UGEC2171 Sustainable Development

(UGEC2171 is double-coded with GRMD2401.)

Sustainable development is a global vision for the future. This approach to development should not only generate economic growth, but also distribute its benefits equitably, regenerate the environment rather than destroy it, as well as empower people rather than marginalize them.

The UN 2030 Agenda came into effect in 2015 promising to “interlink and integrate” Sustainable Development Goals in an attempt to implement solutions facing humanity. Sustainable development goals are an all-inclusive invitation to act to end poverty, secure the planet and ensure that all people appreciate peace and prosperity.
This course introduces the concept of sustainable development, the evolution of models and the implicit assumptions they make, as well as their contradictions. It also traces the advent of the SDGs and the extent that they support the principles of sustainable development. We examine the emergence of environmental problems and critically review the institutional responses to these problems since the late 1960s. We then consider in detail the increasingly popular idea of efforts in the pursuit of the SDGs from different perspectives that centres around people, planet, prosperity, peace and the partnerships involved in achieving the goals. The lectures will explore how achieving sustainable development goals will depends much on effective planning and good governance. Examples from different parts of the world will be used to underline the tight inter-connections between processes in different regions and across geographical scales in the context of sustainable development.