Universities and sustainable development

We've entered a new age on the planet. Some call it the Anthropocene, meaning a geologic epoch – cene in Greek – in which humanity – anthropos – is the main driver of planetary change.

Others call it the era of planetary boundaries, meaning that we've reached safety limits on greenhouse gas concentrations, freshwater use, land use, biodiversity loss and other human demands on the planet.

At the same time the urgent task of ending extreme poverty remains unfinished and countries around the world are experiencing growing inequalities and social exclusion.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, or SDSN, which I am honoured to direct on behalf of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, calls this age the Age of Sustainable Development.

We are honoured to work with Monash University as a major partner and leader to accelerate practical problem-solving for sustainable development. [See 'Region-wide Monash sustainability institute’ in this edition of University World News.]

The sustainable development discipline

Sustainable development is both a scientific way of looking at the world and a principled way of solving problems.

As a new scientific discipline, it describes the world as an interconnected system that includes the economy, social networks, the Earth's natural systems, and governance processes in both the public and private spheres.

As a normative idea to guide action, it calls for a holistic approach to wellbeing, in which economic development should be socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and subject to good governance and peace.

In this context, good governance includes the rule of law, accountability, transparency, participation, and responsibility to avoid imposing environmental and other costs on others. Good governance also means that the world respects the right of every country to develop while respecting planetary boundaries.

New approaches needed

The SDSN is based on a core idea: that understanding sustainable development and achieving the interlinked goals of inclusive, sustainable and well-governed development require far more knowledge and intensive problem-solving than in the past.

Humanity's problems are unprecedented. Never before has humanity threatened the very life-support systems of the planet, and yet the world's political and economic systems remain distracted by short-term motivations even as dire longer-term threats continue to mount.

To succeed in sustainable development, humanity will need new approaches to meeting energy needs, notably to de-carbonise the world's energy systems.

Humanity will need new approaches to growing food, both to ensure food security and to reduce the adverse impacts of agriculture on the natural environment.

And humanity will need to rethink basic patterns of life in our cities, how densely our settlements are concentrated, how people and goods are transported, and how energy, water and waste are managed.

These approaches must be devised, piloted, rolled out, monitored and improved on local, national, regional and global scales. In all of these cases, we confront the complexity of developing new technologies and deploying them on a large scale.

This must be done in ways that are economically efficient, socially just and environmentally sound. And they must be done rapidly, far more quickly than market dynamics and natural processes would accomplish.

Time is short because we are already at the edge of crisis, as a result of human-induced climate change, the degradation of major ecosystems and the enormous loss of biodiversity already threatening the planet.

The role of universities

Success will require new science-based solutions. Success will require an unprecedented integration of insights across various disciplines, including earth systems sciences, public health, civil engineering, information technologies, economics, politics, law, business and much more.

Only universities bring together this range of knowledge – hence their ‘universality’.

Universities are therefore critical stakeholders for success. To an unprecedented extent, universities must partner with government, business and civil society to take on the great challenges of sustainable development that lie ahead.

With the technological breakthroughs at hand – in information, communications, materials, energy systems, genomics, agronomics, production technologies, transport and much more – humanity has the opportunity to end extreme poverty, spread wellbeing more widely and protect the planet.

A future of sustainable development is within reach. Yet the momentum is carrying us in a far more dangerous and adverse direction: towards environmental catastrophe, growing inequalities and sharply rising tensions around the world.

The SDSN, working closely with Monash and hundreds of partner institutions around the world, is intent on doing all that we can to help support a rapid, ethical and decisive turn towards sustainable development.

* Jeffrey D Sachs is director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and director of The Earth Institute at the University of Columbia. He is co-author of The United Nations in the Age of Sustainable Development.

He is on a five-day visit to Australia from 18-23 May on a multi-city tour, hosted by Monash and Curtin universities, where he will meet with a range of stakeholders, including ministers, senior government officials and business leaders. Sachs will discuss Australia’s role in advancing sustainable development solutions as well as launching a regional initiative – Youth Solutions – to engage young people in the creation of innovative and sustainable ways of tackling global development challenges.

* This article was first published in Monash Magazine, produced by Monash University in Melbourne.