1.1 ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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1 1.1 ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION Even at the beginning of the 1970s it became evident that, owing to the limited quantity of non-renewable resources (for instance oil, land available for agricultural use), the continuing industrialisation and population development on the then prevailing scale represented a massive threat to the natural environment and therefore to humanity's basic resources (MEADOWS et al., 1972). The report Our Common Future published by the UN Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987, Brundtland Report ) defined the objective of sustainable development as a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and to choose their lifestyle. In 1992 the Rio-Declaration and Agenda 21 were adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. The Agenda 21 was designed for the implementation of lasting and environmentally compatible forms of development worldwide in the 21 st century. The European Union and its Member States also signed it. Since then the term sustainable development has contributed to shaping global, European and national discussions, processes of target definitions and strategy development in the fields of the environment, the economy and social affairs. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT economic development social development ecological development Fig : The three equivalent pillars of sustainable development (after RAMETSTEINER, 1999). Nevertheless the establishment of mutual relationships and cross-connections between these pillars of sustainable development is still in the initial stages regarding strategy design as well as development evaluation with the aid of indicators. 27

2 Based on Agenda 21, many EU Member States and Accession Countries, among them also Austria (BMLFUW, 2002), have established National Strategies for Sustainable Development, which were presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in Also, Agenda 21 initiated models for a Local Agenda 21 providing a framework within which towns and municipalities have been elaborating sustainable ways towards the 21 st century together with their citizens. In June 2001, the European Council also adopted a European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development. Heads of states and governments called upon EU institutions to improve the internal coordination of different policies ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY TARGETS United Nations In 2002, 10 years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, another UN World Summit on Sustainable Development took place in Johannesburg (Rio + 10 Congress). The three overarching objectives stipulated in the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development are: eradication of poverty changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, as well as protecting and managing natural resources, which are the basis of economic and social development. The priority environmental topics of the UN Summit included: Water: access to affordable and safe drinking water and to sanitation; Energy: As a concrete objective the EU proposed that by 2010, at least 15% of the electricity supply should come from renewable energy. This was refused by the OPEC, the USA and Japan. Trade and Environment: The difficult situation of international environmental and trading laws was not solved in Johannesburg. It remains unclear if, in the event of conflict, trade is to have priority over environmental issues or vice versa. The Action Plan demands of the countries to maintain the promotion of mutual support of trade, environment and development towards sustainable development. Climate Change - Kyoto Protocol: After Canada, Russia and China also announced the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol towards the worldwide reduction of hazardous greenhouse gases during the Summit. However, this success is not reflected in the final document negotiated at the Summit. The World Summit ended with a political declaration and the adoption of a plan of implementation. 28

3 European Union At EU level, environmental policy targets and strategies for sustainable development are elaborated in many processes, and for different environmental themes and sectors. The three most complex areas are: The EU Strategy for Sustainable Development (EC, 2001) The environmental targets and necessary measures here concern the following priority areas: limit climate change (global warming) and increase the use of clean energy address threats to public health: food quality and safety, chemicals, infectious diseases, resistance to antibiotics manage natural resources more responsibly: decoupling of economic growth from the use of resources and from waste generation, put a halt to the loss of biodiversity by 2010 at species and habitat level, improve fisheries management improve the transport system and land-use management (regional planning): decoupling of the increase in traffic from the growth in GDP; shift of transport from road to rail, water and public passenger transport (objective: reduction of the share of road transport to the value of 1998), sustainable and more balanced regional planning, etc. The progress of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy towards its objectives and the implementation of measures are assessed (including indicator-based assessments) at every Spring Summit of the European Council ( synthesis report ). The European Commission performed this annual evaluation for 2002 and 2003 using a set of 42 structural indicators in the following six policy areas: general economic background, employment, innovation and research, economic reform, social coherence and the environment. Seven environmental headline indicators were selected and presented to illustrate environmental development. For the Spring Summit of the European Council 2004 a short list of 14 structural indicators is planned, which are to be accompanied by a larger number of indicators available on an Internet database. The three environmental indicators concern the following issues: emission of greenhouse gases, energy intensity of the economy and transport volume. The mid- to long-term objective is an improvement of the environmental structural indicators in both quality and quantity. Especially the areas environment and human health and biodiversity will be described in the future. The EU Integration Process ( Cardiff-Process ) Starting with the European Council of Cardiff in 1998, 11 different Council formations have been appointed by the European Council to work out strategies for integrating the environmental dimension into their policies in order to promote sustainable development: transport, energy, agriculture, internal market, development, industry, general affairs (foreign affairs and trade), eco-fin (economic and financial affairs), fisheries, research and structural funds. These strategies represent environmental policy fundamentals containing objectives and policy measures leading towards an awareness of environmental issues in various economic sectors. They are revised regularly and, starting in 2004, the European Commission will present 29

