World---will
perhaps be the greatest
3
political, technical and organizational challenge... feat if accomplished humanity
will ever face. Throughout the draft,
transfer of technology from.the rich, industrially developed world to the
developing world is stressed. Innovative people in developing
countries often develop technologies that are more appropriate to their
environment and culture using local materials and resources that are less
costly than imported technologies.
9. Secure Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity
and Good management of Natural Resources:
Ensure
robust ecosystems—oceans, seas, coastal zones forests, mountains, dry and
wetlands. Require polluters to pay. All—government,
business, institutions, CSOs—participate in and protect and preserve
local, regional ecosystems including environmental commons—fertile
ground, rivers, creeks, aquifers, woodland. Have robust, transparent, monitoring, inventory and
protective systems in place by 2020. Local
communities should have sovereignty over all common natural and capital
resources within their jurisdictions. All local and regional governments and businesses/farms
commit to transparent management agricultural land, mines, woodlands, water and hydrocarbon resources. All the above are good means and
ends to shoot for, but we need to plan strategies to develop and establish
them.
10.Transform Governance for Sustainable Development: “The public sector, business…commit
to
transparency, accountability and government without corruption.” Committing and following
through are two different behaviors. A strong community civil society of common
people is needed to ensure non-corruption.
“International rules governing international finance,
trade, corporate reporting, technology, and intellectual property should be
made constant achieving SDGs. I’m not sure what that means
but international and national rules on those issues should not preempt local
and regional mores, customs and laws. The three targets look OK but intellectual property needs
redefining and reconsideration as a useful sustainable development construct.
Response to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s
Action Agenda for Sustainable
Development 2015-2030
By
Alan N. Connor
The ten
proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are appropriate. They are
intended to establish a framework for implementing sustainable development post
2015 when the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) expire. The
terminology in some is very broad, general and amorphous and subject to a
variety of interpretations. To some extent, that too is appropriate. Because
need, ecology, resources and culture vary from community to community---rural
agricultural vs. urban industrial, temperate vs. tropical vs. arctic---
different goal definitions and specifics are appropriate for different places. Strategy
and tactical action has to vary from place to place to account for those
variations.
The report
defines problems and barriers to achievement of MDG goals and targets. It sets
a general frame for modifying the means to approach some of those targets via
the SDGs that are slated to replace the 2000-2015 MDGs. But specific strategies are often absent.
The
authors argue correctly that going back to doing Business As Usual (BAU) prior
to the 2008 financial collapse, will not enable sustainable development. They
point out that it was a major cause of the failure to reach most MDG targets as
well as the cause of the 2008 recession. Nevertheless, they advocate
instituting and continuing much of the same global big business investment in
developing countries and global institutional control of critical systems—eg:
energy, transportation, international relations and trade.
They are
for the inclusion of the poor, near poor and workers of the World in global and
national policy conversations. A strategy for including them is not discussed.
The report mentions, in a number of places, giving them power to participate.
Leaders of multi and transnational corporations, international institutions,
multi and transnational corporations do not voluntarily share or give up power.
It has to be taken. Too often it has been taken or attempted to be taken by violent
revolution. We need a strategy of inclusion that by passes that.
There is
hope now days that the transfer of some power to the common people, so they can
participate in and actually influence the conversations, will be nonviolent. We
saw that two years ago in Tunisia. I saw it work in the city of Dayton, Ohio in
the 70s. A number of civil societies and NGOs in developing countries are
speaking up. Some have written responses to this report and to the High Level
Panel’s (HLP) report on the Post 2015 Agenda. Because they may have support of
their governments and their sheer numbers, they may be able to defy extant
leaders and institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with immunity .
The
Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was composed of members of a
number of professional, business, academic, scientific and civic organizations.
One is the International Society of
Ecological
Economics (ISEE) of which I am a member, although I am not an economist. They mean well. But most have no idea of what
the poor and near poor have been up against for centuries. Many, maybe most
network members have been indoctrinated in conventional, neo-classical
economics and
and cling
to those theories and practices.
Although in their report they claim those BAU practices have failed and
will continue to do so, thinking of another paradigm is difficult. Some of
their proposals are tweaks of that paradigm.
In their
draft, they support a global economy and global governance. They give lip
service to localization but do not really support it. For those from poor,
developing countries or from any country, to participate in policy
conversations effectively their power will have to be accepted by those now in
power.
(The red print is my thoughts or what I think needs to be included.)
1
Sustainable
development has four dimensions according to the network. They are (1) Economic
Development to end extreme poverty, (2) Social Inclusion, (3) Environmental
Sustainability and (4) Good Governance.
