Sustainable Development: Critical Issues (Development Centre Studies)

490 Pages·2001·2.267 MB·English

«
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable Development Sustainable
CRITICAL ISSUES
Development
How can we meet the needs of today without diminishing the capacity of future generations to meet
theirs? This is the central question posed by "sustainable development". OECD countries committed
themselves to sustainable development at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and
Development in Rio, yet – almost ten years later – progress accomplished remains partial and
uneven. Drawing on analysis carried forward in response to a mandate from OECD Ministers in 1998,
this report stresses the urgency to address some of the most pressing challenges for sustainable CRITICAL ISSUES
development. It reviews the conceptual foundations of sustainable development, its measurement,
and the institutional reforms needed to make it operational. It then discusses how international trade
and investment, as well as development co-operation, can contribute to sustainable development on
a global basis, and reviews the experience of OECD countries in using market-based, regulatory and
technology policies to reach sustainability goals in a cost-effective way. The report also provides an SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
in-depth analysis of policies designed to address key threats to sustainability in the areas of climate
change and natural resource management, as well as of those that respond to sustainability concerns
at the sectoral and sub-national level. The common thrust of the report is that substantial
opportunities exist to make economic growth, environmental protection, and social development
mutually reinforcing.
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ISBN 92-64-18695-6
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Sustainable Development
Critical Issues
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
COVER_20x27_e.fm Page 2 Tuesday, June 12, 2001 9:46 AM
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into
force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
shall promote policies designed:
– to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of
living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the
development of the world economy;
– to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the
process of economic development; and
– to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in
accordance with international obligations.
The original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries
became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan
(28thApril1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973),
Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland
(22ndNovember 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000). The
Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD
Convention).
Publié en français sous le titre :
DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE
LES GRANDES QUESTIONS
© OECD 2001
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through the Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris,
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permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2,rueAndré-Pascal,
75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.
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FOREWORD
In November 1997 the High-Level Advisory Group on the Environment to the OECD Secretary-General
noted that “the OECD’s comparative advantage in the field of the environment and sustainable development
is its unique ability, through systematic analysis, comparisons, and peer review, to develop a shared
framework of strategic policy… no other global or regional institution has the capacity to build the cross-
cutting teams of policy makers necessary for the successful integration of economic, environmental, and
social policy that is the basis of sustainable development”.1The High-Level Advisory Group stressed “a
need for a much stronger corporate understanding and acceptance of the need to reorient work across the
Organisation in ways that underpin the policy foundations of sustainability”. This recommendation was
endorsed by OECD Ministers in 1998, when they asked the Organisation to carry out a three-year project
on sustainable development, and to report back to them in 2001.
This book responds to that mandate. It represents the efforts of the various OECD Directorates and of
its affiliates organisations — the International Energy Agency, the OECD nuclear Energy Agency, the
European Conference of Ministers of Transport, and the OECD Development Centre — to apply a sustainable
development framework in the areas of their particular expertise. The initiative has aimed at providing
coherence, visibility and policy relevance to work carried out in response to specific sectoral priorities, and
at considering — to the extent possible — the full range of implications (economic, environmental and social)
of policies in each areas.
Individual chapters of this book were discussed during 2000 and early 2001 by various bodies of the
Organisation, and have benefited from comments by country delegates and by OECD staff. Together they
lay-out the Organisation’s analytic approach to sustainable development — an approach that draws on its
economic perspective and its multidisciplinary expertise. It complements and provides background to a shorter
report, “Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development”, which presents practical recommendations to improve the
effectiveness of policy interventions in favour of sustainable development in Member countries.
Main authors for individual chapters were Marco Mira d’Ercole and Lars Mortensen (Chapter 1); Marco
Mira d’Ercole and Jan Keppler (Chapter 2); Carl Obst and Georges Lemaître (Chapter 3); Frédéric Bouder
and Jeremy Eppel (Chapter 4); Jean-Philippe Barde and Helen Mountford (Chapter 5); Yukiko Fukasaku and
Ki Joon Jung (Chapter 6); Paul O’Brien and Ann Vourc’h (Chapter7); Maria Maher, Dale Andrew, Fabienne
Fortanier and Cristina Tebar Less (Chapter 8); Rémi Paris, Peter Borkey and Brendan Gillespie (Chapter 9);
Ola Flaaten and Wilfrid Legg (Chapter 10); Jan Corfee-Morlot and Noreen Beg (Chapter 11); Kristi Varangu,
Jonathan Pershing and Jan Keppler (Chapter 12); John White (Chapter 13): Ronald Steenblik and Wilfrid Legg
(Chapter 14); Candice Stevens and John Newman (Chapter 15); Josef Konvitz and Liz Mills (Chapter16). Tom
Jones, Judy Lawrence, Marco Mira d’Ercole, Ronald Steenblik, Dorte Dalsgaard and Tracey Strange helped
co-ordinate the project, and assured final editing of the full manuscript.
