{"id":9604,"date":"2015-09-22T09:45:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T09:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.footprintnetwork.org\/?p=9604\/"},"modified":"2017-03-10T20:13:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T20:13:25","slug":"committing-new-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footprintnetwork.org\/2015\/09\/22\/committing-new-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Committing to a New Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations launches global goals to achieve humanity\u2019s collective dream: sustainable development<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

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Download Our Sustainable Development Poster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week marks an extraordinary moment for humanity. Representatives of 193 nations are convening in New York at the United Nations<\/a> to launch the Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDGs). These goals lay out the conditions we need to secure great lives on this one planet for all, regardless of income level, gender or ethnicity.<\/p>\n

At a time when global economic uncertainty<\/a> and human tragedy<\/a> dominate the news cycle, this unique opportunity to bring the universal dream of sustainable development to the forefront of public attention worldwide is definitely worth celebrating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We are pleased that the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre<\/a> has proposed the Ecological Footprint as an SDG metric for Goal 12.2: “by 2030 achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources<\/b>.”<\/p>\n

And we can’t help but ask the following question: How do we know whether all the SDG activities generate sustainable development? With the United Nations on the verge of adopting sustainable development<\/a> as its central agenda, how do we know whether all the potential activities on the 169 goals are adding up to sustainable development?<\/p>\n

Resource security as the foundation for sustainability<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cDevelopment<\/b>\u201d is shorthand for committing to well-being for all. \u201cSustainable<\/b>\u201d implies that such development must come at no cost to future generations. In other words, development is required to occur within what the planet\u2019s ecosystems are able to provide season after season, year after year. It needs to be enabled within the means of nature.<\/p>\n

This principle was put forward by the possibly most tangible definition of sustainable development<\/a> ever given: \u201cimproving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems,\u201d in the 1991 report \u201cCaring for the Earth\u201d<\/a> jointly issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and WWF.<\/p>\n

The goal of \u201cwell-being for all\u201d has its own UN-supported metric: the Human Development Index (HDI<\/a>), which was created by Indian economist Amartha Sen, with his Pakistani colleague and former finance minister Mahbub ul Haq,\u00a0 to provide an alternative to national income as a standard of development. HDI<\/a> is based on the life expectancy, education and income of a nation\u2019s residents. On a scale of zero to one, UNDP defines 0.7 as the threshold for a high level of development (0.8 for very high development).<\/p>\n

The requirement \u201cwithin the means of nature\u201d is tracked by the Ecological Footprint. At current population levels, our planet has only 1.7 global hectares (gha) of biologically productive surface area per person. Thus, the average Ecological Footprint per person worldwide needs to fall significantly below this threshold if we want to accommodate larger human populations and also provide space for wild species to thrive.<\/p>\n

All of us want high HDIs for everybody AND we need to make sure we stay within the regenerative capacity of the planet. These two thresholds define two minimum criteria for global sustainable development\u2014an average Footprint (significantly) lower than 1.7 gha per person and an HDI of at least 0.7. Each nation\u2019s endowment and ability to trade vary enormously. However, to achieve global sustainable development, humanity\u2019s demand, at current population levels, has to fall below an average of 1.7 gha per person.<\/p>\n

Ecological Footprint and Human Development Index, 1980-2011<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
http:\/\/footprintnetwork.org\/content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/HDI_EF_animation_SustainableGrowthAssociates_Germany.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Special thanks to Sustainable Growth Associates<\/a> for their work on this animated graphic..<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Is it possible to provide high human development within our planet\u2019s resource budget?<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

Eight countries have shown us it is possible, according to the latest data (2011). Algeria, Colombia, Ecuador, Georgia, Jamaica, Jordan and Sri Lanka show \u201chigh human development\u201d (as calculated by the United Nations) with a resource demand (Ecological Footprint) that could be extended to every world citizen. One nation, Cuba, even achieves \u201cvery high human development\u201d (its HDI ranks in the top 35 countries among 170 featured; see below) while keeping its resource demand per person lower than per-person global biocapacity.<\/p>\n

Resource risk is acute for 71 percent of the global population<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

Growing population and increasing consumption per capita continue adding pressure on ecological constraints and contributing to climate change, compounding resource risks for every country\u2019s economy. Such risks are most evident in countries with ecological deficits\u2014consuming more than their ecosystems can provide\u2014and low income, making it more difficult for them to buy themselves out of resource scarcity. A staggering 71 percent of the world population now lives in countries with this double challenge: an ecological deficit AND lower-than-world-average income. That is up from less than 15 percent of countries in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

This reality leaves humanity with a pressing question: How can nations\u2014both high and low income\u2014make their development achievements last, if their development model depends on more than what the biosphere is able to renew?<\/p>\n

History and Applications of HDI-Footprint Framework<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n

French researcher Aur\u00e9lien Boutaud first raised this issue in 2002<\/a>. He introduced the HDI-Footprint relationship as an \u201cembarrassing truth\u201d of the sustainable development challenge. The current development model, in which development gains still come at the cost of increasing Ecological Footprints is one, he claims, in which \u201call lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNDP\u2019s Human Development Report 2013<\/a><\/b> echoed his concern exactly, stating that \u201cprogress in human development achieved sustainably is superior to gains made at the cost of future generations<\/b>.\u201d It used the double-metric HDI-Ecological Footprint (Fig. 1.7) to back up this very point.<\/p>\n

Other international and national decision-makers have turned to the HDI-Footprint framework to illustrate the challenge of sustainable development:<\/p>\n