In recent years, in news, views and analysis, the term “Sustainable Development” has bounced before our eyes and to ears at a great frequency. In line with the movement for the environment, the concept bears layers of meanings and connotations while at the core, it signifies a pledge to development that leaves little room for environmental threat.
For many decades, while pursuing development through industrialization, we have been rigid/ livid in our approach and struggle and have omitted environmental protection factors that now threaten our very existence. Now, owing to our heavy reliance on fossil fuel-driven energy sources, the environment has deteriorated rapidly over the years.
Alarmingly, “unsustained development”, if allowed to prevail, its ghastly consequences are likely to befall us on a more frequent basis, as is covered in earlier articles on this website.
Is sustainable development all about the environment?
Under the garb of sustainable development, certain limitations have been identified to safeguard our environment, which constitutes the very essence of this perceived thought.
If dreadfully, we fail to abide by this, we would surely confront tremendous unwarranted implications, such as climate change, rising sea levels, frequent earthquakes and floods, ozone layer depletion and so forth, as summed up above.
But as a relish, the scope of sustainable development is found to be far broader and supersedes the environment. It aims at establishing a robust, healthy and just social system at the helm. This underlines the distinct needs of the consumers shortly, which would encourage personal well-being, social inclusivity and which would help secure equal opportunities (not ruling out socialism as the central tenet).
If sustainable development is future-oriented, does that mean we ought to cut down on our present key processes?
Not essentially, for sustainable development emphasizes methods of accomplishing tasks in the present as well as in the future. We need to alter our methodology of accomplishing things but it doesn’t lay down that the quality of life is to be compromised or slackened in the present.
Not to overstate, but through a sustainable development approach, we can draw numerous benefits, both in the short to medium term, such as:
- Huge Savings: By following the guidelines laid down by the Sustainable Development Commission, the government of the UK has managed to save £60 million as efficiency got to new heights across the region.
- Health & Transport: By putting car keys on the table and by just walking and cycling to nearby locations, resulted in saving money and improved popular health and is tremendously quick and convenient.
What would be the implications of sustainable development on me, as an individual?
Truly, to seek development, the way we opt, has its fallout on everyone and our big selections likely have its impact on the life of the community. Similarly, if planning lacks comprehensive consideration and farsightedness, our quality of life is at stake.
For example, in any given area, if reliance on imports is higher than encouraging local food growth, this may result in severe food shortage.
Here, by utilizing sustainable development, we can initiate better decisions on critical issues related to our very existence. For a better healthcare facility, we can include health plans right in the beginning while planning townships and city infrastructure and for any region to be self-sufficient for food in the long term, the food supply chain too need to be made sustainable and stable.
Sustainable Development Index:
The Sustainable Development Index (SDI) are a set of standard parameters to record the depth of ecological compliance in terms of the quality of human capital which sum up that development must hew to set limitations of the planet.
Such has been perceived to further enrich the human development index by keeping ecological realities in view, of the Anthropocene.
At the beginning of the Sustainable Development Index, human development score is calculated for each factor such as life expectancy, education, family income etc. and this score point is then divided by their ecological reach, i.e. CO2 emissions and material footprint that touch the set (or cross) the set planetary limits across the nation, during the key process or production, trade and consumption.
Needless to state, the countries that manage to register optimum human development as they keep up within the planetary limits, register high scores and occupy top positions.
India has scored 61.90 out of 100.
On SDGs, India Miscalculates Planning Challenges And Lost Two Spots To 117:
Going by the news report, India’s rank has gone down by 2 places on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are considered as a crucial part of the 2030 agenda by all the 193 UN member states.
As per the State of India’s Environment Report 2021, we occupied 115th position in 2020 and such a drop can be on multiple accounts, such as:
- Tough times faced during ending hunger and achieving food security (SDG2),
- Gender Equality (SDG5),
- Building resilient infrastructure,
- Encouraging sustainable and inclusive industrialization,
- Boosting and unbounding innovation,
As a great blow to our planning capability, even Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fare better than us and rank higher.
