“The social and cultural dimensions of
sustainable development, mitigation and
scenarios: Grasping the opportunities for
human development.”
"Sustainable Futures in a Changing Climate"
Future Infinite Academic Conference
Thursday 12th June 2014, Helsinki, Finland.
Dr. Tadhg O´Mahony PhD BSc Dip1
Prof. Dr. Javier Dufour PhD BSc1,2
1Systems
Analysis Unit IMDEA Energy, Móstoles, Spain.
of Chemical and Energy Technology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Spain.
2Department
Family in the village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, shown outside their rammed earth house with all their possessions.
Photographed for the Material World: A Global Family Portrait project. Copyright Peter Menzel.
Contents
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Background: The driving forces of emissions
Human Development and Sustainable Development
Social and cultural dimensions
Human needs and consumption
Wellbeing and sustainable consumption
Transformation frameworks in research and policy
Concluding remarks
Background: The driving forces of emissions
“Problems cannot be solved with the same mind-set that
created them.” ― Albert Einstein.
• Commonly applied Kaya framework:
CO2 = Population X (GDP/ Population) X (Energy/ GDP) X CO2/
Energy
• Global environmental scenarios drove evolution in methods and
discourse
• Advancement of understanding of driving forces from SRES,
GEO and MEA
• Quantitative representation discussed through holistic approach
• Problems with models documented
• Particularly inclusion of social, cultural, political and institutional
drivers
Background: The driving forces of emissions
• IPCC national development paths, a more wide conception
• Underlying development path dictates emissions, not just
mitigation policy
• MEA defines culture, power and values as the
conditioning framework…the ´ultimate drivers´ of
environmental impacts
• Conceptually erroneous to consider mitigation with remove
from social, cultural and governance drivers
Human Development and Sustainable Development
• Separate but complimentary approaches to development
thinking
• Human Development concept of human wellbeing, moved away
from economic growth, enhanced income, technological progress
(UNDP, 1990)
• Tension between sustainability and development gives way to
integration of three pillars
• Mutually reinforcing development goals of Human
Development and Sustainable Development
• Sen (2000) defines ´integrated sustainable human
development´;
“…development that promotes the capabilities of present people
without compromising the capabilities of future generations.”
Social and cultural dimensions
• Stabilising climate +2C means transformative change
• Framed as low carbon transition scenarios, radical
technological change
• IPCC TAR through to AR 5 flag the importance of lifestyles
• Large differences in energy per capita across nations
attributable to lifestyles, traditions and cultures (OECD/ IEA,
1997; Blanco et al., 2014)
• Continued analytical and policy focus on consumption and
technology and not underlying social and cultural drivers is
end-of-pipe
• Integrated qualitative/ quantitative scenarios offer approach
to include social, cultural and political
• By planning interrelated policies using scenarios,
preconditions for integrating and mainstreaming can be
provided
Human needs and consumption
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SRES placed emphasis on Maslow´s hierarchy of needs
Neoclassical economics, wellbeing is search for better ways to
satisfy utility through consumption
Consumption can perform various functions; creating meaning,
convenience, habit and response to context
Modern economics wary of needs due to ´politicised´ critiques
(Marx, 1859)
Accusations needs based arguments are unnecessary, naïve and
moralistic
View has been exposed from numerous angles
The “insatiability of desire” (Maslow, 1968) false and unnatural
needs in consumerist society (Fromm, 1976), consumer way of life
“deeply flawed both ecologically and psychologically” (Wachtel,
1983)
High material consumption ≠ improved wellbeing
High material consumption = increased environmental pressure
and emissions
Human needs and consumption
• Multiple independent lines of evidence support assertion that
consumer way-of-life not delivering satisfactory outcomes
• ´Life-satisfaction paradox´ (Donovan, 2002), happiness declines
despite considerably increased income (Myers and Diener
(1996), materialism entails cost for well-being (Kasser, 2002)
