In the last decade, boosting sustainability has been extensively studied in developing countries and developing societies. According to many works of literature, many attempts strive to achieve sustainability's main goals. Moreover, in Paris Conference Agreement in 2015, a decision to low the harmful gas emissions and low the earth's temperature by 2° C had been made.
I was astonished while working on my research paper in the following link:
Article Boosting Sustainability in Egypt by Developing Initiatives t...
As I found out, developing countries already have possibilities and opportunities to boost and achieve its targeting goals. At least the 17 goals that UN was determined. Although it is obvious that boosting sustainability is too hard for these contexts, I really seek to know why?
This is a well-recognized issue that necessitates a better approach toward figuring suitable solutions. Perhaps one of the first questions to arise is: How can we boost sustainability in Developing Countries?
Developing countries can become one of the richest countries in the world, become one of the developed countries, and achieve sustainability and prosperity
They have the most valuable wealth in their country
They own oil, gold and diamonds
They have the best beaches and And breathtaking views
They just need a good government that takes advantage of all this
It eradicates revolutions and internal conflicts. Eliminates corruption in all its forms, including rape, drugs, arms trade, and trade in organs and people.
After eliminating corruption, they need to use their resources and eradicate poverty and hunger
And then taking care of the health of their children and adults, and the access to clean water for them
And attention to their education and gender equality
Hence they need good 'sustainable' planning.
Open areas .. reduce the use of cars .. and pay attention to public transportation that does not pollute the environment.
In order to increase the scale of implementation of the principles and the implementation of the sustainable development goals in developing countries, it is necessary to conduct multi-track activities in various economic, social, political, financial, institutional spheres, etc. increasing the scale of information campaigns carried out in various social media promoting the need to implement the principles of sustainable development into economic processes, conducting a pro-ecological transformation of the economy towards a sustainable green economy / circular economy, limiting the scale of environmental pollution and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, counteracting the ongoing global warming and negative processes the effects of climate change. Increasing the scale of information campaigns carried out in various social media on various aspects of the above-mentioned issues should lead to an increase in the general social awareness of citizens about environmental issues, side effects and the impact of the development of civilization on the biosphere and climate of planet Earth. In this way, the scale of social environmental (ecological) responsibility should increase. Projects should be developed in the field of pro-ecological reforms of implementing eco-innovations in economic processes, etc. in the field of pro-ecological transformation of the energy sector through the development of energy based on renewable energy sources, development of electromobility, improvement of waste segregation techniques and recycling, development of agriculture in the formula of sustainable ecological agriculture, development of smart technologies in pro-ecological applications, development of sustainable construction based on energy-saving technologies, growth of scale financing pro-ecological investment projects under green finance, increasing the scale of pro-ecological state intervention carried out by central public institutions of the state, etc.
Best regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
All thanks, appreciation, and respect for all helpful replies in this discussion. In my opinion, I think developing countries need a more strict application of laws, codes, and regulations to boost sustainability.
I think we cannot globalize the concept of sustainability. It is more suitable for every context to have its vision from the real obstacles that strike the community. Moreover, with the real political will of change, it will be easy to push the capitals toward investing in sustainable sectors.
Furthermore, I think we face a real problem in the absence of community members' awareness, and I precisely do not know what really causes that lack of knowledge. Maybe because of the spread of illiteracy and poverty in a large proportion of these societies. Maybe individuals in consumer communities follow-up capitals, which in turn, are trying to move toward the preferred sectors for consumers regardless of any other considerations like sustainability and environment. Thus, it seems like we are going in circles.
I'm wondering about definitions. When you say 'boost sustainability', do you mean 'sustainable development', or 'sustainability'? The first is an effort to ensure that any given development initiative produces no more burden than benefit while it attempts to achieve some combination of SDGs. The second is the capacity of the citizens of a community to meet all of their needs using their skills and time, and the resources, ecological functions, and energy they obtain from the land that they are stewards of, in perpetuity. The difference matters: one is trying to do things better, the other is trying to do things well. Both are required, and neither leads automatically to the other.
