Abstract
In this article, I argue that sustainable development is not possible
without affordable and inclusive growth. Inequality and unsustainability are
linked and unless the world is able to look for environmental solutions that
are affordable and can meet the needs of all, these will not work.
Keywords: air pollution, Delhi, inequality, sustainability, water pollution, development.
Fifty years of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) marks an important opportunity to think and rethink development as the world practises it today. In this short opinion piece, I offer some reflections on the twin challenges of inequality and unsustainability, the relationship between them, and the implications for understanding and action around states, markets and society.
We currently stand at a crossroads. The challenge of unsustainable
growth means that we are hurtling towards climate catastrophe, and
the challenge of inequitable growth means that we are hurtling towards
increased poverty, increased marginalisation and increased anger.
The problem has been that we have believed (and continue to do so
with conviction) that we can practise unsustainable development and
then clean it up, make the pollution go away. Or we have believed that
we can make environmental management a part of growth; investment
in pollution control is an economic activity after all. But these
approaches do not work. We end up managing small fallouts and stay
behind the problem: they are technocratic, and not political.
We have learnt that growth that is not affordable or in other words
equitable, cannot be sustainable. We cannot push away the politics of
development when we discuss sustainability.
1 The case of air pollution
Air pollution illustrates these points. Today, a miniscule number of
people in Delhi (and indeed most other cities of the global South) drive a car. In Delhi, the proportion is 15 per cent, but air pollution is at a very
high level and the congestion has become intolerable. The question is
how will Delhi combat air pollution as more and more people start to
drive? What contingencies can be put in place for the remaining 85 per
cent? Is there space on the road and corresponding space in the airshed?
Clearly a simple technical solution is not feasible. We cannot fix the
tailpipes of individual cars. Instead we have to change the way people
drive (or do not drive). We need to plan for sustainability for all, and for
this we need to re-invent mobility at a scale not seen before. Without
this we cannot clean our air for anybody, regardless of their economic
position. It is clear that solutions must work for the poor, for them to
work for the rich. In this, managing local air pollution is no different
from the management of the global commons – the atmosphere mirrors
the air pollution of Delhi's roads on a grand scale. Climate change
cannot be mitigated unless we address issues of equity and find ways of
growth that work for all, without destroying the planet.
2 The case of water pollution
Indian rivers are increasingly polluted, but the question is, again,
can we clean up when large numbers of people are unconnected to
sanitation and do not have access to clean water? We know that the
current system of water and waste management in cities like Delhi is
both capital-intensive and divisive. The state has limited resources and
can only invest in providing for some – and this is too often the rich
and not the poor. But if only a part of the city has access to sanitation
and underground sewage, pollution control will not work. The reason
is simple – the treated waste of a few will be mixed with the untreated
waste of many. The end result is pollution (Narain 2016: 138).
The greater the pollution, the higher the costs of cleaning the water
– even the rich cannot afford the current costs of delivery of water or
of taking back waste. This example therefore underlines again that
solutions must work for the poor, for them to work for the rich.
3 States, markets and society – for whom?
So in the next 50 years of development it is important to rethink the
question of states, markets and society. In recent decades we have
dismembered the state, grown the market and believed that we have
empowered society. We believed that people would be the moderating
voices over the market, but we forgot to ask whose society is being
empowered and for what? Slowly, the circle has closed – the state–
market and aspiring, consuming society have merged and become one.
Anyone outside this circle has stopped being counted: these people are
being slowly erased. The current tate–market–society configuration
is about the survival of the fittest, in a way that drives both growing
inequalities, and ultimately unsustainability too.
So, in the coming years, we must also ask – deliberately and insistently
– whose society are we talking about, that of the poor or that of the
rich? In most settings, electoral democracy is not proving sufficient to represent the poor; it is delayed in response, and politicians can polarise
communities and still win. It is necessary but not sufficient. A further,
central part of the development challenge is therefore deepening and
strengthening democracy, not just for the socially connected but for all.
In conclusion, it is increasingly clear that sustainable development is not
possible if it is not equitable. Growth has to be affordable and inclusive
for it to be sustainable. Yet none of this will happen unless we articulate
that the environmental challenge is not technocratic but political. We
cannot neuter the politics of access, justice and rights and hope to fix
environmental – or indeed development – problems.
References
Narain, S. (2016) 'Poverty and Environmental Inequality in India', in
World Social Science Report, Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just
World, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, (accessed 11 October 2016)
© 2016 The Author. IDS Bulletin © Institute of Development Studies | DOI: 10.19088/1968-2016.185
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0
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This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 2A November 2016: 'States, Markets and Society – New Relationships for a New Development Era'; the Introduction is also recommended reading.