Economic
Development is not defined or described. I assume that since it is a term in
that has been in wide use by many for a
number of years, the network assumed no definition for the purposes of their
discussion
was needed. Extreme poverty is defined as household income below $1.25 per day.
That is extreme. There are other definitions I won’t mention here.
Social
Inclusion is not defined. To me, it means including all people in policy making
conversations at all levels of government from local municipal to global. It
also means including all people’s access to natural resources, education, work,
health care and other community opportunities.
Environmental
Sustainability means staying within Earth’s planetary boundaries. That is, do
not extract or
harvest
Earth’s resources at rates faster than the resources can reproduce or
regenerate themselves.
Good Governance
is non-corrupt, transparent, socially just and open to participation of all
interested and concerned people---i.e. it is inclusive.
The
Ten Sustainable Development Goals
1.
Eradicate Extreme Poverty: Poverty that is not extreme is not
defined. What they are shooting for by implication is prosperity for all. The network’s major strategy is “adopt
sustainable agricultural methods worldwide, also maintain a clean water
supply—no ag chemical or livestock pollutants. Stabilizing
population and producing food primarily for local community consumption and
sustainability is not mentioned. Community food and natural resource
sovereignty are not mentioned, nor is any means of production other than
agriculture. Later in 7, productive cities are discussed.
2.
Development Within Planetary
Boundaries: Limit extraction
and harvesting of natural resources to the rate at which they can be
reproduced. Decouple resource use from income and economic growth. Shift to low
carbon energy sources for agriculture, transit, energy generation and
construction of buildings and infrastructure. Not
included were: reduce discarding goods to rates at which the ecosystem can
absorb them. That reduces pollution and helps maintain biodiversity. Also not
included --- as all ecological economists do---is coupling resource use with
local community ecological, economic and social sustainability and banning the
conversion of non-renewable resources to nonessentials.
3.
Effective
Learning for All Children and Youth for a Livelihood: Adopt
a lifecycle perspective on the learning needs of individuals of all ages. In
some communities and cultures, training for many traditional occupations has
been shunned or ignored. Starting in early childhood, access to learning those
occupations---farming, fishing,
forestry--- should be supported in ecologically sound ways .(Italics added for emphasis.) Societies need to (1) promote
and support the central role of teacher, especially the innovative teacher, (2) look beyond traditional and formal
schools (3) support and implement adult women’s functional literacy. Literate mothers enable
early childhood learning. Also vocational education and
apprenticeships to connect students with potential employers and jobs. Does not mention that
business, particularly multi and transnationals are not in business to create
jobs and employment. Local governments and communities must work to develop
economically, ecologically and socially sustainable work roles and enable local
people to learn to competently perform them and be justly compensated.
2
4.
Gender Equality, Social Inclusion, Human Rights: To me
this is one of the very broad and amorphous goals. Human Rights covers a lot of
territory. Discrimination of any group undermines sustainable development. The
strategy suggested for achieving this goal is instituting legal and
administrative reforms---actions---that
realize, not guarantee, the economic and
social rights, including equal access to basic public services and
infrastructure of all members of society. I would add: legally guarantee equal access of all members of the
community to the community’s natural and capital resources on the condition
that extraction, harvesting and use of such resource increases the probability
of community sustainability. Promote peace, eliminate violent civil
conflict. Missing
is a strategy for promoting peace---within communities, nations, the World---or
eliminating violent civil conflict.
5.
Achieve
Health and Well Being for All: Well being is not defined, therefore
amorphous to me. It could be defined as a minimum quality of life, a life style, standard of living all
of which might vary by person, place or culture. Socio-economic status or
minimum income level---a lot higher than $1.25 per day---might be used to
define it. The suggested strategy includes (1) deploy more community
health workers, (2) increase public investment in extension of primary health
systems, (3) develop and establish universal health coverage. But a strategy is needed to
do that.
6.
Improve
Agricultural Systems, Raise Rural Prosperity: Identifies
environmental problems in food production including human induced climate
change, inefficient
use of water and loss of bio-diversity. It IDs the malfunctioning of the ag-industrial
food chain but
specifies no particular mal-functions. Points to post harvest waste, which is
significant, and spoilage due to poor storage and processing systems. Does not address a worldwide
food distribution system that delivers food to the economic elites and bypasses
poor and working class communities, nor the export emphasis of industrial
agribusiness which prices agriculture labor out of the food market it produces.
Strategically, It does support enabling small land holders to produce
increased yields for and connect to local and wider markets.
