- Indian industries should implement SDGs in response to the vicious circle of production and consumption
- To build a strong network of sustainable development, the government should step forward with the measures of inclusive wealth and track India’s inching towards sustainability
- The private manufacturing sector should attune their practices to the policies of global net-zero carbon emissions
As human beings, we extend far and wide
Human beings, in the word of Descartes, can be defined as thinking and extending beings. Our mind, the thinking thing, commands the body to move, act and extend into the world that it lives and exists in space. Every invention and innovation that human beings indulge in, is an extension of ourselves. Telescopes are an extension of our eye, the car is an extension of our feet and industries, probably an extension to our demise. Every technology makes our ability to create, produce and consume more efficient and faster. But at what cost?
The disintegration of our home is the price we pay for our mindless consumption of space and resources to produce more and more and more. The Earth, for the time being, is all we have, to depend on for our fundamental needs of air, food, water, clothes, energy, practically anything which we can lay our eyes or hands-on. Human beings are visionaries by birth, our intellectual capacity and needs run faster than the earth rotates which degrades the very resources on which we depend on.
The 18th-century industrialization witnessed the rebellion of the human species against nature. Our use of space and resources shuns the other living beings into a corner, and disposal of waste surpasses the Earth‘s absorptive capacity. The consequence of such narcissism can be devastating for human well-being. The benefits of nature have been accrued unequally, and the burden of environmental decline is often borne by poor and vulnerable communities.
Environmental Risks
According to the 2020 Global Climate Report from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 2020 ranked as the second-warmest year in the 141-year record for the combined land and ocean surface, and land areas were hottest on record. Global warming is driving regional and seasonal temperature extremes, reducing snow cover and sea ice, intensifying heavy rainfall, and changing habitat range for plants and animals—expanding some and shrinking others.
As global temperatures and sea levels rise, as the oceans acidify and precipitation patterns get rearranged, people living in poverty are the most severely impacted. Since climate change affects everything from where a person can live to their access to health care, millions of people could be plunged further into poverty as environmental conditions worsen.
“Climate change is going to amplify the already existing divide between those who have resources and those who do not,” Eliot Levine, Director of the environment technical support Unit at Mercy Corps, told Global Citizen. A statement proven to be right in the Indian context where 76 million people do not receive clean water and the Asian Development Bank has forecasted that by 2030, India will have a water deficit of 50 per cent.
Agriculture and food production are also likely to be significantly affected by climate change. Yields of major crops are estimated to decline by up to 25%. A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report also warned that in the years to come, food security will stand threatened due to climate change coupled with increasing demands of the rising population.
The economic and financial system needs to be transformed to achieve sustainability
The factor which every industry including manufacturing considers as the indication of success is the profit margin. However, with the changing socio-political scenario, SDGs should also be included in the industries’ list of objectives. “Triple bottom line” goals – economic well-being, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability – need to be incorporated and aimed to be achieved simultaneously by every industrialist, to establish a blissful coexistence with nature.
Economic well-being means that all basic human needs are met, meaning an end to poverty and hunger, and the provision of education, water and sanitation, clean energy, decent jobs, and modern infrastructure for all. Social inclusion means gender equality, reduced inequalities, and freedom from violence. Environmental sustainability implies working towards averting the imminent climate change crisis, having clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, preserving life on land and in the water, and protecting critical ecosystems functions. This requires a systemic change in economic and financial systems to assure freshwater availability, sustainable cities, sustainable production and consumption, climate stability and standing up for marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
To receive a comprehensive idea of interrelationships between the economy and the environment, the value of nature’s contributions to human well-being should be included in measures of economic performance. It is vital for aligning economic incentives with more sustainable outcomes. The UN-led initiative on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting is working towards the expansion of the accounting rules to incorporate the value of nature.
The framework integrates economic and environmental data to provide a more comprehensive view of the inter-relationships between the economy and the environment and the stocks and changes in stocks of environmental assets. It is a flexible, multipurpose system that generates outputs that can be adapted to countries’ priorities and policy needs while at the same time producing internationally comparable statistics. India, like China, should work towards the development of Gross Ecosystem Product along with GDP.
Roles of Government and Private Sectors
GEP is a measure that summarizes the value of nature’s contributions to our economic activity. It can be computed in terms of biophysical value and monetary value. Ecosystems that may be measured in GEP, include natural ecosystems such as forests, grassland, wetland, desert, freshwater, and ocean, and artificial systems that are based on natural processes like farmland, pastures, aquaculture farms, and urban green land, etc. India should look forward to the possibility of incorporating GEP measurement into its annual economic report.
Government should develop measures of inclusive wealth – an aggregate value of all capital assets – to inform policy and track progress towards sustainable development. Improved data collection methods and reporting of changes in natural capital along with other capital assets (produced and human) are needed to accurately measure inclusive wealth.
Incentive schemes like PLI, need to be strategically targeted to reward environmentally sustainable activities and discontinue incentives or levy taxes on environmentally harmful activities. Policy tools that promote environment-friendly alternatives include payments for ecosystem services, tax breaks for environmentally benign economic activities, and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.
However, the investments required to reach the SDGs exceed the capacity of public funding, therefore substantial private sector financing is essential. Socially and environmentally oriented investment funds that provide low-cost financing for sustainable projects can close part of the financing gap. To attract private sector investments towards the SDGs, the investments need to be made financially alluring. New tools and approaches that can leverage and incentivize private sector funding include the use of capital markets to unlock private sector investment in sustainable infrastructure.
Manufacturing in India, which is not yet matured compared to other developed countries, can be taken as an opportunity to build the sector along the lines of sustainability. The sector needs to take responsibility for environmental degradation, resource depletion, and the multiple layers of socio-economic conditions that this degradation directly impacts.
Overseeing operations in an environmentally and socially responsible manner is no longer a charitable thing to do occasionally out of good conscience, but a critical business imperative. The associated benefits of economic growth will not be sustainable if the traditional trend of mindless production and consumption carries on. The private manufacturing players need to implement certified and traceable sustainable practices along the complete supply chain and adjust and align business models with global net-zero carbon emissions objectives.
A well-functioning sustainable system of production, distribution, and consumption will meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Without the reconfiguration of our collective consciousness towards a well-functioning sustainable system, a time will come when nature will rebel against our children.