Economic Growth And Sustainable Development: An Analysis

ENGT5115 Sustainable Development

Environmental Issues Encountered by Global Society Due to High Rate of Economic Growth

The idea of sustainable development is based on the principles that all forms of social and economic growth within the human community must be executed without compromising upon existing environment condition. Over exploitation of the natural resources also need to be prevented, which will help to prevent all form of crisis for the future generations.

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Due to the expansion of economic development that occurred during the period of 20th century, the world wide environment had faced high threats. The higher rate of population growth is believed to be one of the major cause of social instability in the modern days. Hence, the concept of Sustainable development was introduced to ensure maximum stability to the environment without compromising the economic growth. Sustainable economic growth will help the society by creating the environment of proper jobs opportunity along with proper working conditions (Schandl et al. 2016).

One of the major economic issues in the existing global environment is due to the increase in unemployment. The Global unemployment increased from to 202 million in the year 2015, from 170 million in 2009. Another estimation suggests that by the year 2030, nearly 500 million new jobs will be required for all across the globe to maintain sustainability within the globe and establish stability for the future (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). Nevertheless, due to the Rapid rate of development in the technological segment, it is highly challenging to create new job opportunities.

The current study will address the question related to economic growth and sustainable development, where are all the recent issues related to poor social growth will be highlighted. The essay will highlight matters related to environmental issues that are encountered by the global society due to high rate of economic growth. Hence, it will be possible to highlight up on all unethical practices that are implemented related to business and economic growth. The issue can be addressed by mentioning the details about all sustainable development methods like Green growth, Paris agreement. The issue of slowing growth rate of Chinese economy will also be highlighted that is regarded as one of the major negative consequences of sustainable development. The conclusion of the essay can, therefore, help to shed light on the future issues that can be encountered by the society if they fail to implement the principles of sustainable development alongside the economic growth. It can also help to highlight the resistance can be encountered while implementing the measures of sustainable development growth. It can also help to provide valuable recommendations that can be applied by the developed nations to ensure minimum harm to the environment.

Impact of Climate Change on Macro-Economic Development

One of the major issues within the modern society is due to the effects of the global warming that is believed to cause the climate change. This change is caused due to the increase in the total volume of carbon within the atmosphere, released due to the activities of modern human. Merilä and Hendry (2014), have mentioned about the fact that due to the economic development at the global scale, there is a huge pressure within the manufacturing segment that has resulted excessive consumption of non-renewable energies. This is, therefore, causing huge volume of carbon emission on to the atmosphere. Over consumption of the natural resources along with emission of harmful substances are considered to be one of the major issues that are encountered in the context of economic sustainability. The excessive amount of carbon emission is believed to be one of the major issues of both developing and developed nations that is causing change in the climatic conditions.

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Field and Barros (2014), have added in the context that the climatic change will have deep impact on the macroeconomic development. One of the major impacts of the climatic change is frequently occurring of the natural disasters. The frequent occurring of the natural disasters is also one of the major causes that had prevented the path of economic development. According to the production of the World Bank, worldwide $150-$180 dollars would be required by the developing nations to compensate for the loss that is caused due to the occurrences of the natural disasters (World Bank, 2018). Hence, the government of the respective nations needs to spend the extra efforts and resource planning.

The harmful ingredients that are released into the atmosphere ‘from the manufacturing industries also cause negative impact on the health of the citizens. Hence, expenditure on health-related matters also increases due to climate change. It also decreases the average productivity of nation as more number of people not able to take participation in the economic welfare activities.

Major industrial sectors including tourism department, the energy industry is directly affecting due to the increased level environmental degradation. It is also important to mention that the overall effect after climatic change on economic development in highly uncertain across various sectors.  This is mainly due to over exploitation of natural resources, which is needed to fulfil the huge level of consumer demand in the market (Egilmez et al. 2014).