Pushing soil
too hard usually requires chemicals that feed plants, degrade soil and pollute
ground and surface water via runoff. Claims net food production, worldwide, will
have to increase 70 percent by 2050 to feed the increasing population. It does not address reducing food waste by 70 percent or
more, population control or correcting the maldistribution problem. Bringing
more land into production is suggested. They do not consider what types of land should not be converted to
agriculture.
7.
Empower Inclusive, Productive, Resilient Cities: This is another amorphous one. Urban
populations and densities are projected to increase. Half the World’s
population now is Urban.
Problems are cited. Urban poverty and slums
being two major ones. The strategy is to reduce poverty, end slum formation and
increase productivity---of what?---and insure universal access to
infrastructure and services such as housing, water reticulation, sanitation,
waste and insuring
such universal access. It does argue for the use of modern
technologies, particularly information communication technology (ICT) to ”help
improve city governance, energy and resource use efficiency, delivery of
services and create employment opportunities.” ICT can underpin smart grids---maybe---for
urban power, water, transport, education and health care.
8.
Curb
Human Induced Climate Change and Ensure Clean Energy for All: Defines
the problem, its seriousness and its various aspects. Strategies include (1)
increase energy efficiency, (2) increase urban land use density, (3)
intelligent power grids, (4) increase use of renewable energy sources—possibly
nuclear---and carbon capture and sequestration, (5) reduce deforestation and
emission reduction in agriculture, (6) reduction of industrial GHG emissions. Local community cooperative
or municipal ownership of power generating, storage and transmission systems
emphasized and encouraged. Development of new technologies to
accomplish the above. The network claims that transformation of energy use in
the industrial and agricultural systems of the World---I would add developed World---will
perhaps be the greatest
3
political, technical and organizational challenge... feat if accomplished humanity
will ever face. Throughout the draft,
transfer of technology from.the rich, industrially developed world to the
developing world is stressed. Innovative people in developing
countries often develop technologies that are more appropriate to their
environment and culture using local materials and resources that are less
costly than imported technologies.
9. Secure Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity
and Good management of Natural Resources:
Ensure
robust ecosystems—oceans, seas, coastal zones forests, mountains, dry and
wetlands. Require polluters to pay. All—government,
business, institutions, CSOs—participate in and protect and preserve
local, regional ecosystems including environmental commons—fertile
ground, rivers, creeks, aquifers, woodland. Have robust, transparent, monitoring, inventory and
protective systems in place by 2020. Local
communities should have sovereignty over all common natural and capital
resources within their jurisdictions. All local and regional governments and businesses/farms
commit to transparent management agricultural land, mines, woodlands, water and hydrocarbon resources. All the above are good means and
ends to shoot for, but we need to plan strategies to develop and establish
them.
10.Transform Governance for Sustainable Development: “The public sector, business…commit
to
transparency, accountability and government without corruption.” Committing and following
through are two different behaviors. A strong community civil society of common
people is needed to ensure non-corruption.
“International rules governing international finance,
trade, corporate reporting, technology, and intellectual property should be
made constant achieving SDGs. I’m not sure what that means
but international and national rules on those issues should not preempt local
and regional mores, customs and laws. The three targets look OK but intellectual property needs
redefining and reconsideration as a useful sustainable development construct.
Response to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s
Action Agenda for Sustainable
Development 2015-2030
By
Alan N. Connor
The ten
proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are appropriate. They are
intended to establish a framework for implementing sustainable development post
2015 when the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) expire. The
terminology in some is very broad, general and amorphous and subject to a
variety of interpretations. To some extent, that too is appropriate. Because
need, ecology, resources and culture vary from community to community---rural
agricultural vs. urban industrial, temperate vs. tropical vs. arctic---
different goal definitions and specifics are appropriate for different places. Strategy
and tactical action has to vary from place to place to account for those
variations.
The report
defines problems and barriers to achievement of MDG goals and targets. It sets
a general frame for modifying the means to approach some of those targets via
the SDGs that are slated to replace the 2000-2015 MDGs. But specific strategies are often absent.
The
authors argue correctly that going back to doing Business As Usual (BAU) prior
to the 2008 financial collapse, will not enable sustainable development. They
point out that it was a major cause of the failure to reach most MDG targets as
well as the cause of the 2008 recession. Nevertheless, they advocate
instituting and continuing much of the same global big business investment in
developing countries and global institutional control of critical systems—eg:
energy, transportation, international relations and trade.
They are
for the inclusion of the poor, near poor and workers of the World in global and
national policy conversations. A strategy for including them is not discussed.
The report mentions, in a number of places, giving them power to participate.
Leaders of multi and transnational corporations, international institutions,
multi and transnational corporations do not voluntarily share or give up power.
