E.

Towards a Sustainable World

CONCEPTS OF GLOBALIZATION

This module discusses the essence and reality

of a sustainable world. The Sustainable Development
focuses on the importance of highlighting
environmental considerations in terms of
development and how countries must be conscious of
the role of the environment in development.

OBJECTIVES:
Source: United Nations (SDG)
At the end of this module, the learners are
expected to:
1. Determine the significance of sustainable development globalized world.
2. Differentiate the concept of stability from sustainability; and
3. Evaluate the concept of sustainable development in shrinking world.

DIAGNOSTICS:

Instructions: Write AGREE if you think the statement is correct; otherwise, DISAGREE.
1. Sustainable development is just an ideal pattern or trend.
2. Sustainable development can only be achieved by developed countries.
3. Environment plays a minor role in achieving sustainable development.
4. Sustainability is a vague concept in international relations.
5. There is a difference between stability and sustainability.

Global Issues
1. CLIMATE ACTION ACCELERATED?
-The numbers are in: The past decade has been the warmest in recorded history.
Deadly wildfires including those affecting Australia, hurricanes, extreme weather
events, and climate-influenced migration and hunger in many parts of the world are
now regular occurrences. Ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and the very
survival of island nations is being threatened. Indeed, our entire ecosystem is at risk:
1 million animal and plant species may be extinct within years, the largest-scale
ecological loss humans have seen. And a mounting global movement of youth impatient
for change is pushing climate protection into the global consciousness like never
before. (Source. Brown,
2020. 5 GLOBAL ISSUES
TO WATCH IN 2020. United
Nations.org)

Figure 1. The Global

Greenhouse gas emissions
under current scenario. It
reveals that the decade to
significantly curb carbon
emission and avoid
catastrophe, it face an even

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more pressing mandate. There is a need to halve global emissions by 2030 but the emissions
gap between what is needed and the current commitments is significant. Starting this year,
it need to cut emissions by 7.6% every year for the next 10 years to limit warming to 1.5
degrees.

2. A DECADE TO DELIVER ON THE SDGS

- The start of 2020 ushers in the ten-year countdown to deliver the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and is a crucial year for ensuring our policies, financing,
and ambition align to reach the Goals by 2030. The first four years since the
Goals’ launch witnessed new commitments, coalitions, and approaches among
national governments from the developed and developing world, local actors and
leaders, the investment community and private sector, and other non-state
actors. For its part, the United Nations embarked on a major reform effort to
better deliver on the
SDGs. The
relationship between
climate, the SDGs,
and peace has also
come into greater
focus.

Figure 2. shows the

world has made
substantial strides:
The extreme
poverty rate has
Figure 2. Extreme Poverty is Becoming concentrated in Africa
fallen below 8%, the
lowest recorded
level in human history. For the first time since the start of the SDGs, the number of
people in extreme poverty in Africa is decreasing. India, once a global hot spot for
poverty, is now on track to end extreme poverty. Children around the world are living
longer and healthier lives. The mortality rate in children under five has nearly halved
over the last twenty years and more children than ever are receiving an education,
getting necessary vaccinations, and drinking clean water. More people have access to
electricity and nearly three-quarters of the world has essential health services.

Figure 3 illustrate the account for

world extreme poor in 2030. These
bright spots the world is off track to
realize the global goals by the end of
this coming decade. On today’s
trajectory, nearly half a billion
people will still live in extreme
poverty in 2030: 589 million today
compared with 479 million in ten
years. The overwhelming majority of
those will be in Africa, affected by a
warming planet and unstable
societies. Poverty data for most of
Sub-Saharan Africa, for example,
Figure 3. Percentage of Extreme poor in 2023

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comes from information gathered before the creation of the SDGs five years ago: a
reminder that we urgently need more and better data if we are even to know for sure
how we are doing, and what policies are working.