If you're trying to boost sustainability, you need to identify the obstructions within the individuals, families, and communities that prevent people from being able to effectively meet their needs. Some of those obstructions are related to access to resources, ecological function, and energy, and some of those obstructions are more related to social barriers that encourage disparity.
Poverty, for example, exists because the people are unable to use their time to meet their needs sufficiently effectively. Affluence is equally damaging to society, because the over-consumption of ecological functions causes a negative impact on the rest of the community that is larger than the benefits to the wealthy individuals.
Sustainability is inherently local in nature - while we all have the same needs, we all have different means to meet those needs. Snow, as an example, is a fine building material (R3 to the inch, no carbon, completely renewable, etc) in Greenland, but pretty much useless in Saudi Arabia (lots of other examples). So while the idea can be globalized, the solutions are not.
A few points to consider:
In first-world settings, rural areas can not be sustainable without the urban areas to provide higher education, health care, manufacturing, etc., and the urban areas can not be sustainable without the rural areas providing the ecological functions, resources, and energy.
Energy is a time-multiplier, and it has the most benefit to the community at low energy use. The first solar panel makes a bigger impact than the 200th, and that's true for everyone. There is a point where additional energy use provides less benefit than burden to quality of life, and a much lower energy use, where the benefit provided doesn't make up for the ecological damage. Where those thresholds are will be potentially unique for every community.
I should leave this here...
It requires political will and community participations to achieve every SDG target commitment.
Absolute understanding of the meaning and concept of sustainability is required. Then, create practical approaches to sustainability, as most people in developing countries are fascinated by what they see rather than what they hear or read.
Sustainability is a complex subject. As such it would help to split it into various functional areas such as sustainable construction. Secondly, the involved stakeholders need appropriate skills and knowledge hence need for sustainability literacy - formal, informal and non formal. Thirdly, based on past research numerous barriers and drivers have been identified in relation to sustainability in specific functional areas. There's need to leverage the drivers while suppressing the barriers. Fourthly, 'what gets measured gets managed'. There's need for identification of sustainability indicators relevant to a given context and the subsequent assessment of sustainability for decision making and improvements.
I believe that sustainability or sustainable development will always be a romantic dream that we will always seek to achieve. We will never reach during the consumer age we live in. I think the concept of sustainability has become a commodity. but we must keep trying to find suitable ways to boost as they said ''a step forward is better than none''. The question is:
Do we need to improve the awareness first? or we should work on many sectors at the same time?
I recommend reading the following with respect to this question - both papers focus on developing countries and challenges of sustainability:
- Future of Life-Cycle Assessment in a Smart and/or Sustainable World
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338327265_Future_of_Life-Cycle_Assessment_in_a_Smart_andor_Sustainable_World?_sg=g0BM2_3Co09ATb3YNGmKy_tB1tB8ybiENo7OdBB2gFo8drBJ3iOFMtDLGYos2cgdfTN-fWVlLkLAIuaniAbpTg-_UlujQRbWVFwPZWLP.cX90sTtsr07qErzgxugoWS4L1EbC6K0TIl6anNGZeClcP4xArQPROzLP4RHkT7DqzfF7h1RDeD381gCJWGPnOQ
- Internet of Things and the Future of Life-Cycle Assessment in Smart World
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325871906_Internet_of_Things_and_the_Future_of_Life-Cycle_Assessment_in_Smart_World
Aryan Shahabian Thank you, professor, so much for your recommended papers. It is beneficial and gives me an outline of the applications of the IoT. This issue will be more interesting to me in the coming days. I want to be fairly familiar with its requirements and surrounding mechanisms to develop the developing contexts, which I wish to specialize in shortly.
Here some brief answers to parts of your question.
1. Why is boosting sustainability hard for developing countries?
One reason is that initiatives for many goals (17 goals, 169 targets) are competing for resources: money, time, attention, knowledge.
So before something is done, a lot of energy has gone in negotiating priorities.
