Lecture 1 - Introduction

• Env issues often particularly challenging. This course looks at methods to confront them.
• UN defines regions rather than countires as developing http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm
• GNI defines income and production by employees and producers and debt repayments to rank countries
•  50 least developed countries
• Also called global south or Majority world
• European colonial powers claimed possession of most of the world over 5 centuries
• Established colonies, opressed people, extracted resources
• Post WWII pulled out of colonies. But many retain aspects remain.
• Has left a legacy. Led to homoginisation. Focus today is on pluralism and finding voice.
• Rejected terms - underdeveloped, 3rd world.  3rd world embodies privilages on 1st world and specific ideologies - democracy/capitalism. Underdevelopment has a imperial assumption of what is civilised. Post development - points to the fact that development itself is a western discource.
• Crude indicators such as poverty do not show full picture. Suggest personal inadequacy but many societies are oriented towards subsistance.
• Training/Transfer is/was limited Value addig was/is done in advanced economies
• Amartya Sen - Development as freedom - "Expanding real freedoms people enjoy..dependant on social and economic arrangements"
• Human development index based on health education and income rather than GNP.
• Millenium development goals for 2015
• Target 7a : itegrate principles of sustainable development
• Targaet 7b : reduce biodiversity loss
• Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
• Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020
• How are we tracking?
• Sustainable development - conserv biodiversity, intergenerational equity, intrageerational equity, precautioary principle, internalisation of environmental costs
• Globalisation leads to challenges and positives - WTO has restrictive rules on trade -> negatives, but has also led to fair trade certification etc
• Solutions - Regulatory/institutional mech. Market based mechanisms, technology, capacity building