In order to provide International solutions to the huge effect of climatic change, it is highly essential to promote the use of Sustainable Technology mostly in the developing Nations.  Reichardt et al. (2016), have added in the context that it is also essential to have a proper financial planning for implementation of innovative technology that can be used in the manufacturing sectors. High level of political intervention from all major Nations across the globe is necessary in order to provide effective solutions at the level of business. This is more applicable for the multinational firms, which at times have direct huge impact upon the International sustainable economic policies that and implemented across the developing nations.

Sustainable Technology and Financial Planning for Implementation of Innovative Technology in Manufacturing Sectors

Yamagata-Lynch et al. (2015), have suggested that in order to popularize the use of Technology, this highly essential to minimise the communication gap between all sectors of business. It is essential to find balance between the financial support and climate change adaptation process that can help in a part of sustainability and provide proper assistance. Government of the respective developing Nations need to establish new mechanism for developing the process of raising funds and allocating resource properly for maximum utilisation.

Organization for Economic and Development was formed in the year 1961, with the aim of implementing sustainable economic development strategies across all departments of the word trade. In 1992, most of the Nations within the organisation has developed and implemented National sustainable development strategies, which is considered to be a major mandate of Agenda 21 (Trapenberg et al. 2015). This program offers an opportunity to build complementary economic development strategies by considering the aspects of social development.

On 1st January 2016, the United Nations implemented 17 core sustainable development goals what is considered to be the major part of agenda 2030. These goals were set up and adopted by all the major Global leaders representing different nations. These goals will be applied across various nations depending upon their existing political and business environment (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). It is one of the primary duty of all Nations to follow up this 17 developmental goals in order to maintain sustainability in their economic growth.

