ASI4005

Environmental
Issues and
Sustainability
in Asia

Lecture 03
Asia’s environmental issue (part I)

Michael Chan
Department of Social Science, HSUHK
Environmental
Degradation…

Results from:
Pollutions
Explorations
Unjustice
Inequality
Poverty
For eliminating
degradation,
how we can deal
with that as to
have a clean
environment?
United Nations Conference on the Human
Environment (Stockholm, 1972)
 Conference brought forward the connection
between ecological management and poverty
alleviation
 26 principles concerning the environment and
development: Beginning of a global dialogue
on the link between economic growth, the
pollution of the environment, and the well-
being of humanity
 Developing nations supported its creation of
the UNEP, as the headquarter of United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is
setup at Nairobi, Kenya, as the first UN agency
to be based in a developing country
 The UNEP is triggering many well-known
environmental programme, like the setup of
IPCC and COP conference series on air
pollution afterwards
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Principles of the Stockholm Declaration:
 Human rights must be asserted, apartheid and colonialism
condemned
 Natural resources must be safeguarded
 The Earth's capacity to produce renewable resources must
be maintained
 Wildlife must be safeguarded
 Non-renewable resources must be shared and not exhausted
 Pollution must not exceed the environment's capacity to
clean itself
 Damaging oceanic pollution must be prevented
 Development is needed to improve the environment
 Developing countries therefore need assistance
 Developing countries need reasonable prices for exports to
carry out environmental management
 Environment policy must not hamper development
 Developing countries need money to develop environmental
safeguards
 Integrated development planning is needed

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 Rational planning should resolve conflicts between
environment and development
 Human settlements must be planned to eliminate
environmental problems
 Governments should plan their own appropriate population
policies
 National institutions must plan development of states'
natural resources
 Science and technology must be used to improve the
environment
 Environmental education is essential
 Environmental research must be promoted, particularly in
developing countries
 States may exploit their resources as they wish but must not
endanger others
 Compensation is due to states thus endangered
 Each nation must establish its own standards
 There must be cooperation on international issues
 International organizations should help to improve the
environment
 Weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated
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 Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) 千年发展目标
 United Nations Millennium
Declaration, signed in
September 2000, commits
world leaders to combat
poverty, hunger, disease,
illiteracy, environmental
degradation, and
discrimination against
women. The MDGs are
derived from this
Declaration.
 MDGs have 8 goals that UN
Member States have
agreed to try to achieve
by the year 2015.

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12 Problems of the MDGs
Lack of analysis and justification behind the
chosen objectives, and the difficulty or lack of
measurements for some goals and uneven
progress
More than half of the debt relief from the
Developed countries going towards natural
disaster relief and military aid, rather than further
development, especially after the 911 incident.
The MDGs is to be succeed by the more
comprehensive SDGs afterwards
 "A shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people
and the planet, now and into the future"

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 Characteristics of
SDGs development
 Emphasize the interconnected environmental,
social and economic aspects of sustainable
development.
 Formulated in 2015 by the United Nations
General Assembly, as part of the Post-2015
Development Agenda. Most targets are to be
achieved by 2030, although some have no end
date.
 Cross-cutting issues and synergies between the
different goals: SDG 13 on climate action synergies
with SDGs 3 (health), 7 (clean energy), 11 (cities
and communities), 12 (responsible consumption
and production) and 14 (oceans)

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SDG 1: "End poverty in all
its forms everywhere"
SDG 1 would end extreme poverty
globally by 2030.
A study published in September
2020 found that poverty increased
by 7 per cent in just a few months
due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
even though it had been steadily
decreasing for the last 20 years.

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SDGs: Overall status
The UN Global Sustainable Development Report in 2019 : "The
world is not on track for achieving most of the 169 targets that
comprise the Goals". Several dimensions with cross-cutting impacts
across the SDGs are not even moving in the right direction: rising
inequalities, climate change, biodiversity loss and increasing
amounts of waste from human activity.
A report in 2020 found that due to many economic and social
issues, many countries are seeing a major decline in the progress
made. In Asia for example, data shows a loss of progress on goals
2,8,10,11, and 15.