A second reason is that key resources are in short supply (capital to invest) or not accessible (for instance, journals behind paywalls)
2. How can we boost sustainability in developing countries?
Improve initiative management skills (see for instance: Lean communications across initiatives, and how such communications use the topic dimension wikis, are explained at https://www.wikiworx.info/initiative-management)
Share information and initiatives more efficiently, and with open access. One way of doing this, is via #tagcoding. For instance, your research about Smart Energy Systems in Egypt has SDG tag #sdg7EG, industrial sector tag:for instance #isic3510EG (Electric Power Generation, transmission,...)
Invest wise, but financial capital must be available.
3. Should we work on many sectors at the same time?
Yes, many sectors need a sustainability transformation. Yet each of us should "professionally" concentrate on one or a few sectors,(besides living sustainably 24/7 throughout the year).
One should be aware that not all sectors have the same greening potential.
EU Taxonomy work investigates this in detail (see https://www.ens-dictionary.info/item:eu-taxonomy ). Energy and construction, the sectors you address in your research have a lot of greening potential.
To conclude on boosting: to accelerate the localisation of knowledge for sustainable development, I "invented" #tagcoding. More about this new digital skill in https://leanpub.com/tagpedia
Jan BM Goossenaerts "Invest wise, but financial capital must be available."
I totally agree with you, professor. Furthermore, I think we should care about stakeholders at first as they have the potential to push the developing market forward with their capitals as they did before in the USA with the smart buildings in the 80s
Dear Ehab Maher,
I read with interest your comprehensive paper where you highlight the absence, weak or no-effect 16 initiatives because of their need for high cost, advanced technology, and infrastructure for design, operation, and maintenance. You seem to be focusing on highly sophisticated energy saving mechanisms for large buildings such as office towers?
I also reviewed previous answers that warn ‘having a finger in every pie’ is not a good idea, with fundamentals such as "awareness raising" and gaining political support being among necessary first steps.
Rather than pursuing Smart Energy Systems (SES) in more depth, perhaps more be achieved by stepping back and taking a broader, 'multi-track' systems-wide view e.g. How can such systems contribute to Egypt’s emissions and energy reduction goals? Are there simpler ways as first step, such as awareness raising among building occupants to switch off devices and lights, or passive measures such as natural ventilation? What can be learned from traditional approaches?
Perhaps you could also consider community-based renewable energy systems, not just the ‘big end of town’? Sunlabob is one company that assists introduce such localised systems in cooperation with the (UN https://www.sunlabob.com/). You may also find attached book chapter to be of use.
On the other hand, larger city buildings may be constructed by global corporations seeking to expand their presence in Egypt. In that regard, the UNEP 2020 Emissions Gap Report emphasises that richer countries (and corporations) need to dramatically reduce their emissions by up to 97% (a huge amount!), while per capita emissions of developing countries may increase as required for new housing, public services and infrastructure to overcome poverty and deprivation. The GlobalABC (2020) also warns than the building sector is far off track to reach net zero carbon by 2050, with most of the responsibility falling upon wealthier nations - who created the problem in the first place and have a debt to pay.
Therefore, richer countries and corporations have an obligation to assist Egypt to achieve its Agenda 2030 energy efficiency/reduction and other goals, via investment, know-how, training/capacity building, technologies, technical support and infrastructure…such as via partnerships and mentoring (SDG 17). However, merely supplanting western approaches and so-called ‘Green Building’ tools and systems may be inappropriate – as explained in attached paper (from SENVAR 2010). In any case, such green tools are currently being reviewed by our team in Australia, while Rock et al (2020) are involved in leading edge research about application of carbon budgets and increased recognition of embodied emissions.
The developed world and OECD countries, including governments, companies and researchers (including universities such as mine), have a major role to play in supporting developing countries such as Egypt to boost their sustainability.
In my opinion, in order to boost the sustainability efforts in developing countries, first we need to create awareness of SDGs in all stakeholders of the society to their respective level.
5 Ps......by setting the priorities, policies, procedures, production and population right.
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