E.

Towards a Sustainable World

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

This module discusses the essence and reality

of a sustainable world. It starts with a brief
discussion on the need for industrialization and the
problems that come with it. It then proceeds to what
sustainable development is and focuses on the
importance of highlighting environmental
considerations in terms of development and how
countries must be conscious of the role of the
environment in development.
Source: United Nations (SDG)

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this module, the learners are expected to:

1. Determine the significance of sustainable development globalized world.
2. Differentiate the concept of stability from sustainability; and
3. Evaluate the concept of sustainable development in shrinking world.

DIAGNOSTICS:

Instructions: Write AGREE if you think the statement is correct; otherwise, DISAGREE.
1. Sustainable development is just an ideal pattern or trend.
2. Sustainable development can only be achieved by developed countries.
3. Environment plays a minor role in achieving sustainable development.
4. Sustainability is a vague concept in international relations.
5. There is a difference between stability and sustainability.

Industrialization is a process wherein a country transitions from an agriculture-based

economy and employment to one that is based on manufacturing. This usually involves
clearing of land for industrial use and the establishment of factories where rational and
organized (efficient) production and employment related to it is prioritized.

The fundamental reason for industrialization is the promotion of economic and social
development. This occurs through the following ways:

1. Industrialization means a country can produce a wider range of higher value goods –
both for sale at home and for export abroad.

2. Industrialization encourages the emergence of other businesses to meet the needs

of interrelated industries such as coal mining to provide power, metal fabrication
for infrastructures, research and development on new compounds for food
manufacturing etc.

3. Industrialization eventually means a country will be less dependent on manufactured

imports from abroad.

4. Industrialization requires workers – who will be paid wages – which gives them more
money and stimulates demand in the economy and further economic and social
development.

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5. Industrialization requires sectors of educated workforce (management, research,

administration, etc.) which encourages the government to invest in education.

6. Industrialization leads to urbanization – as workers flock to factories to find work,

these geographical spaces take on more urban qualities.

There are more reasons, but what it all implies is that in order for less-developed countries
(Global South) to achieve considerable levels of development in order to eradicate poverty
and improve the living conditions of its constituents, they need to catch up to the
development level of industrialized nations (Global North). The latter has already the
“template” to achieve this development, so the former only needs to copy it, so to speak.

This has been done for several decades already. Like globalization, industrialization and
development tends to be uneven for several reasons:

1.) Colonialism puts some countries on the forefront of industrialization because

former colonizers already benefited economically and politically from their former
colonies.

2.) Poverty cycles put more obstacles in different social institutions for improving
the economy for people and governments in less-industrialized countries.

3.) Global trading systems, although they routinely get raw materials from poorer
countries, get wealthier from such transactions because they control more capital
that are produced in their own countries, while poorer countries have to import them
from wealthier ones.

4.) Physical causes such as climate, geography, topography, lack of natural resource
and natural disasters stifle development efforts.

Industrialization is a boon for almost everyone. It indeed improved a lot of living conditions
and modernized a lot of lives, but it also created new and unanticipated problems with it in
the economic, political, social and cultural domains. It also came at a heavy price: the issue
whether such a grand development agenda is sustainable for the planet itself.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS IMPACTS

CLIMATE ACTION ACCELERATED?
-The numbers are in: The past decade has been the warmest in recorded history. Deadly
wildfires including those affecting Australia, hurricanes, extreme weather events, and
climate-influenced migration and hunger in many parts of the world are now regular
occurrences. Ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and the very survival of island nations
is being threatened. Indeed, our entire ecosystem is at risk: 1 million animal and plant species
may be extinct within years, the largest-scale ecological loss humans have seen. (Source.
Brown, 2020. 5 GLOBAL ISSUES TO WATCH IN 2020. United Nations.org)

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Figure 1. The Global Greenhouse gas emissions under current scenario. It reveals that the
decade to significantly curb carbon emission and avoid catastrophe, it face an even more
pressing mandate. There is a need to halve global emissions by 2030 but the emissions gap
between what is needed and the current commitments is significant. Starting this year, it
need to cut emissions by 7.6% every year for the next 10 years to limit warming to 1.5
degrees.