It has to be taken. Too often it has been taken or attempted to be taken by violent
revolution. We need a strategy of inclusion that by passes that.
There is
hope now days that the transfer of some power to the common people, so they can
participate in and actually influence the conversations, will be nonviolent. We
saw that two years ago in Tunisia. I saw it work in the city of Dayton, Ohio in
the 70s. A number of civil societies and NGOs in developing countries are
speaking up. Some have written responses to this report and to the High Level
Panel’s (HLP) report on the Post 2015 Agenda. Because they may have support of
their governments and their sheer numbers, they may be able to defy extant
leaders and institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) with immunity .
The
Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was composed of members of a
number of professional, business, academic, scientific and civic organizations.
One is the International Society of
Ecological
Economics (ISEE) of which I am a member, although I am not an economist. They mean well. But most have no idea of what
the poor and near poor have been up against for centuries. Many, maybe most
network members have been indoctrinated in conventional, neo-classical
economics and
and cling
to those theories and practices.
Although in their report they claim those BAU practices have failed and
will continue to do so, thinking of another paradigm is difficult. Some of
their proposals are tweaks of that paradigm.
In their
draft, they support a global economy and global governance. They give lip
service to localization but do not really support it. For those from poor,
developing countries or from any country, to participate in policy
conversations effectively their power will have to be accepted by those now in
power.
(The red print is my thoughts or what I think needs to be included.)
1
Sustainable
development has four dimensions according to the network. They are (1) Economic
Development to end extreme poverty, (2) Social Inclusion, (3) Environmental
Sustainability and (4) Good Governance.
Economic
Development is not defined or described. I assume that since it is a term in
that has been in wide use by many for a
number of years, the network assumed no definition for the purposes of their
discussion
was needed. Extreme poverty is defined as household income below $1.25 per day.
That is extreme. There are other definitions I won’t mention here.
Social
Inclusion is not defined. To me, it means including all people in policy making
conversations at all levels of government from local municipal to global. It
also means including all people’s access to natural resources, education, work,
health care and other community opportunities.
Environmental
Sustainability means staying within Earth’s planetary boundaries. That is, do
not extract or
harvest
Earth’s resources at rates faster than the resources can reproduce or
regenerate themselves.
Good Governance
is non-corrupt, transparent, socially just and open to participation of all
interested and concerned people---i.e. it is inclusive.
The
Ten Sustainable Development Goals
1.
Eradicate Extreme Poverty: Poverty that is not extreme is not
defined. What they are shooting for by implication is prosperity for all. The network’s major strategy is “adopt
sustainable agricultural methods worldwide, also maintain a clean water
supply—no ag chemical or livestock pollutants. Stabilizing
population and producing food primarily for local community consumption and
sustainability is not mentioned. Community food and natural resource
sovereignty are not mentioned, nor is any means of production other than
agriculture. Later in 7, productive cities are discussed.
2.
Development Within Planetary
Boundaries: Limit extraction
and harvesting of natural resources to the rate at which they can be
reproduced. Decouple resource use from income and economic growth. Shift to low
carbon energy sources for agriculture, transit, energy generation and
construction of buildings and infrastructure. Not
included were: reduce discarding goods to rates at which the ecosystem can
absorb them. That reduces pollution and helps maintain biodiversity. Also not
included --- as all ecological economists do---is coupling resource use with
local community ecological, economic and social sustainability and banning the
conversion of non-renewable resources to nonessentials.
3.
Effective
Learning for All Children and Youth for a Livelihood: Adopt
a lifecycle perspective on the learning needs of individuals of all ages. In
some communities and cultures, training for many traditional occupations has
been shunned or ignored. Starting in early childhood, access to learning those
occupations---farming, fishing,
forestry--- should be supported in ecologically sound ways .(Italics added for emphasis.) Societies need to (1) promote
and support the central role of teacher, especially the innovative teacher, (2) look beyond traditional and formal
schools (3) support and implement adult women’s functional literacy. Literate mothers enable
early childhood learning. Also vocational education and
apprenticeships to connect students with potential employers and jobs. Does not mention that
business, particularly multi and transnationals are not in business to create
jobs and employment. Local governments and communities must work to develop
economically, ecologically and socially sustainable work roles and enable local
people to learn to competently perform them and be justly compensated.
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4.
Gender Equality, Social Inclusion, Human Rights: To me
this is one of the very broad and amorphous goals. Human Rights covers a lot of
territory. Discrimination of any group undermines sustainable development. The
strategy suggested for achieving this goal is instituting legal and
administrative reforms---actions---that
realize, not guarantee, the economic and
social rights, including equal access to basic public services and
infrastructure of all members of society. I would add: legally guarantee equal access of all members of the
community to the community’s natural and capital resources on the condition
that extraction, harvesting and use of such resource increases the probability
of community sustainability. Promote peace, eliminate violent civil
conflict. Missing
is a strategy for promoting peace---within communities, nations, the World---or
eliminating violent civil conflict.
