Sustaining Development

By Contributor | March 17, 2011

Preparations for next year’s Rio Conference are underway at the United Nations, as delegations met yesterday for a panel discussion on sustainable development. With sincere condolences to the people of Japan, presenters used the disaster as a springboard into their discussion of how the international community must work together for a society that is less energy-dependent and vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Below the surface of the calls for strategic action, however, lurks a serious issue. Sustainable development as a concept is rather indeterminate. The President of Finland admitted there is no definition for “sustainable development,” but claimed that there “is no need to define [it]…” The speakers insisted that instead of spending time defining what “sustainable development” is, quick and decisive action needs to be taken to reduce resource consumption, population growth, and environmental pollution.

However, impelling states to act on a concept that is undefined will not lead to concerted action, particularly if the goals and targets seems to be calculated by subjective measures of resource consumption. Perhaps some of the confusion surrounding what sustainable development is comes from the reality that many sustainable development policies are based on the assumption that human beings as such can be a barrier to development, and in order to maintain the appropriate level of resources for the world’s people, population must be kept in check.

One voice, the Holy See, is quick to recognize this dissonance and insist that human beings, not environmental goals, “are and must remain at the center of our concern” about development. The Holy See, speaking last week at another meeting in preparation for the Rio Conference on Sustainable Development said,

“If humans in their full humanity are not viewed as the ultimate goal of development…then we fear that humans will be seen by many as the primary barrier to development and we can be certain which humans these will be: the poor; the marginalized; the inconvenient; those yet to be born and those who due to age, disability or illness cannot defend themselves.”

To argue for integral human development, as opposed to merely sustainable development, is not to ignore the very real concerns about pollution and consumption patterns. Rather, it is to insist that the international community sustain its focus on the human being as the object and goal of all areas of development policy. If the world loses sight of this, the concept of development itself is at risk.

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