The role of moral leadership for sustainable consumption and production

In this paper we argue that an adequate understanding of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) involves a mature consciousness of the interdependence between ourselves and the rest of our human family and its habitat. The principles, the actions and the vision that form the basis for SCP are not unknown, but there is a considerable gap between knowledge and action and behavioural incentives are not sufficient for system change. In the conversations between the authors of this paper, a practitioner and an academic, on the reasons for this knowledge-action gap there emerged a common recognition of the potentially significant role of values and particularly values-based leadership in the processes and partnerships that work for sustainability transitions in SCP. Our starting point is that values, what we humans consider to be good, are formed by a range of factors (cultural, political, social, religious) and are thus subject to change. Individuals who internalize values that are supportive of SCP manifest values-based leadership and if these are accompanied by specific capabilities, such leaders will exemplify the necessary paradigm shift towards sustainable consumption and production and lead the wider society towards it. The paper outlines how one model of values based leadership - the framework of moral leadership (ML)developed by Eloy Anello and others at Nur University in Bolivia - supports transformation towards sustainable consumption and production

From Rio to Rio via Johannesburg: integrating institutions across governance levels in sustainable development deliberations

Twenty years of international deliberations on sustainable development reaches another peak in 2012 during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. However, with every review of the implementation of the ambitious Agenda 21, it becomes more difficult to reignite the “spirit of Rio” and in this paper I argue that one contributing factor is the inability to find a way to vertically integrate institutions and other actors across governance levels. The paper analyzes this long deliberation process and its normative outcome with respect to its multi-levelness and approach to vertical integration. It concludes that both the first Earth Summit in Rio 1992 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development expressed high ambitions for dynamic interaction between governance at different levels, both in the deliberation and implementation stages. Yet, the actual number of practical links between levels could have been much higher and the references to vertical linkages in the conference process decreased over time. The preparations for Rio+20 continue this downward trend despite a widespread recognition that the need for coherence and integration were major motivational factors for Rio+20. The prospects for the process to stimulate the forming of coalitions of the willing that could bring closer vertical integration and implement multi-level governance are thereby limite

The role of moral leadership for sustainable production and consumption

The principles, the actions and the vision that form the basis for sustainable production and consumption (SCP) are not unknown, but there is a considerable gap between knowledge and action, and behavioural incentives are not sufficient for system change. In this paper we explore a key missing ingredient in the work to promote SCP, leadership that is underpinned by ethical dimensions in its purpose, style and motivation. We show that current leadership styles are insufficient to generate the will and the human resources required for building SCP. The core of the paper is a comparative theoretical and ethical analysis of three leadership models designed to address complex adaptive challenges and with varying degrees of ethical dimensions incorporated. This enables us to evaluate the added value of incorporating ethical dimensions in leadership models and training. We analyse in more depth the most promising of the three models in this regard, the moral leadership framework developed by Eloy Anello and others at Nur University in Bolivia. We conclude that Anello’s model provides a number of additional elements usually neglected in leadership models but that appear essential in generating the necessary vision, understanding and motivation to work for SCP. The evaluation of trainings in the moral leadership framework made so far indicate its potential for supporting transformational change, individual and collective, change that is essential in the promotion of sustainable production and consumption

Paris and Then? Holding States to Account

So much focus is now given to getting the Paris agreement on climate change “right,” particularly that the intended nationally determined commitments (INDCs) should be ambitious, effective, and fair. But what about the morning after? There is no automatism in international norms, whether legally binding or not, enticing compliance by states. Particularly in the field of multilateral environmental agreements with high ambitions in their objective and commitments that entail considerable political and financial investments, compliance is often patchy.1 A contributing factor for this could be thatcompliance mechanisms tend to be an Achilles heel in international agreements in these domains.2 If such compliance mechanisms are seen as arenas where accountability can be asked of a state by other states with regard to its compliance, their weakness indicates a poor starting point for accountability of states in this realm. Accountability has become a popular concept and is difficult to be against. It can cover a number of other concepts such as transparency, equity, democracy, efficiency, responsiveness, responsibility, integrity, liability, and controllability. Nonetheless, governments by and large are rather reluctant to be held to account for how faithfully they comply with what they have promised to do in relation to climate change in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and beyond