5.
Achieve
Health and Well Being for All: Well being is not defined, therefore
amorphous to me. It could be defined as a minimum quality of life, a life style, standard of living all
of which might vary by person, place or culture. Socio-economic status or
minimum income level---a lot higher than $1.25 per day---might be used to
define it. The suggested strategy includes (1) deploy more community
health workers, (2) increase public investment in extension of primary health
systems, (3) develop and establish universal health coverage. But a strategy is needed to
do that.
6.
Improve
Agricultural Systems, Raise Rural Prosperity: Identifies
environmental problems in food production including human induced climate
change, inefficient
use of water and loss of bio-diversity. It IDs the malfunctioning of the ag-industrial
food chain but
specifies no particular mal-functions. Points to post harvest waste, which is
significant, and spoilage due to poor storage and processing systems. Does not address a worldwide
food distribution system that delivers food to the economic elites and bypasses
poor and working class communities, nor the export emphasis of industrial
agribusiness which prices agriculture labor out of the food market it produces.
Strategically, It does support enabling small land holders to produce
increased yields for and connect to local and wider markets.
Pushing soil
too hard usually requires chemicals that feed plants, degrade soil and pollute
ground and surface water via runoff. Claims net food production, worldwide, will
have to increase 70 percent by 2050 to feed the increasing population. It does not address reducing food waste by 70 percent or
more, population control or correcting the maldistribution problem. Bringing
more land into production is suggested. They do not consider what types of land should not be converted to
agriculture.
7.
Empower Inclusive, Productive, Resilient Cities: This is another amorphous one. Urban
populations and densities are projected to increase. Half the World’s
population now is Urban.
Problems are cited. Urban poverty and slums
being two major ones. The strategy is to reduce poverty, end slum formation and
increase productivity---of what?---and insure universal access to
infrastructure and services such as housing, water reticulation, sanitation,
waste and insuring
such universal access. It does argue for the use of modern
technologies, particularly information communication technology (ICT) to ”help
improve city governance, energy and resource use efficiency, delivery of
services and create employment opportunities.” ICT can underpin smart grids---maybe---for
urban power, water, transport, education and health care.
8.
Curb
Human Induced Climate Change and Ensure Clean Energy for All: Defines
the problem, its seriousness and its various aspects. Strategies include (1)
increase energy efficiency, (2) increase urban land use density, (3)
intelligent power grids, (4) increase use of renewable energy sources—possibly
nuclear---and carbon capture and sequestration, (5) reduce deforestation and
emission reduction in agriculture, (6) reduction of industrial GHG emissions. Local community cooperative
or municipal ownership of power generating, storage and transmission systems
emphasized and encouraged. Development of new technologies to
accomplish the above. The network claims that transformation of energy use in
the industrial and agricultural systems of the World---I would add developed World---will
perhaps be the greatest
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political, technical and organizational challenge... feat if accomplished humanity
will ever face. Throughout the draft,
transfer of technology from.the rich, industrially developed world to the
developing world is stressed. Innovative people in developing
countries often develop technologies that are more appropriate to their
environment and culture using local materials and resources that are less
costly than imported technologies.
9. Secure Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity
and Good management of Natural Resources:
Ensure
robust ecosystems—oceans, seas, coastal zones forests, mountains, dry and
wetlands. Require polluters to pay. All—government,
business, institutions, CSOs—participate in and protect and preserve
local, regional ecosystems including environmental commons—fertile
ground, rivers, creeks, aquifers, woodland. Have robust, transparent, monitoring, inventory and
protective systems in place by 2020. Local
communities should have sovereignty over all common natural and capital
resources within their jurisdictions. All local and regional governments and businesses/farms
commit to transparent management agricultural land, mines, woodlands, water and hydrocarbon resources. All the above are good means and
ends to shoot for, but we need to plan strategies to develop and establish
them.
10.Transform Governance for Sustainable Development: “The public sector, business…commit
to
transparency, accountability and government without corruption.” Committing and following
through are two different behaviors. A strong community civil society of common
people is needed to ensure non-corruption.
“International rules governing international finance,
trade, corporate reporting, technology, and intellectual property should be
made constant achieving SDGs. I’m not sure what that means
but international and national rules on those issues should not preempt local
and regional mores, customs and laws. The three targets look OK but intellectual property needs
redefining and reconsideration as a useful sustainable development construct.