    • Ending of Poverty: This is the first and the primary goals of the sustainable development. Since the year 1990, poverty has been reduced significantly in all the major developing Nations.  Nevertheless, there are still 1 out of 5 people within the developing Nations with the income rate of below $2 per day. There are even many people who work in high-risk conditions in order to make their living. The lack of Sustainable resources it is believed to be one of the major cause of poverty across all major developing Nations. Hence, in order to deal with the situation, it is essential to provide basic infrastructure and resources in the form of Health and education. Decision making within the economic system needs to include the element of Sustainable job and promote equality within the society, which will allow every person to get equal access to the basic sustainable resources (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018).
    • End Hunger and Food Security: The agriculture, fishery and Forestry resources at the main supplier of food for all countries. It is important to focus on the nutrition needed in the diet of every individual in order to provide people-centred rural development that is considered to be one of the major parts of sustainable growth. Due to the occurrence of Climate Change and global warming, most of the food and biodiversity resources are under threats. This is also increased due to frequently occurring of flood and drought. Food security is one of the major issues that need to be incorporated as a part of sustainable development. High level of change is required to meet up the food resources demand of nearly 800 million people in the globe by the year 2050 (Godfray and Garnett 2014). Agricultural innovation along with food security measures are highly essential in the given context.
    • Ensuring healthy life and promote well-being: Ensuring Healthy lifestyle to people of all ages is also one of the prime aims of sustainable development. Significant measures have been taken to eradicate deadly diseases an increase the life expectancy of average human. In this context, it is essential to provide essential health resources to all people within the society and provide them with a clean environment to sustain. Nevertheless, improvement in the health technology is required in order to deal with increased chronic challenges that include cancer, diabetes and obesity.
    • Ensuring quality education for all citizens: The overall quality of lifestyle of a society is dependent upon level of education. With proper education resources, it is possible to general awareness within the community about the importance of implementing sustainable development. Major steps have been taken in order to ensure people from all class of the society gets proper access to primary education. The developing countries need to focus upon equal participation of boys and girls in both primary and Higher Education level (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018)
    • Achievement of gender equality and women empowerment: The social development of a nation is highly dependent upon equal participation of both men and women in every form of economic activities. In spite of all measures taken to ensure women safety and education, in major parts of all developing Nations women and girls continue to suffer the effects of discrimination and violence. Special resources need to be provided to all women, in matters of Health and safety, which will help them to encourage and participate in all forms of social activities. This will further ensure proper economic development and help to maintain sustainability (Arat 2015).
    • Proper Access to water and sanitation: Clean and healthy water is believed to be one of the essential parts of maintaining hygienic lifestyle. Poor Economic infrastructure is responsible for lack of clean water supply. Unavailability of freshwater is believed to be one of the major sustainability issues that will be encountered by the society in recent feature.  Frequent draughts are also another major barrier to providing clean and fresh water. It is estimated that by the year 2050 at least 1 out of 4 people across the globe is likely to suffer from the consequence of freshwater shortage (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018).
    • Ensuring affordable and easy access to all forms of modern energy: With the fast and rapid rate of technological development, it is highly essential to have a proper sustainable and renewable source of energy. The energy crisis is therefore believed to be one of the major challenges of all developed Nations. All forms of modern human activities are highly dependent upon the various form of energy, most of which are extracted from non-renewable resources. Hence, in order to provide a stable and sustainable source of energy, it is highly essential to make proper use of alternative source of energy that can be renewable. This will, therefore, be able to provide proper clean energy that is needed to prevent environmental degradation.
    • Promote employment as a part of Sustainable economic growth: As the population of the world continues to rise at a faster rate, the issue of unemployment is increasing significantly. In spite of the fact that in many of the developing Nations, the government are providing temporary jobs to the unemployed people, they are not able to sustain the needs due to poor level of income. The globalisation of the 21st century has led to an uneven distribution of resources within the global society. This is believed to be one of the major cause of rising of poverty and unemployment. In the democratic Nations, the quality of the job is also not sufficient to provide enough resources to the weaker section of the society. Hence, sustainable economic growth is required in order to provide equal job opportunity and secured source of income for all people (Epstein and Buhovac 2014).
    • Building of Sustainable infrastructure to promote industrialization and Foster innovation: High level of investment in infrastructures like transportation, information technology, agriculture and irrigation is highly essential to deal with the resources. It is believed that the economic growth and productivity of a nation is highly dependent upon the level of infrastructure provided to the citizen. Hence, Rapid improvement in the matter of sustainable development is required in order to provide all type of basic infrastructure to the citizen. It is also important to consider the matter of environmental degradation while providing the proper infrastructure. Technology is believed to be an integrated part of modern sustainable economic growth. Hence, it is essential to ensure proper technological infrastructure it is believed to be an integrated part of all sustainable economic society.
    • Reduction of inequality among countries: The globalisation has led to unequal distribution of resources, thereby increasing the level of poverty across various Nations. The landlocked nations are considered to be highly vulnerable in the matter of sustainable development due to their geographic location. It is highly essential for the development to provide proper infrastructural support to the backward Nations, which will help to ensure equality and sustainability across the global society. International policies need to focus on the need of the poor Nations, which can be implemented in the form of improved International relationship (Milanovic 2016).
