Aligning Environment With Development

The ultimate goal of the development process, according to Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen, is human development, which includes, among other things, social advancement, income growth, capacity building, equity, participation, freedom, and environmental sustainability. Although the discourse on the interrelations between human development and environmental sustainability was introduced officially by the United Nations in 2000 through its Millennium Development Goals, the environmental aspect had already put its footprints on the development agenda in 1980s with the emergence of the notion of sustainable development. It places a strong emphasis on the prudent and optimal use of the natural resources available today, ensuring that future generations will have access to these resources. 

There have been setbacks with the conservative development model that placed a high priority on conducting the development process with maximum resource extraction. It has been widely believed that development process carried out through sustainable and wise utilisation of natural resources meets human needs and ensures sustainability. It is ultimately up to humans to protect the natural environment and conduct activities in a way that has the fewest detrimental consequences on the ecological cycle, as development is fundamentally an endeavour to fulfill human needs. Since the availability of natural resources is essential to human survival, overexploitation of them puts the existence of future generations in peril.  

Conundrum 

'Human activities versus environment' has become a pressing issues in today's world. Adverse impacts of the phenomena like the climate change, the greenhouse effects and pollution have been evident as the pace of development and pursuit of economic prosperity have undermined ecological sustainability. The rate of resource consumption and utilisation has also gone up with the significant increase in the income of individuals, which is an indicator of human development.  Human activities are concentrated on the transformation of the matters or energy present in nature to meet their utmost needs, rather than maintaining the stability of the natural cycle. As a result, the natural system of the balanced ecological cycle gets disrupted and the humanity and entire world has to face the consequences. 

Environmental degradation, resulted through excessive exploitation of natural resources, has amplified the events of natural disasters, vulnerability and multidimensional losses. The accumulation of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to increasing industrialization, has caused global temperature to rise. This has led to melting of ice in Himalayas and the poles, as well as increasing sea level, thus inviting various environmental risks. Events of weather extremes like heavy rainfall, drought and dry spells are ever increasing. Increasing frequency and severity of natural calamities has rendered millions of people environmental refugees. Environmental degradation has intensified the pollution of land, water and air, causing millions of fatalities each year.

It is said that poor countries are becoming poorer because of the expenses incurred in solving health problems caused by pollution. The problem of hunger is increasing with the decline in food production due to climate change, while the depletion of water resources is aggravating the problem. Food, water and energy are three crucial sectors for which people must depend heavily on natural resources. To live a decent life, one needs all three of these resources, but the majority of the world's impoverished lack sufficient access to them. Malnutrition, natural disasters, and climate-related adversities are becoming the main barriers to developing countries' economic growth and are posing a challenge to human development worldwide.

Since environmental degradation creates obstacle and inequality in human development, and uneven human development exacerbates challenges in environment conservation, the issues of human development and environment are interrelated. Nature, or the environment generates and provides the goods and services essential for human development. Likewise, the quality of life and prosperity of humankind depends upon the quantity and quality of food, water, energy and biodiversity. Thus, ecological wellbeing is the determinant of our existence, development and prosperity. Development is dependent on how we behave towards the environment and how wisely we utilise the natural resources. Sustainable development can only be achieved if multiple intertwined sectors including health, education, income, gender equality, balance of ecological cycle and energy are addressed simultaneously.  

Modern concept of human development seeks ecological and socio-economic interrelationship among water, energy and food resources. Maintaining proper balance between development and environment is the prerequisite for sustainable development. To achieve this goal, strict enforcement of environmental policies and laws along with international and regional commitments related to environment and sustainable development is essential. Likewise, the provision of conducting environmental and social impact assessment must be made mandatory for all development projects. Promoting the use of renewal and alternative energy, reducing fossil fuel consumption, managing urbanisation and industrialisation, implementing scientific land management and utilisation, fostering sustainable and environment friendly technology, as well as local capital, technology, labour and skills should be prioritised.

Equitable distribution

Emphasis should be placed on the equitable distribution of the benefits derived from the use of natural resources, ensuring that local people have ownership and priority over the natural resources they are conserving. Policies that incentivise the industries using clean and less polluting energy, promote green economy and enhance clean transportation by strictly implementing polluter pays principle, should be adopted.  Approaches that incur the least loss to forest and biodiversity during constructing major physical infrastructures should be employed, while discouraging the tendency of erecting structures through the indiscriminate felling of trees. Development agencies should be vigilant to avoid possible disruption to the local ecology, heritage, culture and faiths of people, while investing in enhancing environmental awareness among local communities.  

In essence, ecological sustainability is an inevitable part of development endeavour. Environmental degradation in today's development process will lead to a resource crisis in future generations to meet their socio-economic development needs. If the rate of natural resource use exceeds its replenishment, it will create an imbalance. Therefore, anthropogenic activities should not create imbalance in natural system, and resource utilisation should remain within the rate of natural replenishment. With the gradual exhaustion of natural resources, there might be a point in the distant future, when no natural resources will be available for human beings to use. History shows that natural calamities and environmental crisis have decisive role in the rise and fall of human civilisations. Aligning environmental considerations with development is the only option at our disposal. 

 (Aryal is a government officer and writes on environment-related issues.)