Energy from My Backyard - The Renaissance of Renewable Energy - page 252

sustainable as long as they produce a net gain. Thus was born the idea of 'environmental
accounting' - putting a price on the environment.
There may, ultimately, be a contradiction inherent in the juxtaposition of the terms
'sustainable' and 'development'. Sustainability is a dynamic concept that changes as the
world changes. It is often understood as a synonym of green or renewable, yet it is,
essentially, a philosophical concept. In this sense, sustainability might better be viewed as
a process - a learning process - rather than a model for development.
Poverty is inextricably linked to sustainable development. Many of the world's poorest
and most vulnerable people live in environmentally fragile regions. Unsustainable
development therefore hits the poor first and hardest. In the climate change debate,
lower-income countries sometimes claim they are being forced to choose between
environmental protection and economic development. Yet, for development to be
sustainable, it must actively reduce poverty. The problem of nonglobal solutions to the
sustainability crisis is that many of the processes that produce pollution are being exported,
often to the poorest countries.
The World Bank, UNEP, and UNDP set up the Global Environmental Facility in 1990
to provide funding for environmental projects such as emissions reduction, biodiversity
protection, and water management. From 1991 to 2012 it distributed US$10.5 billion in
grantsandguaranteed US$51billion inloansformorethan2,700projects inmorethan165
countries 22 . However, its impact, taken in the overall context of resource and capital flows
between rich and poor countries, is small.
One of the most common rules of thumb in environmental protection is the
'precautionary principle', which is also enshrined in the Rio Declaration: “Where there
are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not
be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental
degradation”(UnitedNations 1992 ).Theprecautionaryprinciple,liketheterm'sustainable
development' itself, is vague, leaving ample space for interpretation and political
manoeuvring. How do we judge the seriousness of the threat if scientific evidence is
lacking? Its critics argue that in reversing the burden of proof, such that one must show that
an activity will not cause harm, the precautionary principle is inherently unscientific. Its
proponents rely on the common sense argument: if you have strong reason to suspect that
the box may be Pandora's, don't open it (at least not yet).
Cities present the greatest dilemma for sustainability practitioners. The only examples
we have of truly sustainable human societies are low-density, land-based settlements, such
as indigenous communities and modern eco-communities. Yet, with human population
projected to stabilize at 9 billion around 2050, and with 6 billion of these people living