Pollute first, clean up later?

There is a growing concern with regard to sustainability in emerging economies like China. The Chinese growth is characterized by a strategy which is known as "pollute first, clean up later". Here we show that based on this strategy, the pollution alarm can often be postponed by a tremendous economic growth that can potentially improve welfare and educational systems. The welfare and educated societies will be aware and rich enough not only to clean up but also to prevent the environmental pollutions. It underlines that a certain threshold of development should first be reached before a society is capable of understanding the adverse effects of large scale pollution. For this purpose, we need to encourage the use of fossil fuels in the first place. The challenge however remains to make sure whether such a strategy can develop in a sustainable way. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V

Climate change, contemporary society and engineering practice: a sustainability journey

[Abstract]: Climate change, Contemporary Society and engineers share an indivisible pathway towards sustainability through the means of technology. Climate change and sustainability are now new domains that require a better understanding by engineers. Ten years ago sustainability was a development for the future however the absence of climate certainty in contemporary society has raised sustainability awareness to the forefront of societal debate. While sustainability in theory is defined as the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely. However the literal meaning of “indefinitely” in sustainability definition poses a set of intriguing questions, is indefinite human survival a plausible proposition in a finite world. For this reason efforts in the fight against climate change are becoming a global effort, since it requires global cooperation and greater scientific consensus to reduce carbon emissions and consequently the planet’s energy footprint. We recognize that Sustainability ought to be economically viable, ecologically sound and sensitive; socially responsible and culturally appropriate. Surrounded by this realm of thinking all these mentioned definitions are equal measures that fail to address the importance of “technology” as a subject in the climate change and sustainability debate. Since this generation had inherited the historical legacy of nonrenewable energy technologies. The term “technology” in this context implies any technical system that can result in and/or be well described in terms of a process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants. This paper seeks to investigate the underlying philosophical frames and the nature of the issues of sustainability present to engineers. It explores the notion of “Sustainability” and “technology “in engineering practice. Further, we argue that in order to establish a clear, measurable, actionable, and universally accessible working definition of sustainable engineering practices. climate change and technology life cycle need to be inclusive to sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY: OBSERVATIONS, EXPECTATIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Economic Policy for Sustainable Growth and Development vs. Greedy Growth and Preservationism

Sustainability science emerged from the felt need to employ appropriate science and technology in the pursuit of sustainable development. The existing sustainability science agenda emphasizes the importance of using a systems approach, stressing the many interactions between natural and human systems. Despite its inertia and avowed purpose of being practical and feasible, however, sustainability science has yet to embrace the policy sciences. In pursuit of this objective, we first trace the history of thought of sustainable development, including its definition and operationalization. Sustainable development encompasses sustainable growth and dynamically efficient development patterns. Two promising approaches to sustainable growth are contrasted. Negative sustainability counsels policy makers to offset any decrease in natural capital with at least the same value of net investment in produced capital. This sustainability criterion cannot determine how and how much to conserve natural capital nor how much to build up human and productive capital. Indeed, there is ambiguity regarding what prices to use in summing the values of diverse capital assets. To fill the void, we offer positive sustainability, which maximizes intertemporal welfare while incorporating system linkages, dynamic efficiency, and intertemporal equity. This provides a solid and operational framework for sustainable growth. In addition, sustainable development must include the lessons from development theory, including how optimal patterns of production, consumption, and trade change with standards of living. However, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, there are many pathways to unsustainable development. We describe two broad causes of unsustainable growth – rent-seeking and preservationism. We also illustrate patterns of unsustainable development by drawing on lessons from the Philippines. While specialization is the engine of growth, fragmentation is the anchor. In addition to natural fragmentation from natural trade barriers in an island archipelago, policy and governance, driven by rentseeking, promote economic stagnation. Low economic growth in turn exacerbates population pressure and environmental degradation—the vicious circle of unsustainable development. We give particular attention to how a resource curse can exacerbate policy distortions and rent-seeking, and how the same phenomenon can be promulgated by foreign aid, foreign direct investments, remittances, and tourism. For sustainable development not to be at odds with policy science, positive sustainability must be combined with projects and policies that promote dynamic comparative advantage and poverty reduction. We emphasize the facilitative role of government especially in transforming the vicious circle into a virtuous circle.Sustainable development and patterns, positive sustainability, specialization, the Philippines