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 Demographical
Change

Other Cultural
patterns Changes
Social change refers to
Social any significant alteration
Change in the patterns of social
behavior, attitudes, and
beliefs that occur within a
Technological Economic
Development
society over time.
Changes
Political This can occur in response
Changes to a variety of factors…

Patterns of Social Change

First stage of Social Change
The First Industrial Revolution
 Start from the 1750s, it involved the transition to new manufacturing
processes from hand production to using machineries.
 Stated from using new methods on manufacturing raw materials, new
power sources, and new production process…
 The adoption of factories, working class, social changes, and new form of
settlement system: Modern City.
 Costs of economic development (e.g. labour exploitation and
environmental damage)
• Urbanization: The change in where people lived. People went from being village dwellers to
being town dwellers. Towns grew rapidly with significant social consequences.
• New social classes: The change in who people were. The rise in the new entrepreneurial
middle classes and urban working classes.
• New ways of working: The change in the mode and method of production resulted in new
ways of earning a living.
Other Social Changes
• Bourgeoisie (middle class) entertainment
• Leisure time and Holiday
• Hardships of industrialization
• Overcrowded cities, slums
• Migration
• Labour union/ Political Reforms
• Technological Change
Social change + Sustainability
 The ability to exist constantly: Capacity for the biosphere
and human civilization to coexist.
 Process of people maintaining change in a homeostasis
balanced environment, in which the exploitation of
resources, the direction of investments, the orientation
of technological development and institutional change
are all in harmony and enhance both current and future
potential to meet human needs and aspirations.
Sustainability:
Now! not for later
Sustainable development
tries to meet the needs of
the present generation
without compromising
future generations

Modern development
requires to reduce resource
consumption, switch to
alternative materials and
renewable energy sources,
implement resource-
efficient, low-waste, and
cleaner technologies.
 Second stage on social change
Environmental sustainability
Rising awareness of environmental protection:
 The Industrial Revolution of the 18th to 19th centuries tapped into the
vast growth of the modern society
 The way to increase food production induced the “Green Revolution” in
the mid-20th century, which caused severe pollution and degradation of
the natural environment
 Finally, it is found that Sustainability should draw attention to a holistic
approach to politics, economics, philosophy and other social sciences as
well as the hard sciences.
 However, only emphasizing environmental sustainability is still not
enough (e.g. ignorance of social well-being and humanity).
Sustainability: A broad discipline

Three dimensions of sustainability

Profits, planet, and people
Third stage on social change:
Rising importance on social sustainability

Environmental Economical Social

• Environmental • GDP • Environmental policy

management: • Green Economy • Peace, security,
Atmosphere, • Eco-economic justice
Freshwater, oceans, decoupling • Poverty
land use
• Eco-socialist • Human relationship
• Human Consumption: approach to nature
Energy, Water, Food,
• Human and Labour
Raw materials
rights
Other possible dimensions
e.g. Cultural aspect: Tourism
 Principles in Social Sustainability

Equity
Civic Inter-
Engagement connectedness

According to Nobel
Laureate Amartya Sen, Social
social sustainability has Sustainability
five dimensions
Quality of Good
Life governance

Diversity

https://integral-sustainability.net/wp-content/uploads/sas4-2-hodgson.pdf
A sample
of social
change via
Climatic
change…
 The sustainable
development goals (SDGs)
are a collection of 17 global
goals set by the United
Nations General Assembly
in 2015 for the year 2030.
 The SDGs are part of
Resolution 70/1 of the
United Nations General
Assembly, the 2030 Agenda.
 Social Change + Sustainability
Case study: Singapore
• The “garden city” vision was introduced by then Prime
Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 11 May 1967 to transform
Singapore into a city with abundant lush greenery and a
clean environment in order to make life more pleasant for
the people.
• The presence of ample greenery in an environment clean of
litter would signify that Singapore was a well-organised city
and hence a good destination for tourists and foreign
investments.
• Unveiled in 1998 as the next phase of the “garden city”
vision, the new concept aimed to integrate greenery into
not just the built environment, but also into the daily lives
of Singaporeans.

https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=a7fac49f-9c96-4030-8709-ce160c58d15c
 Development
from turning
environmental
sustainability
to community-
led development

Designing the city,

with various
considerations
aimed at
environmental,
and social changes

https://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/city/subws-2014-01/other/subws-2014-01-presentation-singapore-en.pdf
From Garden City to City in a Garden
Development of environmental sustainability
新增投影片標題 - 5

• Development from turning

environmental sustainability
(e.g. Green/Garden City)
to community-led development
(e.g. encouraging public engagement)
 Social inclusion, Sustainability,
and Well-being are the core
targets for improving the future
development of Singapore…
https://plbinsights.com/from-garden-city-to-forest-city-stewarding-the-green-blue-ura-long-term-plan-2022/
新增投影片標題 - 7
 Three ways of
understanding
social
transformations
to sustainability

https://council.science/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Three-ways-of-understanding-social-transformations_web.pdf
Service-learning component
 Workflow and Deliverables
Research to the designated topic
Training workshop and Practical Carbon-Footprint assessment
Communication and On-site service to the Organization

Deliverables:
•Practice on Carbon-Footprint assessment
•Input of Social Media contents (Dept photos/videos/posts)
•Group Presentation in exhibition/ in class

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Visit to the CLP Low Carbon Energy Education Centre

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