SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE AS A MEANS

TO AN END: MOVING ON FROM

KNOWING TO DOING FOR ATTAINMENT

OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

GOALS (SDG).

:

Mohd Nordin Hasan PhD. (DSc.)

Professor Emeritus

Institute for Environment and Development

(LESTARI)

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

International Conference on Sustainable Cities, Communities and Partnerships for SDGs. 5-7 October 2017

Some background• Founding of the UKM Institute for Environment and

Development – LESTARI (October 1994)

• Personal history at LESTARI and elsewhere

• Direction of research

• The path to sustainability science

• Current engagements

2

Knowledge for sustainable development -

sustainability science

• Sustainability is a global imperative and a scientific

challenge like no other.

• Sustainable development not spontaneous

• Efforts towards making development sustainable require

support from science

• Sustainability science provides the underlying scientific

knowledge to move towards sustainable development

• The SDGs provides the necessary targets/goals to be

achieved

3

Sustainability science

• Ideas are two centuries old

(Kates 2000)

• Practice just about 2 decades

old

• Content of lecture

• Discuss origins of the idea

of the unity of nature

• Growth of sustainability

science

• Pursuing the science and

practice of sustainability

and the SDG

4

Founding ideas

• Humboldt 18th century explorer

• Kosmos (5 vols 1845 to 1862 – Beauty and Unity of Nature

• Natural history of the Orinoco basin to the Andes

• …..”I shall try and find out how the forces of nature interact upon one another and how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life. In other words I must find out about the unity of nature.” (von Humboldt 1769 – 1859)

5

Why didn’t these ideas about unity of

nature develop fully then?

• The science community found how to understand nature

through pursuit of reductionism

• Development of scientific disciplines such as biology,

chemistry and physics

• Science then did not focus on understanding the unity of

nature/life on earth

6

Modern-day foundations• IUCN World Conservation Strategy (WCS) 1980

• Brundlandt Our Common Future 1987

• Schellenhuber and Wenzel Earth Systems Analysis:

Integrating Science for Sustainability 1998

7

National Research Council

Board on Sustainable Development

Our Common Journey: A Transition

Toward (National Academy Press,

Washington, D.C., 1999).

Future Earth (2013)

Future Earth Initial Design: Report of the

Transition Team.

Paris: International Council for Science

(ICSU)

8

Emergence of sustainable development

• Early 1980s

• Interdependence of society and environment and World

Conservation Strategy (IUCN, WWF, UNEP 1980)

• Gained political mileage from

Brundlandt Commission 1987

and UNCED 1992 (Agenda 21)

• Some local success through

Agenda 21

• Initially very little science in the

forefront

• Schellenhuber and Wenzel Earth Systems Analysis:

Integrating Science for Sustainability 1998

• More science since WSSD Johannesburg 2002

9

Emergence

of

sustainable

development

as a global

activity.

Stockholm Declaration

1972

Our Common Future

1987

UNCED / Agenda 21

1992

Millennium Development

Goals 2000

World Summit on

Sustainable Devp 2002

The Future We Want

2012

Sustainable development

Goals 2015

10

Strengthening the science of sustainable

development - Friibergh workshop 2000

• Sustainability Science Workshop October 10-14, 2000 in Sweden

• Hosted by Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research

• Financial contributions from the Swedish Council, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Office of Global Programs, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other U.S. Global Change Agencies, and the U.S. National Science Foundation

• Organizing Committee included William C. Clark, Robert Corell, Bert Bolin, Robert Kates, Jane Lubchenco, John Schellnhuber and Uno Svedin

11

Friibergh workshop 2000 – identify core

questions and methodologies

• Run-up to WSSD Johannesburg 2002

• To connect S&T to SD

• Focus on sustainability transition to 2050

• Feed, nurture, house, educate, and employ 9 billion

people

• Preserve earth’s basic life support system

• Reduce hunger and poverty

• Act now on what we know and develop sustainability

science for what we need to know

12

Profound global divide (Friibergh 2000)

Rich, old,

millions

Affluence

Global people

Resource surpluses

Causes of climate change

Technological know-how

Theory driven research

Poor, young, billions

Poverty

Local people

Resource shortages

Impacts of climate

change

Traditional knowledge

Use-driven

research

Global issues

Local issues

13

Friibergh agreed….