3. INEQUALITY AND EXCLUSION IN FOCUS

Inequality is at the heart of many of the gravest issues facing the global
community, including development, climate, and peace. It affects people and
structures across societies and borders and threatens to stymie hard-fought
development gains.
What does this mean? A recent United Nations report shows that 20% of
development progress was lost in recent years due to the unequal distribution of
education, health, and living standards. The World Economic Forum has calculated
that it will take women almost 100 years to reach gender equality. Exclusionary
practices in security, justice, and politics are at the heart of many violent conflicts
today. And it is seen as a key factor in the rise of protests around the globe, which
shows no signs of abating in 2020.
Toppling barriers to opportunity is key to making the transformative progress
needed in 2020. As stressed in the 2019 Human Development Report, we need to
evolve our understanding of inequality. Just as the SDGs replaced the more basic
Millennium Development Goals, so, too, must we expand our definition of inequality to
address the obstacles to 21st century skills and opportunities.

Figure 5
present the new
framework for
inequality. This
perspective on
inequality means
understanding who
is getting left
behind – where,
and how. The Bill &
Melinda Gates
Foundation’s
annual
Goalkeepers
report measuring
Figure 4. A new Framework for Inequality
SDG progress
noted that birthplace and gender are some of the most powerful predictors of future
success. For many of the world’s poorest, including women and children, the odds are
stacked against them simply because of where they were born. Another tool to
address inequality is expanding measures of economic performance to account for
social conditions, as many leading thinkers are starting to do. Some actors, though
not nearly enough, are also taking action. New Zealand has created the world’s first
‘Well Being’ budget which balances economic measures with social indicators. And the
Business Roundtable shook the business community with a statement that shifts
company focus from shareholders to stakeholders.

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4. CRISES ON THE BRINK: CONFLICT, PEACE, AND HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

The year 2020

marks the ninth
anniversary of the war
in Syria, and the fifth
in Yemen. Venezuela
may very well become
the source of the
world’s largest and
most underfunded
refugee crisis. Lethal
violence and violent
crime is on the rise,
affecting growing
cities in an urbanizing
world. And the risk of
Figure 5. Refugee Displacement from start of conflict to peak
interstate conflicts
and geopolitical strife
has taken center stage.

Figure 6 shows the factors build on worrying trends from 2019, where more
people required assistance than initially forecast due to conflicts and extreme
weather-related disasters. Women and children are being disproportionately
affected and are at higher risks of sexual and gender-based violence. Over 60% of
the world’s chronically food insecure people live in countries affected by conflict.
These figures put into stark relief the challenges of achieving the SDGs in such
daunting contexts. At current rates, 80% of the world’s population living in extreme
poverty in 2030 will be in fragile or conflict-affected settings.

5. A UNITED WORLD? THE UN AT 75

The year 2020 is the time to move the world closer to a sustainable, equitable,
and just future and to set the tone for the decade ahead. This comes as the UN
approaches its
75th anniversary,
offering a moment
to reflect on the
world we have
achieved working
together. It is also
an opportunity to
look forward
together.

The UN is
Figure 2. UN at 75
launching a global
conversation about the future we want and the issues that matter most, with an intent of
asking us all countries, communities, businesses, organizations, individuals – to help define
what we need to get there. It is looking for new ideas, approaches, and partnerships crucial
for the complex challenges the world faces, like the ones detailed above. It will encourage
us to consider the intersecting issues and mega-trends that will shape the world ahead:

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digital technology, conflict and violence, inequality, climate change, shifting demographics,
and global health. (Wacth UN@75 : https://youtu.be/xJ2b5BtUvuA) These five issues have
real and pressing implications today, but their fast-moving trajectories demand global
cooperation. This September’s UN General Assembly will serve as an important inflection
point on the progress made, gaps remaining, and future needs for collective action to tackle
poverty, climate, climate and inequality. And this anniversary year for the UN is a moment
to look forward at the many critical paths the world faces and to put in place critical efforts
that will affect our world not just today but in the years ahead. The stakes are high and the
challenges are not to be underestimated. In 2020, our ability to act, in our shared best
interest and for greater collective impact, has never been more important.

Guiding Light

 Explain the link between the five issues in the global economic crisis.
 What would be role of SDGs in addressing the gaps in global context?

