Sustainable Development Insights Series
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Sustainable Development Insights is a series of short policy essays that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The series seeks to promote a broad interdisciplinary dialogue on how to accelerate sustainable development at all levels.
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Item Rio+20: accountability and implementation as key goals(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2011-08) Muñoz, Miquel; Najam, AdilOver the past two decades, the Global Environmental Governance (GEG) system has grown and evolved, making much progress in incorporating sustainable development as the central goal of environmental governance, and delivering scores of new international institutions, legal instruments, declarations and financial mechanisms. However, the GEG system lacks the crucial components of accountability and implementation as part of its core operating system. The authors argue that the upcoming Rio + 20 meeting provides the perfect opportunity to help bring about these much needed changes to strengthen the GEG and help achieve its ultimate goals. The authors propose a set of four accountability-enabling mechanisms: 1. Improved metrics and reporting mechanisms. 2. Transparency mechanisms. 3. Compliance mechanisms. 4. Capacity building. The authors also propose a set of four enabling institutional arrangements: 1. Compendium of best (and worst) practices. 2. Registry of commitments. 3. Renewed focus for CSD. 4. A global “Aarhus” instrument.Item Global environmental governance: the role of local governments(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2011-03) Otto-Zimmermann, KonradIs there a role for cities in the Global Environmental Governance (GEG) system and, if so, what exactly should that role be? Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, the Director of ICLEI, argues that cities and local governments have played a leading role in developing programs to reduce greenhouse gases, and have much to offer in national and global efforts to address climate change and other major environmental issues. A new and improved GEG framework should include direct connections to and involvement by local and subnational governments as well as business, giving these important stakeholders input into important policies and decisions that ultimately affect them.Item Green revolution 2.0: a sustainable energy path(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2010-10) Kulatilaka, NalinThe Green Revolution in agriculture greatly increased crop yields and averted mass starvation, but it also turned small farms into factory farms that concentrated production in a few locations and reduced the diversity of crops. In this paper, Professor Nalin Kulatilaka, Co-Director of BU’s Clean Energy & Environmental Sustainability Initiative, calls for a Green Energy Revolution that decentralizes energy supplies through a smart electricity network. He argues that such a revolution could provide for a diversity of energy sources located closer to users, which in turn could shift consumption patterns, reduce losses and decrease overall energy demand. He concludes that shifting to such a system “will adopt clean energy technologies while fostering new businesses, creating new jobs and ultimately empowering society to reach new heights in energy conservation and sustainability“.Item Global environmental governance: the challenge of accountability(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2010-05) Halle, Mark; Najam, AdilThis issue argues that accountability – or lack thereof- is a fundamental challenge in confronting improved global environmental governance (GEG) and that success must be measured not simply by the vitality of the negotiation process but by the robustness of implementation. States as well as institutions must be judged not by their statements of good intentions but by measurable implementation of their commitments and achievement of goals. The authors provide five reasons for GEG’s culture of unaccountability and seven related ideas for GEG reform.Item The role of cities in sustainable development(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2010-05) Satterthwaite, DavidThis brief will argue that with the right innovation and incentives in place, cities can allow high living standards to be combined with resource consumption that is much lower than the norm in most cities today. This is achieved not with an over-extended optimism on what new technologies can bring but through a wider-application of what already has been shown to work by the more innovative and accountable city and municipal governments and their partnerships with civil society groups.Item Are women the key to sustainable development?(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2010-04) Stevens, CandiceThis issue explores the possible link between advances in achieving gender equality and advances in achieving sustainable development goals. The paper concludes, “As indicated by both theory and evidence, the lack of progress on gender equality may be at the heart of the failure to advance on sustainable development. If women were in more productive and decision-making roles, we could be moving faster and more assuredly towards sustainability in the economic, social and environmental sense. Sustainable development is a political concept because it is about good governance, which will be hard to achieve until we get closer to gender parity. Research is needed to test the hypothesis that women are more risk-averse than men and that women leaders would be more apt to follow sustainable development pathways. Given the importance of gender to sustainability, these issues should feature more prominently in sustainable development discussions and be highlighted in a 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.”Item Rio+20: another world summit?(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2009-11) Muñoz, Miquel; Najam, AdilThis issue explores the possibility of holding a Sustainable World Summit in 2012 and three possible options to support such an event . The paper concludes, “The world may not choose any of our three options as the grand purpose for a 2012 World Sustainability Summit. But whatever goal is chosen for a summit needs to be not only grand, but truly meaningful. If it is, then future generations will remember that event like we remember Stockholm and Rio. If it is not, then another summit is not what the world needs right now.”Item Pushing "reset" on sustainable development(Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, 2009-10) AtKisson, AlanThis issue explores how to continue accelerating sustainable development in an era of financial collapse and if sustainable development requires a “reset”. The paper concludes, “Perhaps the word ‘reset’ – a return to an original state, in this case the origins of our understanding of sustainable development, in terms of both systems science and social change – is the right metaphor after all.”