• Sustainability science should be integrative and bridging

(natural, social and engineering sciences)

• Communities engaged in promoting conservation, health

and development

• Multiple sectors of human activity

• Multiple geographic and temporal scales

• Combining the worlds of knowledge and action

14

Region and place-based

• Focused on intermediate scales, where

• multiple stresses interact to degrade socio-ecological

systems

• complexity is comprehensible

• integration is possible

• innovation and solutions occur

• transitions towards sustainability has already begun

15

Simultaneously fundamental and applied

Poking and probing

Pure applied research

(Edison)

Pure basic research

(Bohr)

Use-inspired basic research

(Pasteur)

Consideration of use?

No Yes

No

Yes

Qu

es

t fo

r fu

nd

am

en

tal

un

ders

tan

din

g

16

Sustainability science is….

• …the field of research dealing with the interactions

between natural and social systems (the socio-ecological

system) and with how those interactions affect the

challenge of sustainability

• Deals with the needs of present and future generations

while reducing poverty AND conserving the planet’s life

support systems.

(NAS 1999)

17

Core questions …………• What are the long-term

trends and transitions

• Human and ecological systems adaptability and vulnerability

• Integrated human-environmental theory and models

• Wellbeing and nature trade-offs

• Boundaries for effective warning

• Alternative sustainability pathways and their evaluations

Primarily researchers/

natural sciences

Primarily policy makers/

social sciences

Kates et al 2000. “Sustainability Science.” Research and Assessment Systems for Sustainability

Program Discussion Paper 2000-33. Cambridge, MA: Environment and Natural Resources

Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs,

Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

18

SD research needs to

• Reduce the emphasis on environment

• More emphasis on socio-ecological systems

• Trans- cross-disciplinary research essential

• Translate global priorities to regional and place-based

science

• Move knowledge into action based on what we already

know

• Scientific research into what we do not yet know

19

Example of transdisciplinarity in research

20

Example of transdisciplinary research

• ICSU ROAP pioneered the systems approach to research

on urban health and wellbeing in a rapidly changing

environment

• International Council for Science, Regional Office for Asia

and the Pacific, 2011. Science Plan on Health and

Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment: a Systems

Approach. http://www.icsu.org/icsu-

asia/publications/science-planning-reports/science-plan-

on-health-and-wellbeing-in-the-changing-urban-

environment-1

•

21

22

Collaborative conceptual modeling for

transdisciplinary research

23

The tool…..

• Collaborative conceptual modeling (Newell and Proust

2012)

• Example: Urban health and wellbeing in a changing urban

environment

• Systems approach

• Steps in the systems approach

• Select focus variable

• Add variables that affect focus variable

• Select variables affected by changes in value of focus variable

• Add influence links that identify possible feedback loops between

the selected variables

24

25

Candice Shih-Chun LUNG

Research Center for Environmental Changes

Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Green Transportation for Better Urban

Health: a Systems Approach

Session: A Systems Approach to Urban Health and Wellbeing in the Asia-Pacific Region

The area covers 2334.5 km2, with a population density of 2791 people/km2 and vehicle density of 2164/km2

Study area – Taipei metropolis

Aim

• Explore potential co-benefits of environmental impacts and health risks of green powertrain technologies under current and future climate change scenarios

• Establish an integrated cross-disciplinary research framework to link transportation, air quality (and climate), and urban health

• Construct a conceptual tool kit which is capable to assess important determinants and streamline science-policy dialogue for better urban health

28

The specific stocks and processes

30

Figure 2 System of Interest. ICE: internal combustion engine; PM: particulate matter; B: balancing loop;

B1= links 1 and 2; B2= links 3 and 4; B3=links 1, 4, and 5; R: reinforcing loop

Respiratory &cardiovascular

health risks

Travel time of ICE*motorcycles and

other ICE vehicles

NOx, O3, PM,CO2 levels

Climate

-

+

+

-+

12

5

3

4

6

7

B1

B2

B3

R

The integrated project

• Integrate different expertise from transportation, air quality, climate, and health fields with CCM

• Streamline science-policy dialogue

• Four project members are members of • A. Transportation Committee, Taipei City Government

• B. Sustainable Development Committee, Taipei City Government

• C. Advisory Committee of Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration

• D. Committee of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, Taiwan

31

Anticipated Outcome

• Major determinants and controllable pathways of the

complex interactions among green transportation, air quality,

and urban health identified and used in green transportation

policy development

• Co-benefits of various green transportation options and

population commuting patterns on air quality, urban health,

and climate change assessed

• Measures towards the SDG

32

Intervention 2: Promoting health-

oriented infrastructure with appropriate

policies

Intervention 1: Reducing health risks with an early warning system

3b

6b

6a

5a 5b

Intervention 3: Enhancing health promotion to

change public behaviors for healthy infrastructure

Atmospheric Environment

PM2.5 concentrations

2Climate

Change

Health Risks

cardiovascular disease

respiratory diseases

Built Environment

urban planning

transportation planning

1

7

3a4

Interrupting the vicious

circle with co-benefit

thinking identifying

intervention points

34

Sustainable development Goals SDGs

35

Sustainable Development Goals SDGs

• Bold vision for the future: world

without poverty or hunger, all

have access to healthcare,

education and economic

opportunity, and thriving

ecosystems are protected.