    • Making cities more safe and resilient: The International cities are considered to be the hub for Major commercial, cultural, scientific and all other forms of social development. Nevertheless, as more people are settling in the major cities, there is a situation of crisis arising due to shortage of jobs and resources. The increase of pollution level is also one of the major health challenges that all the major cities across the world are facing. In order to build sustainable City, it is essential to focus on basic infrastructure including housing and transportation (Zoomers et al.2017).
    • Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns: The sustainability of consumption and production rate is dependent upon level of Energy Efficiency. Sustainable consumption policy aims to focus up on improving the quality of life, by changing the lifestyle of every citizen. Systemic approach is also required from all major business organisations, who are responsible for providing proper product in the consumer market. Consumer need to take part in awareness development program, which will help to promote Healthy lifestyle and prevent wastages of resources for better living quality of the overall society (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018)
    • Taking urgent action to intervene the effect of climate change: As mentioned in the earlier section, climate change due to increase level of environmental pollution is one of the major sustainability issues of the modern society. It is highly essential for the international forum to deal with this major issue, which can lead to Extreme conditions for the future citizens. The average temperature of the world’s surface is expected to rise on average by 3 degrees. In order to address the issues, the Paris Agreementwas set up in 2015. This was implemented as a part of the United Nations framework to deal with the International challenge of global warming and climate change. The agreement was set up by the collaboration of 196 parties across different parts of the globe. The main aim of the agreement is to withhold the average increase of surface temperature within 2 degree Celsius in the industrial areas and 1.5 degree Celsius in non-industrial areas (Rogelj et al. 2016). It is also important to focus on the method of low level of emission of greenhouse gases and ensure quality food production rate. The developed Nations also need to provide financial support to the deprived areas, which will help them to implement innovative and green technology. The sustainable development mechanism is considered to be a major part of the Paris agreement, which focuses on providing clean development mechanism for the future citizens. The Kyoto Protocol was implemented in this regard is implemented in this regard in order to ensure proper development and reducing the total volume of carbon emission into the atmosphere (Ari and Sari 2016). That also has been special adaptation provision to deal with crisis situation and natural disaster that may occur in the future due to the effects of climate change.
    • Conservation and sustainability of ocean and Marine resources: The health of the ocean has a strong influence on the overall weather and climatic condition of our planet. The slightest of the alteration of ocean can occur change in wind direction thereby impacting upon the lifestyle of the people. It is also essential to control the rate of overfishing, which can have the ability to disturb the overall ecosystem of marine life (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018).
    • Conservation of forest and biodiversity: Nearly 30% of our planet surface is covered by different type of forests that provide essential resources for all types of species. It is estimated that nearly 13 million hectares of forests are lost each year due to deforestation that is caused all forms of infrastructural development activities, thereby leading to overall 3.6 billion hectares of dry and wasteland (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). Hence, it is essential to provide an alternative solution for deforestation, which will not prevent infrastructural development for conservation activities. This can be implemented in the form of taking initiative of plantation programs.
    • Promotion of peace and inclusive societies: This goal of sustainable development aims to provide equal justice and peace within all parts of the society. This helps to ensure that the dominant group within the society cannot implement unethical practice in order to fulfil their own interest. Strong legal policies are implemented to monitor the performance of the major business organisation and prevent them in the matter of over-exploitation of natural resources.
    • Implement Global partnership for sustainable development: The final goal of sustainable development is to ensure that all the Nations across the globe are able to execute effective partnership in the matter of economic growth. The values of the partnerships are built upon shared ideas, which helps to full fill the visions for the future. Urgent actions are needed in order to transform the resources into usable forms that have the potential to improve the quality of the global society. It is also essential to focus on the cultural requirement of each society by enhancing the level of communication (Huang and Quibria 2015). The public sector needs to have strong focus on infrastructure development and strengthening the legal structure. It is also essential to regularly monitor all forms of infrastructure development part and attract investment for reinforcing the matters of sustainable development growth. Sustainable development. The policy of green growth can be implemented in the given context when economic development is executed by using natural resources in a sustained pattern. The natural assets also need to be preserved as a part of the green growth movement, which minimises the chance of energy crisis for future generation.

All the above mentioned 17 goals for sustainable development implemented by the United Nations not only promises for a better future, it also helps to dissolve all form of resistance that the modern society is currently facing due to inequality and conflict of ideas. It can, therefore, be said that sustainable development is highly essential and need to be an integrated part of economic growth for the future generation. This will ensure better quality of Living for all communities across the globe. As the population of the world continues to rise, there will be greater demand for energy and resources for fulfilling the need of modern humans. It is therefore essential to implement innovative technology, which will help the human society to make full use of all type of renewable resources and protect the global environment from the harmful consequences of climate change. This can also promote equality and harmony across all nations in the globe that is considered to be a major part of the sustainable development framework implemented by the United Nations.

Role of Political Intervention in Implementing Sustainable Economic Policies

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