ASIATHE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABILITY

By Dr. Emil Salim,Jakarta, Indonesia

Manila, Dec 10th 2002

Introduction The World Commission on Environment & Development, coined the definition of sustainable development The World Conference on Environment & Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 1992, agreed on the Rio Principles that formed the basis for cooperation at the global level in implementing Agenda 21 The World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, Sept 2002, the assessment has been made that poverty widely prevails in the globe so that “the needs & aspirations of present generations” have not been met.

The natural life support system has been seriously degraded by the way development has taken place in the past & is endangering “the ability to meet those needs & aspirations of the future generation.”The challenge hence becomes to strive for a development process that eradicates poverty & preserves & enhances the environment.To meet this challenge, this Summit revisit the concept of sustainable development & to elaborate it further through;

1. the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development;

2. plan of implementation;3. private-public partnership cooperative

arrangements;

The Political Declaration The Summit agreed on a vision to build a humane, equitable & caring global society to be reached on the basis of a collective responsibility to strengthen the interdependent & mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development – economic development, social development & environmental protection. In context poverty eradication, changing consumption & production patterns, & protecting as well as managing the natural resource base for economic & social development are overarching objectives of sustainable development.

This Summit is positioned on the path of sustainable development starting from Rio’s World Conference on Environment & Development ten years ago to reach Johannesburg to define a comprehensive vision as well as approach towards the future of humanity. To be achieved by using the collective strength as embodied in the rich diversity of the global society, & the commitment to enhance multilateralism through an inclusive process.This spirit of political declaration is most relevant for Asia & the Pacific region which is very much diversified in terms of ethnicity, culture, customs, religion, etc. The proper approach for development in this region must be based on maintaining diversity.

In eco-systems, the more divers are the components of an eco-system, the more stable & resilient becomes the system. Similarly the region of Asia & the Pacific.Asia & the Pacific may not have a single political or economic system. Each finding its own unique position in accordance with their respective culture, history, religious beliefs, ethnicity, customs, etc. There is no single homogeneous system. And yet every nation feels the need to strive for unity in diversity. To reach for an united goal of prosperity & liberty along the path of diversity.

This opens the door widely open for multilateralism, rather than uni-lateralism. This multilateral approach has created a favorable climate for regional cooperation, such as Association of South East Asia Nation (ASEAN), South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the Indian Ocean rim Regional Association & the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).Because of bilateral issues between countries the effectiveness of some of these regional groupings is not yet apparent. Gradually however the developmental benefits that goes along regionalization will make such cooperation more mature & makes it possible to overcome bilateral disagreements.

Regionalism will be the growing trend of cooperation between countries in Asia & the Pacific. Increase trade among Asian countries will boost the process of regionalization. Especially when the experiences have shown, such as ASEAN Plus Three. In the next 25 years this regionalization process will have as its respective hubs in China, India & ASEAN & as its spooks the other related emerging developing countries around them to countervail the growth of developed countries of Japan & Australia in Asia.The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development has ignited the challenge of diversity, multilateralism & regionalization as the approach of development for this millennium.

Plan of Implementation

First poverty eradication in terms of income,

eliminating hunger, providing clean drinking water, education & health etc;

changing unsustainable patterns of consumption & production through the implementation of a 10-year framework of programs;

protecting & managing the natural resource base of economic & social development with special emphasis

Second, health as the most important prerequisite for sustainable development, with particular emphasis on women, children, the vulnerable groups of the society, such as people with disabilities, elderly persons & indigenous people;Third, sustainable development in a globalizing world that requires open, equitable, rule-based, predictable & non-discriminatory multi-lateral trading & financial systems, with enhanced market access for products of interest to developing countries

Fourth, sustainable development of regions, (small island developing states, Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, West Asia, Europe, Asia & the Pacific)The Phnom Penh Regional Platform on Sustainable Development for Asia & the Pacific has identified seven initiatives, i.e.:

1. capacity building for sustainable development;2. poverty reduction for sustainable development;3. cleaner production & sustainable energy;4. land management & biodiversity conservation;5. Protection, management of & access to freshwater

resources;6. oceans, coastal, marine resources & sustainable

development of small island developing states;7. action on atmosphere & climate change.

In addition is the Regional Action Program for Environmentally Sound & Sustainable Development, & the Kitakyushu Initiative for a Clean Environment.

Fifth, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” & covers increases in the flow of financial resources; full use of existing financial mechanisms & institutions; use special drawing rights for development purposes; debt relief; WTO involvement to promote supportiveness between the multilateral trading system & environmental agreements; refrain from any uni-lateral measures; finance access to environmental technologies; capacity building in science & technology for sustainable development; education, capacity building & to ensure access to environmental information, judicial & administrative proceedings in environmental manners; & public participation in decision-making; 

Sixth, institutional framework for sustainable development at the international level, regional level, national level & participation of major groups.

Private-Public Partnership Since the beginning of preparing for the Summit the approach has been “bottom up”The importance of this Summit is not only determined by the resolutions but also the inclusive process to build consensus involving multi-stakeholdersThese major groups are engaged in official meetings & in the negotiations to reach for agreements & cooperation through public-private partnership arrangementsThe aim was to steer the Summit, not only consists of “talking’ to agree on documents, but on “actions” to produce active results & deliverables on the path of sustainable development.

