5 SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES FOR THE ECONOMIC SCENARIO - ECONOMY - 2025

Among the 5 most relevant sustainability strategies for the economic scenario, we can highlight controlling the limits of exploitation, distributing income limiting inequality and retaking those measures that regulate international trade.

The term sustainability, also commonly referred to as sustainability, is a property of sustainable development that allows “meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Figure 1. Dimensions that make up sustainability or sustainability. Source: Johann Dréo (User: Nojhan) / Translator: User: HUB1, via Wikimedia Commons

Sustainability is studied from the perspective of three dimensions: environmental (ecological), social and economic. These concepts were first raised in 1987 by the United Nations (UN) World Commission on the Environment in the report Our Common Future (or Brundtland Report).

The anthropocentric vision of the definition of sustainable development considers the human being the center of everything and the owner of nature, omitting the most serious problem of the global environmental crisis: that the natural resources of our planet are limited and finite, and cannot sustain a human population that grows limitlessly.

So, natural resources are the limiting factor for humanity's growth and overconsumption. On the other hand, the Royal Spanish Academy defines economics as the "science that studies the most effective methods to satisfy material human needs through the use of scarce goods".

The UN states that the world's economies should continue to grow, but there is much controversy in relation to this consideration, since the economic model based on modern consumption does not allow the regenerative capacity of nature to maintain resources, even those essential to human survival.

Humanity is responsible for the overexploitation and contamination of natural resources to the point of exhaustion, even when it threatens itself and the rest of living beings.

The 5 outstanding sustainability strategies for the economic scenario

On the world economic stage there are neoclassical economists who argue that economic growth is necessary, although they cannot refute the fact that the global situation worsens.

Likewise, there are ecological economists who argue that current growth is uneconomic in high-consumption countries and that, if this trend continues, we will end up with natural resources.

The following are some strategies that we can propose, inspired by ecological economists:

1-Analyze alternatives at the height of the global emergency: steady state economy

Herman Daly, an American economist professor, raises the path of the steady state economy as an alternative to the current environmental debacle generated by the growth-oriented economy (which has been in development for 200 years).

The steady state economy proposes the need to decrease economic production in a controlled and regular way. This would favor environmental preservation, allowing time for natural replacement and sanitation rates to balance the serious damage caused by human activity.

The steady state implies qualitative but not quantitative growth, since the natural resources that remain cannot sustain an excessive and growing economy.

So far, the quantitative expansion of the economy has generated high environmental and social costs that outweigh the true gains from production.

According to ecological economists, these costs cannot continue to be externalized. From these reflections questions arise such as:

- Could we consume less?

- Can we now assume a lifestyle based on simplicity voluntarily?

- Will we forcibly come to assume simplicity when it is too late because we have finished with the natural resources essential for our own lives?

Today there are approaches to life philosophies -such as that of the global “Zero waste” movement or that of permaculture- that show that it is possible to live better with less. However, this requires a deep understanding of the global environmental crisis and a strong moral commitment from humanity.

Figure 2. The human being is part of each dimension of sustainability. Source:

2-Set maximum limits for exploitation and contamination of the environment

Restrictions

Based on the knowledge of the available natural resources and their state (of contamination or level of depletion) and considering the natural replacement and sanitation rates, their exploitation and / or contamination should be restricted.

The inventory of these available resources or existing natural capital is achieved through baseline studies, from which information the carrying capacity of the environment can be estimated.

Technology

The development of improvements in technologies (recycling and renewable energy, among others) has not occurred at the speed necessary to stop the evident current process of depletion of natural resources. Nor has the transfer of technologies from the industrialized countries to the poor, as proposed by the UN programs.

This shows that blind reliance on human capital and future technological development is not reasonable to justify increases in the extraction and contamination of natural resources. In addition, it should be considered that the use of new technologies frequently generates new environmental problems.

For example, the use of tetraethyl lead made it possible to improve the pistoning of the engines, but it also generated the dispersion of a highly toxic pollutant in the environment, such as lead (a heavy metal).

Another example is the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which allowed improving the cooling and propulsion of aerosol substances, but also caused the destruction of the ozone layer, which has led to an increase in ultraviolet radiation throughout the planet.

3-Distribute income limiting inequality

Redistribution

In the absence of total economic growth, redistribution is necessary. According to Daly, "absolute equality is unfair, as is unlimited inequality." Maximum and minimum income limits must be established.

Developed countries must slow down their production levels, thus leaving natural resources so that the world's poor countries can achieve a decent standard of quality of life.

According to the UN, more than 700 million people live on less than $ 1.90 a day (considered the threshold of extreme poverty), and the levels of unemployment and vulnerable employment are increasing every time.

For all this, within the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) established in the UN 2030 agenda, it is proposed to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, while working for the conservation of the environment.

Gross domestic product

Gross domestic product (GDP) is an economic term that expresses a monetary value derived from the sum of the production of national goods and services during a year.

Ecological economists have asked the question of whether GDP growth makes humanity richer or poorer. They wonder if this should continue to be an indicator of social welfare.

In this regard, they suggest that in poor countries GDP growth does increase welfare, but only in strong democracies that distribute it reasonably.

4-Resume regulatory measures of international trade

According to Daly, local and national production must be protected from the introduction of foreign products that compete with very low prices thanks to subsidies in their countries of origin or because of questioned quality.

According to this point of view, free trade, globalization and the uncontrolled movement of capital must be rethought.

Figure 3. Urbanism and sustainability. Source: Pixabay.com

5-Stop population growth

The population could be stabilized if the number of immigrants and births remains the same as the number of immigrants and deaths. Only in this way will population growth become null.

In the 18th century, the British economist member of the Royal Society, Thomas Malthus, proposed the theory that exponential population growth would run into the limitation of finite natural resources.

Neither the socio-economic nor the population system can maintain continuous growth. There must be limits based on the ecological principle that in nature there is nothing that grows indefinitely because, upon reaching maximum thresholds, it generates the collapse of the system and further degradation.

The end of a cycle is the beginning of a new one. Humanity must prepare to face future challenges and unite through its governments, private entities and civil society, to protect its greatest common interest: its own survival on a healthy planet.

References

1. Costanza, R., Cumberland, JH, Dali, H., Goodland, R., Norgaard, RB, Kubiszewski, I. & Franco, C. (2014). An Introduction to Ecological Economics, Second Edition. CRC Press. pp 356.
2. Daly, HE (2008). Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development. Selected Essays of Herman Daly. Edward Elgar Publishing. 280 pp.
3. Daly, H. (1995). Economics, ecology and ethics: essays towards a steady state economy. Economic Culture Fund (FCE). pp 388.
4. Daly, HE and Cobb, JB (1993). For the common good: reorienting the economy towards the community, the environment and a sustainable future. Fondo de Cultura Económica, DF. pp 466.
5. Daly, HE and Farey, J. (2010). Ecological Economics, Second Edition: Principles and Applications. Island Press. pp 541.
6. Finkbeiner, M., Schau, EM, Lehmann, A., & Traverso, M. (2010). Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. Sustainability, 2 (10), 3309–3322. doi: 10.3390 / su2103309
7. Kuhlman, T., & Farrington, J. (2010). What is Sustainability? Sustainability, 2 (11), 3436–3448. doi: 10.3390