• 17 goals are integrated and

interdependent, spanning

economic, social, and

environmental imperatives.• “Represent a major potential turning

point in the future of humanity.

For the first time in recorded history

we have a set of goals and targets

agreed upon by all UN countries,

which include the

full range of factors that contribute

to equitable and sustainable well- being”.

36

39

SDGs are integrated & indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development:

the economic, social and environmental

39

Three clusters

• Wellbeing

• End poverty; ensure healthy lives; inclusive equitable education;

gender equality; reduce inequality; promote peaceful and inclusive

societies

• Infrastructure

• End hunger; inclusive human settlements; sustained economic

growth; sustainable energy; water and sanitation; consumption and

production; sustainable industrialization

• Natural environment

• Sustainable use of ecosystems; sustainable use of oceans etc;

combat climate change

41

Co-constructing inclusive knowledge within

converging fields

• Complex global ecological and societal transitions many

actors with different knowledge

• Rethink ‘knowledge’, ‘brokering’ and ‘science–policy

interfaces’.

• Conceptual models to structure and characterize multi-

dimensional and interactive co-production and application

of knowledge in governance contexts

• Need different types of knowledge brokers: formal to

informal, international to national, and research-centered

to action-oriented

• Heuristic and participatory approaches important to

explicating interpretations and dealing with

disagreements.

46

Matson, Clark and Anderson 2016

Pursuing Sustainability: A Guide to the

Science and Practice (Princeton

University Press)

• Solutions needed, not just

research

• Actions needed not just

new knowledge

47

SDG Malaysia

• Malaysia’s

performance on SDGs

assessed

• Gaps to fill identified

• Response measures

suggested

• Study by ISIS

December 2015

48

Implementation gap assessment• POLICY COHERENCE

• Gap 1 – No overarching vision on Sustainable Development

• Gap 2 – Lack of policy integration tools to streamline sustainable development

• Gap 3 – Lack of substantive policy instruments linking policy to action

•

• GOVERNANCE

• Gap 1 – No Overarching Institutional Framework for Sustainable Development

• Gap 2 – Lack of multi-stakeholder interaction

• Gap 3 – Lack of community participation

•

• HUMAN CAPITAL

• Gap 1: Low technical capacity

• Gap 2: Public awareness on sustainable development

•

• DATA RESPONSES

• Gap 1 – Lack of evidence-based decision-making

• Gap 2 – No Sustainable Development Database

• Gap 3 – No Overarching Monitoring and evaluation system

49

Implementation in the Malaysian context

• At country level EPU provides leadership

• National SDG roadmap prepared ready for implementation

• Most targets addressed through integration into the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020)

• Will continue to address the remaining targets beyond 2020 through subsequent Malaysia Plans

50

Malaysia at September 5 UN-HLPF VNR

• One of 43 countries that presented a Voluntary National

Review (VNR) of SDG progress.

• Highlighted its formulation of a National SDG Roadmap to

guide SDG implementation

• To promote stakeholder participation, Malaysia

established a multi-stakeholder, participatory governance

structure to support SDG implementation

• Held two national SDG symposiums

• Held a mapping exercise with civil society and the private

sector to align the SDGs with inter alia the 11th Malaysia

Plan initiatives

51

• For the UN HLPF

• Available from Available

from

http://www.epu.gov.my/sit

es/default/files/Malaysia_

VNR_Report_2017.pdf

• Comprehensive

government report of

progress on all 17 SDGs

52

53

Means of implementation

Stafford-Smith et al 2016

54

55

Pursuing sustainabiity

• Science as a means to an end towards attaining

sustainable development

• Time to integrate research with results-based solutions to

sustainability issues

• Cities are the main engines of development in 21st

Century Asia

• Communities and partnerships are the fundamental

building blocks in the future of sustainable development.

59

Thank you for your attention.

60