Unfolding on the level of preparedness in detail, Bihar and Jharkhand are held least capable of meeting the SDGs by 2030, which is regarded as the target year.
In the case of highly proficient states, the names of Kerala and Himachal Pradesh emerge on top while Chandigarh is the lone UT.
There are 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) as are identified by U.N. member states, which are:
- No Poverty,
- Zero Hunger,
- Good Health and well being,
- Quality Education,
- Gender Equality,
- Clean Water and Sanitation,
- Affordable and Clean Energy,
- Decent Work and Economic Growth,
- Industry, Innovation And Infrastructure,
- Reduced Inequalities,
- Sustainable Cities and Communities,
- Responsible Consumption and Production,
- Climate Action,
- Life Below Water,
- Life On Land,
- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and
- Strengthening Global Partnerships for the goals,
The report also revealed our position in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) which is 168 out of 180. Before going to adjust this, a multitude of factors is drawn into consideration which includes climate, air pollution, environmental health, pollution, sanitation, drinking water, biodiversity, ecosystem centric services etc.
In environmental health category, our position is decided to be at 172, which shows a great lethargy on our part and the effective measures people implement to create a protective bubble around their population to check environmental risks. To add to our suffering, in this league of biodiversity and habitat, an EPI of 2020 was released by Yale University, which showed India’s capability to rank at 148 while neighbouring Pakistan put up a better performance to grab 127th place.
Clearly, the category encapsulates the competence of countries in planning to retain natural ecosystems and to defend biodiversity in its complete range within their frontiers.
Global Hunger Index 2021 (A Deep Question Mark On Our Planning Efficiency And Food Distribution):
At a time, when India decided sending tonnes of wheat and other food grains to war-torn neighbour Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul last year, such a report is replete with enough statistics to make a mockery of our planning efficiency.
This report is compiled and updated by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide in association with Welt Hunger Hilfe from Germany, that says that the hunger stage in India is alarming for this period.
In a pool of 116 countries shortlisted in the Global Hunger Index 2021, India’s resilience in key areas is aggregated and processed to be given the 101st position in 2021 analysis while we stood at 94th place in 2020.
During 2000, our score on this index scale was 38.80 which plunged 27.50 as in 2021 and during the calculation of GHI score, a few factors are scanned through, such as:
- Undernourishment;
- Child wasting refers to the strength of children under the five whose weight is not according to their height. This reflects acute undernutrition.
- Child Stunting; children under the age of five whose height is not proper as per their age. This implies chronic undernutrition.
- Child Mortality: Children strength who fail to complete the first five years of their lifespan.
Other countries in the region perform better here, such as Bangladesh (76), Nepal (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92).
Verily, no achievement (or underperformance) is worth celebrating (or mourning for) when it is compared with our arch-rivals in whatever field we compete. Here this is disenchanting to see that Pakistan manages a better position than us. Even Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal have put up a commendable show.
But we can console ourselves thinking that even though they stay ahead of India when it comes to feeding their citizen but such a score falls under the “alarming” category too. They are not entirely well off.
As for child wasting, the report says, “People have been severely hit by COVID-19 and by pandemic related restrictions in India, the “alarming” hunger category.
However, there are some signs of hope and positivity as India displayed significant breakthroughs in checking key indicators like the under-five mortality rate, stunting predominance among children and undernourishment rate has also receded in recent years.
But overall, hunger and malnutrition is still a major challenge before the world and strategists fail to devise a proper roadmap and in dreaded light of the projections, 47 countries are likely to fall short of achieving even the low level of hunger by 2030.
Going to the report,” Although GHI scores show that global hunger has been on the decline since 2000, progress is slowing. While the GHI score for the world fell 4.7 points, from 25.1 to 20.4, between 2006 and 2012, it has fallen just 2.5 points since 2012. After decades of decline, the global prevalence of undernourishment — one o the four indicators used to calculate GHI scores – is increasing. This shift may be a harbinger of reversals in other measures of hunger”.
In the final lap, among many factors stymying food security, climate change occurring globally and climate extremes qualify to be among the chief reasons and this is time we should initiate necessary steps to protect our environment.