Development of a Methodology for the Economic Assessment of Managerial Decisions as a Factor of Increased Economic Security

The article notes that the emergence of such a phenomenon as the interdependence of security and development, the so-called security-development nexus, becomes a determinant during the development of strategic documents at all hierarchical levels. It gives relevance to the search for methodological solutions that would on a strategic level take into account any potential threats to economic security, and on a tactical level provide for pragmatic actions that are not in conflict with the strategic development vector of business entities. The authors identify the instability factors that pose a real threat to economic security. They substantiate the expediency of forming a new model of the national economy development with a focal point on new industrialization. The article factors in the most important trends in the development of the global economy that determine the strategic vector of enhancing the economic security in Russia. It is ascertained that in the conditions of new industrialization, the intellectual core of the high-tech economy sector is formed by convergent technologies (NBICS technologies). The authors offer a methodological approach to the economic assessment of managerial decisions in the context of uncertainty. They also identify methodological principles that must be taken into account in developing a modern methodology for the economic assessment of business decisions. The principles include forming a preferred reality, or the so-called “vision of the future,” the priority of network solutions as the basis for the formation of new markets; mass customization and individualization of demands, principal changes in the profile of competences that ensure competitiveness on the labor market, use of the ideology of inclusive development and impact investment that creates common values. The proposed methodology is based on the optimum combination of traditional methods used for the economic assessment of managerial decisions with the method of real options and reflexive assessments with regard to entropy as a measure of uncertainty. The proposed methodological approach has been tested in respect of the Ural mining and metallurgical complex.The article has been prepared with the support of the grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research № 16–06–00403 "Modelling the Motivational Potentials of the Multi-subject Industrial Policy in the Context of New Industrialization"

The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet - Synthesis Report of the Secretary-General On the Post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda

The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/6, in which Member States requested the Secretary-General to synthesize the full range of inputs available on the post-2015 development agenda and to present a synthesis report before the end of 2014, as an input to the intergovermental negotiations.Drawing from the experience of two decades of development practice and from the inputs gathered through an open and inclusive process, the report charts a road map to achieve dignity in the next 15 years. The report proposes one universal and transformative agenda for sustainable development, underpinned by rights, and with people and the planet at the centre. An integrated set of six essential elements is provided to help frame and reinforce the sustainable development agenda and ensure that the ambition and vision expressed by Member States communicates and is delivered at the country level: (a) dignity: to end poverty and fight inequality; (b) people: to ensure healthy lives, knowledge and the inclusion of women and children; (c) prosperity: to grow a strong, inclusive and transformative economy; (d) planet: to protect our ecosystems for all societies and our children; (e) justice; to promote safe and peaceful societies and storng institutions; and (f) partnership: to catalyse global solidarity for sustainable development

A New Framework for African Economic Development with a Focus on Technological Innovation

Based on a brief review of the development paradigm shifts, growth theories and perspectives that have influenced four decades of African economic development, this paper suggests that the challenges confronting African development result primarily from continuously shifting paradigms and inconsistent growth policies that neglect the role of technological innovation. Moreover, given these challenges, achieving rates of GDP per capita change that result in an increase in average income over a long period will demand an emphasis on and adoption of technological innovation and R&D, as well as corresponding education policies. In terms of perspective, the survival of African countries in the twenty-first century undoubtedly depends on the continent‘s ability to apply existing scientific and technological knowledge to the achievement of economic growth, income distribution and environmental protection. Engineering the complementarity among these three objectives will require not only institutional and structural adjustments and technological innovation and adoption but also a culture of innovation that most parts of Africa do not currently perceive as a crucial factor for social change.Economic Development; Africa; Technology; Development Paradigms

SMALL FARMS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: IS SMALL MORE SUSTAINABLE?

A new, post-industrial, paradigm for agriculture is emerging under the concept of sustainable agriculture. The sustainability paradigm has emerged to solve problems created by the industrial model, primarily environmental pollution and resource base degradation. The role of farm size in this transformation to a more sustainable agriculture is the issue addressed. Using a descriptive approach, and relying on a survey of the literature including emerging paradigms and observations, we conclude that, from a sustainability perspective, the smallest effective size will be the most competitive size for farms, as for other knowledge-based enterprises of the future.Agriculture, Farm size, Paradigms, Sustainability, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management,