SAJC H2 Geography Cluster 1 Lecture 1 (Sustainable Development; Definition and its Tenets)

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 1_2024/pg 1 Lecture 1 Sustainable Development (I): Definition and its Tenets KEY QUESTION: What is sustainable development? With the completion of this lecture, attached readings and tutorial, you should be able to understand: - the concept of sustainable development, as defined in “Our Common Future” - the interdependence between economic, social and environmental dimensions - the possible trade-offs between economic, social and environmental dimensions - the limits on ability to meet present and future needs Lecture Outline 1.1 Introduction: The evolving meaning of ‘development’ (a) Economic Growth (b) Development (c) Sustainable Development 1.2 Sustainable Development: Definition and its underlying key tenets 1.2.1 The Brundtland Report – “Our Common Future” (a) The concept of ‘needs’ (b) The idea of ‘limitations’ 1.2.2 The Interdependent Dimensions of Sustainable Development 1.3 Summary Readings: (1) The Transboundary Haze in Southeast Asia (2) Chek Jawa The 2019 URA Masterplan, earmarked the 85-ha Clementi Forest for residential development. The forest is known to have a wide variety of flora and fauna, some of which are rare or threatened species. National Development Minister Desmond Lee explained that “after weighing the alternatives and trade -offs, there will be areas that we cannot avoid developing.” There are however no immediate plans to do so now for this forest. What are your views? Should the forest be conserved? Or perhaps, be cleared to make space for your housing in future?

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 1_2024/pg 2 1.1 Introduction: The evolving meaning of ‘development’ • In general usage, ‘development’ refers to ‘a process of change operating over time’. Traditionally, in the study of development of countries, this would be synonymous with their economic growth (see Section 10.1a below), and is seen as the process by which countries advance and become richer. But, growth in average income alone does not guarantee that the full range of human needs and aspirations will be satisfied. In fact, more recent awareness of that the needs of future generations should also be taken into considerations have further challenged the notion of ‘development’. • Conceptions of what ‘development’ means have therefore evolved over time. In this section, we see how the concept of sustainable development (see Section 10.1c) builds upon, and extends, two other key concepts – economic growth and development (see Section 10.1b) – both of which are still widely used, and in fact, sometimes confused. Just as the concept of development was devised to overcome the limitations of economic growth, so the emergence of sustainable development reflects a similar frustration with the conventional concept of development. (a) Economic Growth • Economic growth refers to an increase in an economy’s output of goods and services, and the overall amount of income that it generates. Often measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) index, it is still given a high priority by governments all over the world. • This is despite its lack of emphasis on aspects of people’s lives beyond production and consumption, such as their access to healthcare, education, shelter, etc. (See Section 10b) • Environmentalists have long protested that economic growth destroys the environment and depletes stocks of natural resources because it prioritises consumption to generate income. (See Section 10c) • Politicians feel obliged to continue to proclaim the virtues of economic growth because of the almost universal attractions of higher income. (b) Development • More updated definitions of development have departed from the traditional notion (see above) which is based only on wealth. Development is now accepted to be wide-ranging and complex concept. It includes wealth, but it includes other important aspects of our lives too. For example, many people would consider good health to be more important than wealth. • For our purpose, development can be defined as a rise in the well-being of society as a whole, as reflected in the expanded set of opportunities available to the present generation. It requires not just a rise in mean income, but that this income be distributed as

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 1_2024/pg 3 equitably as possible among a population (i.e. over space) to increase the welfare of the whole of society – for example, by increasing access to food, clean water and housing, and improving standards of health and education. • Development would thus lead to greater intra-generational equity, though no particular degree of equity is specified as a target that a country should meet in order to be called ‘developed’. • Fig. 1 shows one view of the factors making up the well-being of a society. Development goes beyond the consideration of only economic dimensions of life. To geographers, development must consider both economic and social dimensions. (c) Sustainable Development • The concept of development (see above), however, takes little or no account of the environmental impacts of the activities needed to generate the income upon which it depends. This is because its view of human welfare considers mostly social welfare. • The theoretical concept of sustainable development, as we shall learn later, is different from development in that it adds to the economic and social dimensions and the notion of intra-generational equity included in the concept of development: (a) an environmental dimension; and (b) an inter-generational equity element. • Inter-generational equity involves the idea of time, and requires that the judgement of whether a country is or is not developing sustainably must be determined by the quality of its long term development path, with a consistent rate of improvement rather than short spurts of economic growth. Fig. 1 Factors comprising quality of life Fig. 2 The dimensions of sustainable development

St Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 1_2024/pg 4 • Fig. 2 is an often-used representation of sustainable development. It gives attention to its objective of seeking to maximise the goals across all three dimensions at the same time. (More on this in Section 10.2.2) 1.2 Sustainable Development: Definition and its underlying key tenets • Many environmental issues (e.g. climate change, and biodiversity loss) now are of a global nature. In fact, since about 40 years or so ago, there have been calls for the global community to completely rethink the way we view these issues, and for a change in the philosophy that lies behind the ways in which people interact with the environment. • The approach most widely advocated by this rethink is sustainable development, which proposed that the objectives of economic development and environmental conservation should no longer be incompatible. • To lead the world in this movement, the UN established the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1983. The result of WCED’s work was the very well-known report published in 1987, entitled Our Common Future, also referred to as the Brundtland Report, from which the most oft-cited definition of sustainable development was obtained (see Section 10.2.1). 1.2.1 The Brundtland Report – “Our Common Future” • The Brundtland Report defined sustainable development as: [Development that] meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs… It contains within it two k