4 an analysis of the complete Cardiff Process at each Spring Summit of the European Council. The Sixth Environment Action Programme of the EU (6 th (EU, 2002) EAP) The 6 th EAP ( ) outlines the prevailing priority issues of the EU environmental policy for the following years: climate change, nature and biodiversity, environment and health and quality of life as well as sustainable use and management of natural resources and wastes. The subsequent overarching objectives concern above all the long-term stabilisation of the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the protection and conservation of natural habitats and of the wild fauna and flora, the control of harmful environmental impacts on human health, the promotion of a sustainable urban development and an improved efficiency of resource exploitation. At present (until mid-2005) the European Commission is elaborating thematic strategies for the 6 th EAP covering the areas of soil protection, protection of the marine environment, sustainable use of pesticides, air quality, urban environment, waste prevention and recycling and resource management. The presentation of the initial situation and proposals leading towards the environmental objectives are to be precise and accompanied by time schedules. The thematic strategies as well as the interim evaluation report on the implementation of the 6 th EAP (mid-2006) should be communicated to the Council and the European Parliament. In addition there are several other EU initiatives containing relevant provisions towards sustainable development (European Spatial Development Perspective (Europe 2000) - see Chapter 3.5.2; EU Rural Development Regulation - see Chapter ; EU Forestry Strategy - see Chapter 3.2.2; EC Biodiversity Strategy - see Chapter 5.1.2; European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) - see Chapter ; EU White Paper European Transport Policy for see Chapter ) Austria Altogether, the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable Development (BMLFUW, 2002) defines 20 key objectives that will be evaluated by means of indicators. Objectives 11 to 15 (concerning the Chapter Habitats in Austria ) are relevant in particular for environmental issues: key objective 11 - protection of environmental media and climate: Quality targets and a responsible chemicals policy key objective 12 - preserving the diversity of species and landscapes: Preserving animal and plant species, habitats, natural and cultural landscapes key objective 13 - responsible use of land and regional development: Orientation and adaptation of spatial policies towards a higher quality of life key objective 14 - shaping sustainable mobility: Reducing mobility pressures and sustainable management of the need for mobility 30

5 key objective 15 - optimising the transport systems: Promoting the most environment-friendly, least resource-consuming, most energy efficient and safest forms of transport. Furthermore, particularly key objectives 8 (correct prices for resources and energy), 9 (successful management through eco-efficiency) and 10 (strengthening of sustainable products and services) display a high environmental relevance. The Federal Government, as the responsible authority for the implementation of the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable Development, has set up a Committee for a Sustainable Austria. The following three instruments are planned to regulate the implementation process: Annual work programmes shall promote the coordination of the activities of all key players involved. The first work programme was published in 2003 (BMLFUW, 2003). An annual progress report (the first being due in 2004) shall illustrate the activities already implemented by the Committee. A first external evaluation by an inter-disciplinary group of independent scientists is scheduled for autumn In addition to the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable Development at the federal level, there is the Local Agenda 21 approach at the local and regional levels. The overarching principles of the Local Agenda 21 at the community level are (Felsberger, 2003): sustainability must be based on social justice, resources shall not be consumed faster than nature can renew them, the amount of emitted pollutants shall not exceed the capacities of air, water and soil and the conservation of diversity must be established as a precondition for sustainability. The Local Agenda 21 is being implemented in about 133 Austrian municipalities (about 6% of all Austrian municipalities) (Strigl, 2003), with particular focuses in the Federal Provinces of Styria, Upper-Austria, Carinthia and Vienna. Objectives and guidelines are established according to each municipality s situation and implemented within the framework of measures and projects. Examples of relevant topics are the consumption of fossil fuels, the extent of waste generation, the adjustment of heating systems, the creation of new opportunities for jobs and apprenticeships as well as land development in the field of organic farming etc. In October 2003 the participants of the Provincial conference of environmental experts conferred Austria-wide importance to the Local Agenda 21 by issuing a joint declaration on Local Agenda 21 in Austria. In addition to this declaration, the Federal Provinces together with the Federal Government carried out various activities, such as an annual Local Agenda 21 summit and the enlargement of the web site by a Local Agenda 21 branch. These activities were carried out by an inter-provincial working group with the participation of the government ( Decentralised Sustainability Strategies Local Agenda 21 ). As the Local Agenda 21 process supports the interests of the citizens, its efficiency for sustainable development can be considered extremely high. Examples of further Austrian strategies with sustainable development as their overarching aim are the Austrian Spatial Development Concept - see Chapter 3.5.2, the Austrian Programme for Rural Development (ÖPFEL) - see Chapter , the Austrian Climate Strategy - see Chapter and the Austrian Biodiversity Strategy - see Chapter

