C ONCLUS ION
THE FUTURE OF
SUSTAINABILIT Y IS CIRCULAR By Reinhardt Arp and Zaynab Sadan
The Anthropocene – or the age of humans – is underpinned by the pursuit of perpetual economic growth and characterised by environmental degradation on numerous fronts. According to conventional wisdom, economic growth is supposed to deliver prosperity, higher incomes and improved quality of life for all of us. However, this certainly isn’t the case in reality. Economic growth has, at best, delivered these benefits unequally and at the expense of the natural environment upon which economic growth itself depends. To continue on this business-as-usual pathway, paved with climate change, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, is simply inconceivable. fu t u re of su sta i n a b i l i ty.c o .za
The world is in desperate need of some
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) 2018
kind of “green stimulus”, something that is
Living Planet Report, we have wiped out
increasingly being referred to as the ‘Green
60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles
New Deal’ in the USA and the ‘Green
since 1970, and human activity is said to
Deal’ in Europe. We need a complete
directly affect over 70% of global ice-free
refurbishment of the global economy – one
land surface2. These pressures are pushing
that creates jobs and improves livelihoods
the integrity of our biosphere beyond its
in the short-term; provides equitable food,
planetary boundary and into the high risk,
energy, water and economic security in
red zone. Our fossil fuel addiction has
the medium-term; and crafts a sustainable
increased global greenhouse gas (GHG)
future for all in the long-term. Transitioning
emissions by 41%3 over the last 30 years,
to a just, low-carbon and circular economy
pushing climate change beyond its safe
provides a promising roadmap for building
planetary boundary. The global agricultural
a sustainable macroeconomic policy and
system, which, in its current form, fails
garnering such a green stimulus.
to provide adequate nutrition for all and
Refurbishing our economic model for circular sustainability
generates vast amounts of food waste, has pushed both the global land-system and biochemical flows beyond their planetary boundaries as well. Continued
Since the industrial revolution the global
and unrestrained pressure on the planetary
economy has expanded exponentially,
system from anthropogenic activities is
often at the cost of significant ecological
dangerous and risks pushing the global
resource degradation. In 2009 the
system into uncharted territory.
planetary boundaries concept was proposed as a means of understanding
The structure of the global economy
and measuring our impact on the planet.
needs a drastic refurbishment. Call it
Nine planetary boundaries define
a green new deal, a just transition, a
the environmental limits within which
green stimulus, whatever we choose to
humanity can safely operate and provide
call it, it needs to improve resource use
science-based analyses of anthropogenic
efficiency, decouple material use from
pressures on Earth’s ecological system1.
economic growth, promote sustainable production and consumption, address
Driven by uncensored consumerism, our
persistent inequities, and eliminate
continuing quest for economic growth has
waste and pollution. To sum it up, it
pushed four of Earth’s critical ecological
needs to deliver on both socio-economic
processes beyond their safe planetary
and environmental agendas of the
boundaries (Figure 1). According to the
Sustainable Development Goals.