Impacts of Climate Change:

A. Environmental
- Degradation of soil quality (salinity, moisture levels, erosion, fertility and nutrition)
- Excessive flooding in coastal areas
- More erratic and extreme weather conditions / disturbances
- Increased risk from pests, disease and invasive non-native species
- Increase in water temperature, quality degradation and shortage

B. Economic
- Increased risk for agriculture and fisheries
- Precarity of infrastructures mainly due to weather disturbances
- Increase of human health problems
- Losses in businesses, finance and tourism

C. Socio-Cultural
- Vulnerability of marginalized sectors (Ethnic minorities/IPs, PWDs, elderly,
refugees, etc.)
- Vulnerability of the poor due to the fact that their livelihoods are primarily tied to
the natural world (agriculture and aquaculture)
- Habitat loss cause great impacts on the cultural identities of many groups
- Disruption of community life due to natural catastrophes
- Social mobility is impeded due to disruptions of livelihood

UNITED NATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

1. A DECADE TO DELIVER ON THE SDGS
- The start of 2020 ushers in the ten-year countdown to deliver the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and is a crucial year for ensuring our policies, financing,
and ambition align to reach the Goals by 2030. The first four years since the
Goals’ launch witnessed new commitments, coalitions, and approaches among
national
governments from
the developed and
developing world,
local actors and
leaders, the
investment
community and
private sector, and
other non-state
actors. For its part,
the United Nations
embarked on a major
reform effort to

Figure 2. Extreme Poverty is Becoming concentrated in Africa

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better deliver on the SDGs. The relationship between climate, the SDGs, and
peace has also come into greater focus.

Figure 2. shows the world has made substantial strides: The extreme poverty rate
has fallen below 8%, the lowest recorded level in human history. For the first time
since the start of the SDGs, the number of people in extreme poverty in Africa is
decreasing. India, once a global hot spot for poverty, is now on track to end extreme
poverty. Children around the world are living longer and healthier lives. The mortality
rate in children under five has nearly halved over the last twenty years and more
children than ever are receiving an education, getting necessary vaccinations, and
drinking clean water. More people have access to electricity and nearly three-
quarters of the world has essential health services.

Figure 3 illustrate the account for

world extreme poor in 2030. These
bright spots the world is off track to
realize the global goals by the end of
this coming decade. On today’s
trajectory, nearly half a billion
people will still live in extreme
poverty in 2030: 589 million today
compared with 479 million in ten
years. The overwhelming majority of
those will be in Africa, affected by a
warming planet and unstable
societies. Poverty data for most of
Sub-Saharan Africa, for example,
Figure 3. Percentage of Extreme poor in 2023
comes from information gathered
before the creation of the SDGs five years ago: a reminder that we urgently need
more and better data if we are even to know for sure how we are doing, and what
policies are working.

2. INEQUALITY AND EXCLUSION IN FOCUS

Figure 4. A new Framework for Inequality

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Inequality is at the heart of many of the gravest issues facing the global
community, including development, climate, and peace. It affects people and
structures across societies and borders and threatens to stymie hard-fought
development gains.
What does this mean? A recent United Nations report shows that 20% of
development progress was lost in recent years due to the unequal distribution of
education, health, and living standards. The World Economic Forum has calculated
that it will take women almost 100 years to reach gender equality. Exclusionary
practices in security, justice, and politics are at the heart of many violent conflicts
today. And it is seen as a key factor in the rise of protests around the globe, which
shows no signs of abating in 2020.

