India Environment Portal Knowledge for change

I do not like the word sustainability

• 14/08/1996

On the concept of environmental space (that refers to the establishment of certain limits in the use of raw materials, land, water resources and carbon dioxide emissions) and on how it could be enforced in a political sense:
In Denmark, the concept is part of the official environmental policy. Ideologically, it is accepted as an attitude that would extend the notion of solidarity to future generations and different regions of the world. Practically, we use it in our predictions of, say, the amount of energy we need and thereby the amount of carbon dioxide (co2) and other greenhouse gases we will be emitting. It gives one an idea of the safe limits of emission that could be allowed.

We also use it to accept the fact that great differences exist in the use of the world's resources today. And that we in the West must do a great deal more than developing countries, to avoid the collapse of the ecosystem.

The Danish branch of Friends of the Earth has predicted that in the year 2010, the average European will be entitled to 10 km of travel by air, 25 km by car and 65 km by bus on a daily basis, in order to remain within his environmental quota. These levels will severely restrict our standards of living and personal freedom. On how Auken is going to convince European colleagues and citizens about enforcing these restrictions:
Although I admire the work done by non-governmental organisations (ngos), I will not use that as a mathematical exercise. The political use of the notion of environmental space basically means that we seriously take up the call of the Rio summit to the rich countries to transfer technological knowhow and economical assistance to developing nations to help them fight environmental problems.

Therefore, in Denmark we are now increasing development aid from the current one per cent of the gnp to 1.5 per cent in the year 2002. Half of this increased amount will be allocated to the transfer of environmental knowhow. The transfer of technology will be managed in such a manner that in the long run, developing countries will be able to deal directly with their environmental problems without help from foreign experts. A good example of this is a project in India aimed at setting up more wind mills based on Danish technology. India is now in a position to establish wind mills on its own with minimum assistance from us.

But the demands made by the industrialised world on the developing world with regard to the maintainence of environmental standards should be more fair. For instance, it should be just as difficult to allow genetically modified organisms to be released in nature to protect biodiversity in the developing world as it is in our part of the globe. We are doing this through the negotiations for a biosafety protocol.

In this context, one more issue that I personally find important is shielding the developing countries from becoming dumpyards for hazardous waste from the North, something that was advocated at the Basel Convention. The practice of doing so is a grave example of bad conduct on the part of the rich industrialised countries. On whether fairness and a more equitable distribution of environmental responsibilities will be possible in the wider international context