Discussion

Sustainable Development is the development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It focuses
on fulfilling the basic needs of citizens rather than amazing profits.

The World Commission on the Environment and Development (WCED) outline for environment
and development policies following its concept of sustainable development.

1. Revving growth
2. Changing the quality of growth
3. Meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation,
4. Ensuring a sustainable level of population,
5. Conserving and enhancing the resource base,
6. Reorienting technology and managing risk, and
7. Merging environment and economics in decision making.

UN Agenda 21 of 1992

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally,

nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System,
Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts
on the environment. (See the Full text of the UN Agenda 21 of 1992
at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf.
Agenda 21 requires that nations participating in the quest for a more
sustainable social, environmental and economic future develop national
strategies for their sustainable development. The UK Government
bases its vision of sustainable development on four broad objectives.
 Social progress which recognizes the needs of everyone;
 Effective protection of the environment;
 Prudent use of natural resources; and
 Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and
employment.
The UK Sustainable Development Strategy recognizes that everybody has the
right to a healthy, clean and safe environment. This can be achieved by reducing

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pollution, poverty, poor housing and unemployment. Global environmental threats, such
as climate change and poor air quality must be reduced to protect human and
environmental health. The use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels should
not be stopped overnight, but they must be used efficiently, and the development of
alternatives should be used to help phase them out. Finally, everybody has the right
to a good standard of living, with better job opportunities. Economic prosperity is
required if the UK is to prosper. For this, we need a workforce equipped with suitable
skills and education within a framework to support them.
The UK Sustainable Development Strategy recognizes the need for a new,
more environmentally sound approach to development, especially with regard to
transport, energy production and waste management. The Government wishes to allow
economic growth to continue, but more sustainably, to ensure that the costs of
growth do result in excessive environmental deterioration or social injustice.
Changing the way we think about development is an important part of the UK
Strategy. The UK Strategy is a catalyst for change. Its ten guiding principles are
summarized below:
 putting people at the center;
 taking a long term perspective;
 taking account of costs and benefits;
 creating an open and supportive economic system;
 combating poverty and social exclusion;
 respecting environmental limits;
 the precautionary principle;
 using scientific knowledge;
 transparency, information, participation and access to justice;
 making the polluter pay.

Source: https://www.sustainable environment.org.uk/Action/UK_Strategy.php#:~:text

Sustainability and Stability

Sustainability leads to stability; however, stability alone may not necessarily lead to
sustainability. Stable environment is simply resistant to change but somehow lack the
element of resiliency that sustainable environment possess because is far for stable
environment to become unstable in comparison to the possibility of sustainable environments
becoming: unsustainable.”
Analyze the research article entitled Environmental stability and sustainable development
of Santos, (2005) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sd.259.

Environmental stability and sustainable development

Miguel A. Santos
Abstract

Many scholars have advocated that the cornerstone of sound environmental management is an effective control
of stability of the human life‐support system. A common theme running through these suggestions is that we
should maximize the inherent stability of the life‐support system. This essay proposes a new scheme or
technique of classifying the stability of systems. Then the essay describes how the stabilizing mechanisms may
be considered as a force that holds the human life‐support system intact. Stabilizing energy is the energy
available to do work, without compromising the integrity of the configuration. The anthropogenic processes of
harvesting or using the system as a sink for pollutants are the counterforce that tends to destabilize the system.
The basic conclusion is that if society is using a system, then the maximum energy of the anthropogenic processes
cannot exceed the stabilizing energy. If this occurs, the system reaches its metastate.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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Guide Question: Do these conceptualizations respond to and reflect on sustainability and

stability?

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more
sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related
to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
The 17 Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that
we achieve them all by 2030. Click on any specific Goal below to learn more about each issue.
(See the full text at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-
goals/.

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Exercise 1. Sustainable Development

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________
Course and Section: ____________________ Score: ___________

Instructions: Write a short essay on the following topics: UN’ s Agenda 21 and
its contributing effects; the importance of making the environment residence
to human advances; and reasons why the government of the world must always
integrate sustainability in the state affairs. Create a plan of sustainable
development for the Philippines which consider the SDGs 2020.

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