Mathur Ritika Passi

Political and scientific processes
have led to institutional regimes
that encourage systemic
environmental materialism - which
privileges a global, bureaucratic
and technocratic elite to navigate
the way forward.
by a scientific simplification—literally
through satellite imagery focusing on
the Earth from space, for example, but
also through statistical and computing
models that collect environmental data
from across the world and compress
local characteristics to pithy models and
equations. It has been argued that both the
political and the scientific processes have
led to institutional regimes that encourage
systematic environmental managerialism—
which privileges a global, bureaucratic
and technocratic elite to navigate the way
forward. 17
This institutionalisation of
environmentalism and resultant governance
from afar has meant that actors, such as
international development
agencies that form part of
this global elite, operate
both as ‘frames’ within
which to develop, shape or
forward certain knowledges
and understandings, and as
‘filters’ that discount those
interpretations not part of an
established mindset. 18 Fogel
describes it as “erasing the
local.” 19
Smyth demonstrates the
phenomenon with the example
of Guinea’s Kissidougou
prefecture. The prefecture is
covered with patches of forest
cover across larger spreads
of savanna, an example of
naturally occurring ecological transition
zones; these patches, however, were
taken to be a loss of forests due to local
patterns of land use. This perspective,
a manifestation of the global narrative,
ignored local history and perspectives. 20
The SD discourse has also suffered from
the erasing of the local. The distant gaze
of global technocrats has persisted—
whether regarding knowledge sources, the
problem or the solutions proposed. Local
people, cultures and knowledges have been
marginalised. While the SDGs are notably a
result of consultation among representatives
of 70 nations as well as inputs from public
discussions and an online survey, the terms
of engagement were set by the global
processes. Moreover, it can be questioned to
what extent local concerns and indigenous
ideas were incorporated into the agenda—
the universal nature of the 17 goals has
been much applauded, but to construct
such a blanket appeal inevitably involves
disregarding the local.
Conversely, the local is “re-enrolled”
at various levels. Fogel describes this
phenomenon pertaining to the Clean
Development Mechanism of the Kyoto
Protocol, where local and indigenous
communities are included as “simplified,
standardized ‘stakeholders’,” who become
idealised “global carbon worker[s].” 21
SD, too, has always been understood as a
process that will be achieved through local
participation. For instance, two-thirds
of the 2,500 action items drawn up in
Agenda 21 relate to local action. Bottomsup
participation is necessarily a requisite
process to promote a successful relationship
between development and environment,
given that communities will inevitably act
within the confines of their surroundings;
a lack of knowledge or policy agency being
exercised by people on the ground prevents
sound discussion, real understanding, and
effective trackling and internationalisation
of sustainability. While the Open Working
Group document proposing the SDGs
mentioned that “there are different
approaches, visions, models and tools
available to each country,” 22 the space in
which work must be done has already been
delineated at the supranational level.
If local actors are to be incorporated at
the implementation level, but under an
overarching framework within which
to act, will this encourage or ignore
individuals like Rajendra Singh, winner of
this year’s Stockholm Water Prize? 23
Global Promises but National
Realities
The world, and India, cannot hide
behind a smokescreen of ambiguity that
surrounds the concept of SD. While certain
interpretations hold sway in the globalised
iteration of the term, as illustrated in the
above discussion, the rich must not hide
behind the poor, technology must not
prevent digging deeper and encouraging
changes in consumption patterns, and the
global must not be privileged over the local.
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