Mathur Ritika Passi

income countries, it has been pointed
out that the agenda chiefly promotes the
environmental pillar, as indicated by the
overwhelming use of environment-related
adjectives as compared to those pertaining
to the other two pillars. 10 The takeaway
implicit in the SDG framework seems to be
that the development objective of poorer
nations must be tempered by environmental
considerations.
This twin responsibility is made further
visible when compared to targets
specifically aiming the more affluent
countries (and sections of society): There
is only one weak goal on introducing
sustainable patterns of production and
consumption (Goal 12), and no recurring
motif of reducing overconsumption
throughout the goals. Therefore, no
mention of reducing water or energy
consumption in clear cases of overuse
finds its way into the targets. While
normatively setting up a framework to deal
with sustainability globally, the burden of
sustainability has been ghettoised among
the poor in practice. 11
Whither the Way Forward?
Debating Technology Fix
vs. Value Change
A second debate exists between the
solutions SD espouses: Changes in values
and attitudes, i.e. behavioural changes,
or pragmatic, efficiency gains through
technology advancement.
The solution will necessarily depend on the
manner in which SD has been problematised.
The overwhelming understanding that
SD means continued economic growth
with an incorporation of environmental
considerations, thus focusing majorly
on the supply side of development, 12
has enabled the justification of technoeconomic
solutions as the determining
factors leading toward sustainability.
Technological improvements are meant to
lower environmental impact of production
processes while simultaneously providing
ample scope for growth and development.
The Brundtland report built on this
premise: Only present limits exist, imposed
by existing levels of technology, social
organisation and the environmental
capacity to absorb anthropogenic effects,
“[b]ut technology and social organization
can be both managed and improved to
make way for a new era of economic
growth.” 13
The same understanding is forwarded
by the environmental Kuznetsk curve,
popular since the 1990s in the field of
environmental policy. The curve dictates
that environment degradation increases
with rising GNP per capita, but once a
minimum standard of living achieved,
falls, as greater attention and resources
are invested in environmental cleanup.
Advancement of clean and efficient
technology will achieve environmental
improvement and protection at increasingly
lower costs. The argument of business as
usual, with an eventual sensitisation to the
environment, has been neatly packaged
by economic science (data, models and
graphs).
But it has also been posited that a
reimagining of our relationship with
nature is required, one that re-evaluates
the existing economic paradigm in
place. Advocates in this camp consider
technological solutions superficial, which
do not dig deep enough to the underlying
causes perpetuating an unsustainable use
of resources, and instead recommend
looking at socio-political and cultural
changes, like land reforms and reducing
overconsumption. 14 Empirical criticisms
also exist: The environmental Kuznetsk
curve, for example, has been seen to be
applicable to localised pollutants like
lead and sulfur (although even here some
modicum of doubt exists), but transnational
gases like carbon escape its purview.
The conversation around the SDGs has
predominantly focused on efficiency
gains through cleaner, greener technology
and transfer of such technology around
the world. To reiterate, the kind of
solutions that capture the imagination of
policymakers will inevitably stem from
the way the problem is framed. But here,
too, the same dilemma faces developing
nations as noted earlier—the North already
has, to a great extent, the foundation,
an R&D culture and the means, to
innovate and implement environmentfriendly
technological solutions to counter
environment stress. The burden on
developing nations now becomes three-fold:
8