IngentaConnect Sustainable development and climate change

Authors: MATTHEW, RICHARD A.¹; HAMMILL, ANNE²

Source: International Affairs, Volume 85, Number 6, November 2009 , pp. 1117-1128(12)

Abstract:

In 1987, the authors of Our common future argued that unless the world embraced and operationalized sustainable development, it would risk being overwhelmed by a series of interlocking crises related to population growth, urbanization, poverty and environmental degradation. Since then, many authors have argued that the world is on a worst case scenario trajectory. Post-Rio assessments of progress towards sustainable development have been largely negative. Since 1987, climate change has added a new stressor to the mix while shortening the time frame for transformation. In the context of accelerating change and converging stresses is the concept of sustainable development as compelling today as it was twenty years ago? Is it reasonable to believe there are means by which to reduce poverty and simultaneously protect the environment? This article briefly reviews the global challenges that first stimulated the concept of sustainable development and asks how contemporary processes of global change are affecting both these challenges and this approach to addressing them. While there are some grounds for optimism, several variables are identified that make sustainable development increasingly difficult to design and implement. The article concludes with an evaluation of how these difficulties might be overcome, and why it is essential that we try.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2009.00852.x

Affiliations: 1: Associate Professor of International and Environmental Politics at the Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science at the University of California, Irvine, and founding director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs. 2: Project Manager and Researcher for the Climate Change and Energy and Environment and Security programmes at the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

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