• 40 years of GDP growth coincides with declines in indicators of
progress (Kubiszewski, 2013)
• Consumers locked in to unsustainable consumption (Sanne,
2002)
• Hardins ´Tragedy of the Commons´ (Hardin, 1968) becomes the
´Tragedy of consumption´
Human needs and consumption
• Maslow (1958) defined universal human needs
1. Material needs (subsistence, security and protection)
2. Social needs (status, self-esteem and belongingness)
3. Growth needs (truth, understanding, aesthetics, justice
and meaning)
• Consumption cannot meet all dimensions of well-being
• Can directly hinder well-being
• Focus on well-being and needs remains arrested by an
erroneous focus on consumption
Wellbeing and sustainable consumption
• Weber de Morais and Schluter (2009) categorise studies
1. Ecological modernisation (concepts of efficiency)
2. Social psychological approaches (persuasion to change
attitudes and behaviours)
3. Systems of provision (attempting fundamental change of
the social structures influencing consumption)
• First two have been the subject of government intervention
• Third is optimum but receives little policy attention
• Recognising lock-in (Unruh, 2000; Sanne, 2002)
• Imperative policy and research communities urgently recognise
paradox of increased consumption and reduced wellbeing
• But also opportunity for reduced consumption and
emissions and enhanced well-being
Wellbeing and sustainable consumption
• An evolution by social and cultural transformation required for
national development paths underlying low carbon transition to
move towards sutainability
• SEPA (2012) the “third way,” Weber de Morais and Schluter
(2009) the “double dividend”
• Focussing on human welfare and change that is beneficial to
quality of life while reducing emissions at source
• Core is HD, where pursuit of sustainability is implicit and
consumption is a means not an end
Transformation frameworks in research and policy
• Sensitivies and dilemmas exist
• Necessity to achieve goal endorsed by IPCC AR5 with role of
government indicated
• Individualist-consumerist cultural identity is “peculiar” as per
IPCC TAR (Toth et al., 2001)
• Recognising social and environmental damage of
consumption, it is peculiar that it persists
• It is naïve to assume that it can or will continue in perpetuity
• Why does it persist?
• Inherent focus on consumption as the means to wellbeing and
development
• Insufficient research and lack of policy engagement
• Insufficient integration of social science and psychology
approaches
Transformation frameworks in research and policy
• General perception, reducing emissions involves reduction in
quality of life (SEPA, 2012)
• Contrary to evidence
• Implementing transformation requires further research on
actions
• Recognising failure to intervene implicitly validates the
continuation of a detrimental cycle
• Transdisciplinary scope, dearth of research, potential to
advance mitigation and enhance well-being
• Ripe for a new research programme
Concluding remarks
• Addressing causes not symptoms, prevention not cure
• Must remember social and cultural origins of energy
consumption
• Locking in high emissions development path
• Mitigation more difficult and more costly
• Significant for both developed and developing countries
• A ´third way´ approach involving ´integrated sustainable
human development´ can shift focus to human well-being and
away from consumption with ´double dividend´
• Continued focus on consumer and consumption in both analysis
and policy is peculiar considering intricacies of HD and
consequences for wellbeing and emissions
Concluding remarks
• Enhancing wellbeing while reducing emissions requires urgent
focus in both research and policy…an opportunity!
• Scenarios useful for integrating and mainstreaming
• Policy intervention required, requires further research
• This issue is paramount as human development…
Copyright NASA Langley Research Centre 2010
Human development is as inseperable from our task
as the human thumbprint on the climate itself.
Thank you
Questions and comments welcome
Dr. Tadhg O´Mahony PhD BSc Dip
Marie Curie AMAROUT-II Postdoctoral Fellow
Unidad de análisis de sistemas
Instituto IMDEA Energía
Avda. Ramón de la Sagra, 3
Parque Tecnológico de Móstoles
E-28935 Móstoles
Madrid
Spain
E-mail: tadhg.omahony@imdea.org
Tel: (+34) 91 737 11 53
Fax: (+34) 91 737 11 40
Tadhg O´ Mahony post-doctoral fellow
at IMDEA Energy Institute would like
to thank the Marie Curie Actions
AMAROUT-II (PEOPLECOFUND).