6 1.1.3 THE OBJECTIVE OF DECOUPLING DATA FOR AUSTRIA Decoupling economic growth from energy and resource consumption presents a key objective of sustainable development at EU level and in Austria. The Austrian objective is to increase the productivity of resources together with higher economic growth in such a way as to achieve further decoupling. In the short term, absolute resource turnover should at least be stabilised, and in the long term the objective must be to increase the productivity of resources by a factor of 4. In pursuing this aim, preventing the consumption of raw materials and energy has absolute priority wherever this is technically feasible and economically reasonable, with the ultimate goal of achieving an absolute reduction in total resource consumption (BMLFUW, 2002). Decoupling, however, is only a first step in the right direction. Once achieved, it will be necessary to check whether the development of the individual factors is in line with sustainable development. Figure shows the development of important parameters, which provide, partly on a highly aggregated level, first answers to the question of whether economic growth has been decoupled from resource consumption. More detailed analyses, also at sector level, can be achieved with environmental accounting, which provides an extension to national accounts by environmentally relevant satellite accounts. The economy (the socio-economic system) pollutes the environment by material and energy inputs, as well as by internal flows of material and energy and by outputs into nature. The graphic illustration on the left in Figure presents indicators describing environmental pollution through inputs (such as energy consumption, water consumption, direct material input 1 ), while the graphic illustration on the right shows environmental pollution through outputs into the environment (air pollutant emissions and household waste generation 2 ). Figure shows that between 1990 and 2001 the real GDP increased by 28%. One environmentally relevant indicator (quantity of generated household waste, see Chapter 3.11) shows a growth more or less parallel to the real GDP; so in this area no decoupling was achieved. With energy consumption, an increase of 22% means that there was hardly any decoupling from the GDP (see Chapter ). Decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions (see Chapter 6.1.3) and direct material input from the growth of GDP was somewhat more successful, but in absolute terms they both increased by about 10%. Water consumption remained more or less stable, or slightly decreased in the 1990s; here the data are very incomplete (see Chapter 3.3). Only with one indicator, namely acidifying air emissions, was distinct decoupling observed in relation to the GIP. Acidifying air emissions dropped by about 13% (see Chapter 4.2.). 1 Direct material input is a value taken from material flow analysis and includes all materials which have an economic value and are used directly in the production and consumption process. 2 For the present comparison the consideration of the total volume of generated waste would be more adequate than the volume of generated household waste, which amounts to only 7% of the total 32

7 Index (1990=100) Index (1990=100) Energy Consumption Gross domestic product Direct material input Greenhouse gas emissions Gross domestic product Acidifying air emissions Water consumption Generated domestic w aste Fig : Development of important driving forces in relation to GDP Source: Umweltbundesamt (Emissions, volume of generated household waste) Statistics Austria (GDP, energy consumption), Eurostat (material input, Umweltbundesamt/BMLFUW (water consumption). Overall, the results indicate a certain degree of effective decoupling between the GDP and important environmentally relevant indicators. Still, in most cases the results do not lead to an absolute reduction of the driving forces. It can thus be concluded that in many areas the short-term stabilisation of absolute resource consumption, as aimed for by the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable Development, has as yet not been achieved OUTLOOK The success of every strategy, objective or plan depends on its implementation. At the beginning of the 21st century a large number of objectives were formulated in the field of sustainable development within the implementation of Agenda 21. It is however difficult to check whether these - often extremely complex - key objectives have been achieved. One way of putting such objectives into more concrete terms is to set partial objectives that are linked with concrete target values. Examples of the implementation of partial objectives and of single aspects of sustainable development have been demonstrated by Austrian citizens within the terms of Local Agenda 21. This should be further promoted in all Federal Provinces. Both inter-provincial co-operation and agreement between the Federal Provinces and waste volume (see Chapter 3.11). This deficit is due to the fact that no consistent data are available for the 1990s. 33

8 the government are important factors for the success of further developments of Agenda 21 activities. With suitable indicators, the development over time can be illustrated, which shows whether one can expect to achieve the target values. The indicators should also reflect the impact of the chosen measures. Indicators can therefore be used as orientation tools for sustainable development. However, they can only evaluate certain aspects of sustainable development. Several countries and institutions (e.g. UN, 1996) have already succeeded in combining the relevant indicators concerning the environment, social affairs and the economy in a set of sustainability indicators. The long-term objective is to develop indicators for sustainable development that reflect the links between the three components of sustainable development. Examples here are the indicators for the decoupling of economic growth from energy and resource consumption (see Chapter 1.1.3). The implementation of the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable development is intended as part of the overall strategy. It is carried out as a participatory process, which is also supported by an Internet platform ( Hence, practical consequences may be expected at various levels. To balance the three aspects of sustainable development, the general regard for environmental issues must be strengthened against trade, the economy and social issues at the global level, within the EU and in Austria. With the Sixth Environment Action Programme of the EU, the environment pillar of the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development was established. The relevant Austrian documents in this context are the Nationaler Umweltplan (NUP) [National Environmental Plan] and the present Siebenter Umweltkontrollbericht (UKB) [Seventh State-of-the-Environment Report]. The first annual work programme for implementing the Austrian Strategy for Sustainable Development was presented by the Committee for a Sustainable Austria, in consultation with the Forum Sustainable Austria (a top-ranking body of experts from fields of science and NGOs) in It contains more than 200 measures that are concretely planned, or have been adopted or implemented. It is planned that the next work programme of 2004 will focus on key measures. The first progress report, including a presentation of headline indicators, will also be published in