Sustainable development consists of the interaction and the interplay among social, economic and environmental sustainability. Interdependence among the three factors is one of the main key principle in the proper conduct of eco-systems.For this Summit on Sustainable Development deliberately five major clusters have been chosen, these are water & sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity.Each of these centers of clusters is interdependent with one another and forms a web of networks that allows development to become sustainable.By implementing these clusters altogether a macro web of network is created in which each is connected to one another and functions as the main ecological system in which sustainable development is taken place.

Sustainable development requires the proper functioning of the market. “Market” is man made based on the combinations of preference scales of human beings as revealed.The “poor” who has no accessibility into the market, fails to reveal its preference scale through the market and becomes externalities that are ignored by the market. This explains why the market fails to be “pro poor” & external forces are required to internalize the poor’s preference scales.Eco-systems with their special trait of interdependency are also not absorbed in the market & become externalities. This explains why services of eco-systems, have no market values & become the dumping place of pollution at no economic costs.To correct market failures, external forces are required to internalize these social & environmental factors into the market.

Three dominating forces that influence the process as well as the outcome of development: First is the political power holders; Second is business leaders; Third is the civil society.

Empowerment of civil society is of utmost importance to obtain balance of equal strength in the triangle of power. In this triangle of power, the process of effective check and balance between these centers of power makes good governance possible.A genuine and appropriate public-private partnership cooperative arrangements to correct the failure of the market and to accommodate social and environmental considerations as an inherent part of sustainable development.

The Asian path towards sustainability

In Asia and the Pacific region lives 58% of the world’s population and three-quarters of the world’s poor live in Asia. According to UNEP, per capita GDP (in 1995 US dollar value) ranges in from US$ 506 in South-Asia to US$ 4,794 in East Asia and Northwest Pacific.During 1972-1999 per capita income (in 1995 US dollars vallue) in East Asia & Northwest Pacific an average growth of 2.4% per annum. This high growth has suffered a serious blow because of the Asian economic crisis of 1998. Asian growth is accompanied by structural change of the economy, with agricultural sector as the main contributor to GDP to be replaced by increased contribution of the service sector (period 1980-1995).

Accompanying the growth of the service sector is the growth of urban population. Rising income in Asia however goes hand in hand with growing income inequalities. And it is getting worst if no special policies are devoted for correction.During the past 28 years (1972-2000) world population has grown from 3.8 billion (1972) to 6.1 billion (2000) and is growing with 77 million people a year. Nearly two-thirds of this growing population lives in Asia and the PacificWith a projected total population of 8 billion by 2025, Asian population will reach approximately 4,5 billion or 56% of total world population. Meanwhile Asian population has to survive on a meager 23% of Earth’s land area.

Under these circumstances United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has identified that the key environmental issues faced by Asia and the Pacific are with regard to: land: land degradation, desertification and land use change; forests: forest degradation and deforestation; biodiversity: habitat loss, forest loss and degradation, alien

species; freshwater: water scarcity, pollution; coastal and marine: degradation of coastal and marine resources

and pollution due to mining and coastal development; atmosphere: air quality, ozone depletion, greenhouse gas

emissions and climate change; urban areas: air pollution, waste management, water supply and

sanitation; disasters: floods, drought, volcanoes and earthquakes.

“Environment” has now emerged as the main system that has put the “economy” as its sub-system.Under these conditions the “economy” must take the “environmental” conditions as its constraints that put limitations to the behavior of the economic variables.The Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) has selected 5 countries that is expected to play a major role in the coming decades toward 2020 in economic as well as environmental development. These “Big Five” (: Russia, China, India, Indonesia and Brazil) are selected on the basis of: numbers of population; the GDP above US$ 100 billion; exerting significant influence in trade, agriculture, energy & the global

environment; playing a leadership role in their respective regions and in international

relations.

Important that Asian future growth is strongly correlated to the ability of Asia to promote and execute green productivity. It requires the capability to produce goods and services to meet consumer’s need to raise their quality of life through the market at competitive price by reducing: the use of natural resource per unit of output and to maximize recyclable

material for producing output; the use of energy per unit of output and the increase use of clean as well

as renewable energy; spatial area where development is taken place; waste content and volume of pollution per unit of output; negative impact of development on the environment per unit of output. 

Asia and the Pacific consists of countries with different state of economy. It has to follow a multi-sector approach of sustainable development.

It is important that Asia and the Pacific puts the highest priority in raising efficiency in the use of water and land that is projected to become the most scarce resources in the coming years.While in terms of pollution Asia and the Pacific needs to move away from polluting fossil fuel energy and shifts towards clean and renewable energy. Asia has the potential to become the major engine of the global growth in this first half of the twentieth century if it applies the proper conduct of sustainable development. Asia can also become the biggest carbon-dioxide producing polluter of the world by using fossil fuel as the main source of energy.

In the 21st century, Asia and the Pacific has the opportunity to leave the “business as usual” conventional development model & to explore the new venues of sustainable development along the four aspects of eco-efficiency:1. dematerialization;2. production loop closure; 3. service extension; 4. functional extension.

By moving along these new venues, Asia may not only pulled itself into higher level of prosperity but also raised the world into a new era of global green welfare without poverty in an humane environment with quality and dignity for all.