The preparation of this book was made possible by extra-budgetary contributions from Canada,
Denmark, the European Commission and Norway. This book is published under the responsibility of the
OECD Secretary-General.
Thorvald Moe
Deputy Secretary-General
1. “Guiding the Transition to Sustainable Development: A critical Role for the OECD”, The Report of the High-Level Advisory Group
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on the Environment to the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, November 1997, Paris.
OECD 2001
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Sustainable Development: Critical Issues
Other OECD publications released in the context of the three-year project
on sustainable development
OECD (2001), Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development, Paris.
OECD (2001), OECD Environmental Outlook,Paris.
OECD (2001), The Well-being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital, Paris.
OECD (2001), International Science and Technology Co-operation. Towards Sustainable Development, Paris.
OECD (2000), Innovation and the Environment, Paris.
OECD (2000), “Special Issue on Sustainable Development”, Science, Technology and Industry Review,
No. 25, Paris.
OECD (2000), Frameworks to Measure Sustainable Development: An OECD Expert Workshop, Paris.
OECD (2000), Towards Sustainable Development: Indicators to Measure Progress: Proceedings of the Rome Conference,
Paris.
OECD (2000), Governance for Sustainable Development: Case Studies of Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands
and United Kingdom, Paris.
OECD (2000), Transition to Responsible Fisheries: Economic and Policy Implication, Paris.
OECD (1999), Action Against Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol and Beyond, Paris.
OECD (1999), National Climate Policies and the Kyoto Protocol, Paris.
OECD (1999), Technology and Environment: Towards Policy Integration, Paris.
OECD (1999), Framework to Measure Sustainable Development, Paris.
IEA (1999), World Energy Outlook: Looking at Energy Subsidies: Getting the Prices Right,Paris.
NEA (2000), Nuclear Energy in a Sustainable Development Perspective,Paris.
4
OECD 2001
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword....................................................................................................................................................................3
Table of contents.......................................................................................................................................................5
SECTION I. UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT......................................................................7
Chapter1. Economic, Environmental and Social Trends.........................................................................11
Chapter2. Key Features and Principles.....................................................................................................35
Chapter3. Measurement..............................................................................................................................55
SECTIONII. ENHANCING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN OECD COUNTRIES......................................97
Chapter4. Institutions and Decision Making ............................................................................................99
Chapter5. Policy Instruments....................................................................................................................127
Chapter6. Technology................................................................................................................................157
Chapter7. Experience in OECD Countries..............................................................................................183
SECTIONIII. GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT...........................................................209
Chapter8. International Trade and Investment......................................................................................213
Chapter9. Strategies for Non-member Countries..................................................................................243
SECTIONIV. CROSS SECTORAL ISSUES...........................................................................................................269
Chapter10. Natural Ressource Managment...............................................................................................273
Chapter11. Climate Change........................................................................................................................303
SECTIONV. SECTORAL AND TERRITORIAL APPROACHES...........................................................................333
Chapter12. Energy........................................................................................................................................337
Chapter13. Transport...................................................................................................................................367
Chapter14. Agriculture.................................................................................................................................397
Chapter15. Manufacturing...........................................................................................................................429
Chapter16. Territorial Development..........................................................................................................453
Annex1. Glossary and Acronyms.................................................................................................................477
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Section I
UNDERSTANDING
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Chapter 1.
ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL TRENDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................11
Economic growth, technology and globalisation................................................................................................11
Environmental pressures.......................................................................................................................................14
Current impacts of environmental degradation...........................................................................................19
Drivers of future pressures.............................................................................................................................20
Social pressures......................................................................................................................................................22
Conclusions..............................................................................................................................................................27
NOTES......................................................................................................................................................................28
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................................30
Tables
1.1. International targets for preserving life support systems......................................................................14
1.2. Economic pressures on biodiversity.........................................................................................................17
1.3. Environmental factors affecting health.....................................................................................................20
Figures
1.1. Long-term trends in real GDP per capita in major world regions.........................................................12
1.2. Long-term trends in productivity and key technologies........................................................................13
1.3. Global temperatures and emissions of greenhouse gases....................................................................16
1.4. Annual freshwater withdrawals, 1997........................................................................................................18
1.5. Trends in environment and natural resources in OECD countries........................................................19
1.6. Economic losses from large weather-related disasters..........................................................................21
1.7. World population projections....................................................................................................................22
1.8. Trends in inequality in real GDP per capita between countries...........................................................23
1.9. Dependency ratios in OECD countries.....................................................................................................26
1.10. Trends in income inequality within OECD countries..............................................................................27
Box
1.1. International development goals...................................................................................................................24
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