3. CRISES ON THE BRINK: CONFLICT, PEACE, AND HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

The year 2020

marks the ninth
anniversary of the war
in Syria, and the fifth
in Yemen. Venezuela
may very well become
the source of the
world’s largest and
most underfunded
refugee crisis. Lethal
violence and violent
crime is on the rise,
affecting growing
cities in an urbanizing
Figure 5. Refugee Displacement from start of conflict to peak world. And the risk of
interstate conflicts
and geopolitical strife has taken center stage.

Figure 6 shows the factors build on worrying trends from 2019, where more
people required assistance than initially forecast due to conflicts and extreme
weather-related disasters. Women and children are being disproportionately
affected and are at higher risks of sexual and gender-based violence. Over 60% of
the world’s chronically food insecure people live in countries affected by conflict.
These figures put into stark relief the challenges of achieving the SDGs in such
daunting contexts. At current rates, 80% of the world’s population living in extreme
poverty in 2030 will be in fragile or conflict-affected settings.

4. A UNITED WORLD? THE UN AT 75

The year 2020 is the time to move the world closer to a sustainable, equitable,
and just future and to set the tone for the decade ahead. This comes as the UN
approaches its 75th anniversary, offering a moment to reflect on the world we have
achieved working together.

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The UN is launching a global conversation about the future we want and the issues that
matter most, with an intent of asking us all countries, communities, businesses,
organizations, individuals – to help define what we need to get there. It will encourage us to
consider the intersecting issues and mega-trends that will shape the world ahead: digital
technology, conflict and violence, inequality, climate change, shifting demographics, and
global health. These five issues have real and pressing implications today, but their fast-
moving trajectories demand global cooperation.

Guiding Light

 Explain the link between the five issues in the global economic crisis.
 What would be role of SDGs in addressing the gaps in global context?

Discussion

Sustainable Development is the development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It focuses
on fulfilling the basic needs of citizens rather than amazing profits.

The World Commission on the Environment and Development (WCED) outline for environment
and development policies following its concept of sustainable development.

1. Revving growth
2. Changing the quality of growth
3. Meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation,
4. Ensuring a sustainable level of population,
5. Conserving and enhancing the resource base,
6. Reorienting technology and managing risk, and
7. Merging environment and economics in decision making.

Sustainability and Stability

Sustainability leads to stability; however, stability alone may not necessarily lead to
sustainability. Stable environment is simply resistant to change but somehow lack the
element of resiliency that sustainable environment possess because is far for stable
environment to become unstable in comparison to the possibility of sustainable environments
becoming: unsustainable.”

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Analyze the research article entitled Environmental stability and sustainable development
of Santos, (2005) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sd.259.

Environmental stability and sustainable development

Miguel A. Santos
Abstract

Many scholars have advocated that the cornerstone of sound environmental management is an effective control
of stability of the human life‐support system. A common theme running through these suggestions is that we
should maximize the inherent stability of the life‐support system. This essay proposes a new scheme or
technique of classifying the stability of systems. Then the essay describes how the stabilizing mechanisms may
be considered as a force that holds the human life‐support system intact. Stabilizing energy is the energy
available to do work, without compromising the integrity of the configuration. The anthropogenic processes of
harvesting or using the system as a sink for pollutants are the counterforce that tends to destabilize the system.
The basic conclusion is that if society is using a system, then the maximum energy of the anthropogenic processes
cannot exceed the stabilizing energy. If this occurs, the system reaches its metastate.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Guide Question: Do these conceptualizations respond to and reflect on sustainability and

stability?

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more
sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related
to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that
we achieve them all by 2030. Click on any specific Goal below to learn more about each issue.
(See the full text at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-
goals/.

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Exercise 1. Sustainable Development

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________
Course and Section: ____________________ Score: ___________

Instructions: Write a short essay on the following topics: UN’ s Agenda 21 and
its contributing effects; the importance of making the environment residence
to human advances; and reasons why the government of the world must always
integrate sustainability in the state affairs. Create a plan of sustainable
development for the Philippines which consider the SDGs 2020.

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