Achieving the sustainable development goals : theoretical insights and case studies for making sustainability governance more integrative (original) (raw)

Integrating governance into the sustainable development goals

1. Governance must be a crucial part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there are also different ways of integrating key aspects of governance into the SDGs. Much of the discussions for the SDGs has revolved around either having a stand-alone governance goal or integrating governance into other goals on specific issues (e.g. goals on poverty reduction, water, food).

The transformative potential of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2016

How can global governance shape a transformation toward sustainability? How can a transformation toward sustainability shape new forms and strategies on global governance? These questions grow increasingly important as the human impact on the environment increasingly exceeds the planetary boundaries (Rockström et al. 2009; Steffen and Smith 2013; Steffen et al. 2015). In addition, the prevailing approach to sustainability will only achieve sustainable futures for some, which would not be sustainable at all. In the post-1992 era, roadblock after roadblock for global governance on sustainability was confronted and increased skepticism became warranted. In this context, the Rio?20 Conference in 2012 was seen as a conference with little substantive purpose (Andresen and Underdal 2012) and interest grew in efforts that ''tipped toward'' sustainability (Westley et al. 2011) rather than hard law-induced transformations. Global governance was seen to have the wrong processes and wrong ideas, animated by zero-sum interstate negotiations and a prioritization of the liberal international economic order over any alternatives. If we approached the question from a traditional effectiveness or influence perspective (Bernstein and Cashore 2012), such skepticism is understandable. Formal rules of the environment gave way to less legalistic approaches to sustainability in a muddled institutional context. Specifically, the Rio?20 process produced nothing in the realm of hard law, and the small-scale efforts appear scattered haphazardly without a core to organize global action. An alternative approach though would highlight that such outcomes have potential impacts primarily in changing global governance practices, defined as the techniques actors use to make sense of the world (Best 2014). Such an approach would be critical of the

Overview of Governance Theories That Are Relevant for the SDGs

2019

The purpose of this chapter is to offer an overview of some key theories on governing change that can be relevant for the SDGs. This outline can serve as a basis for the exploration of the case studies in Chap. 4. Extant theories and their cross-cutting issues (called ‘theoretical pillars’ in this book) are meant to serve as the basis for the novel concept of ‘integrative sustainability governance’ and can directly feed into the Integrative Sustainability Governance (ISG) framework which is presented in Chap. 7. As such, this chapter functions as the theoretical ‘scaffolding’ from which to work on the construction of the ISG framework. However, providing an exhaustive presentation of all theories related to governance for the SDGs is beyond the scope of this book. (A good overview of transition studies can be found in Grin et al. 2010. Hale and Held (Handbook of transnational governance: institutions and innovations. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2011) give a comprehensive account of tra...

Global Governance and Sustainable Development: a Discussion from the Socio-Political and Socio-Ecological Perspectives

This paper demonstrates sustainable development and governance as contested concepts, constructed, and appropriated, to meet diverse agendas. It argues that sustainability and governance are inextricably linked. It examines how different disciplinary approaches have framed the relationship between sustainability and governance and identifies and discusses two dominant perspectives: the socio-political and the socioecological. It argues that these two viewpoints have framed debates about alternate approaches to promoting sustainable development and sustainability transitions through governance. The study emphasises how each perspective has produced a unique vision of governance by emphasising power, scale, system dynamics, uncertainty, involvement, and solutions. However, it reveals that the recent emergence of sustainability science has highlighted the need to transcend these two prevailing viewpoints and rethink governance in terms of a solution-oriented strategy that supports structural reforms on both a socio-political and a socioecological level.

Rules to goals: emergence of new governance strategies for sustainable development

Sustainability Science

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate are the key international agreements to deliver a sustainable future. They are a compromise between the scientifically necessary and politically possible to achieve global sustainability. Agreed in 2015, they constitute a radical departure for international policy with no precedents and are beginning to shape national policy, civil society and business decisions. We argue that these new frameworks represent the most important institutional innovation to emerge in recent years. They mark a shift away from international rule-making towards a system based on goal setting. This reflects a theory of societal steering or what we commonly think of as governance that differs sharply from mainstream regulatory systems by Pauwelyn et al. (Eur J Int Law 24:733-763, 2014). Given that achieving the Paris Agreement and the SDGs will require transformation of societies at all levels, it remains unclear how existing instruments, policies, and even institutions will adapt to this new global governance strategy. The key to success, we argue, will be "action coherence", whereby actions initiated to fulfill individual SDGs are coherent across efforts to achieve the full set of SDGs over the long run.

Researching Governance for Sustainable Development: Some Conceptual Clarifications

This article addresses two problems characterizing policy thinking on environmental change and sustainable development. First, the role of the social sciences in the wider processes of governance is sometimes misrepresented such that the likelihood of achieving consensual decision-making on environmental phenomena is overestimated. Second, the social science discourse on governance is plagued by conceptual confusion. This article seeks to address these problems by outlining an analytical framework for environmental governance research. In the view of this article, scientific knowledge claims are integral parts of governance processes. The article advocates a holistic understanding of governance that includes the production and diffusion of scientific knowledge, political interaction, and decision-making as well as the wider institutional context required for policy implementation and enforcement. The conclusion is that the entire governance process from the translation of scientific knowledge into policy proposals to the implementation will always be laden with politically charged opportunity costs.

Governance for sustainable development: a framework

Sustainable Development, 2008

This paper deals with the linking of two complex concepts, governance and sustainable development. Sustainable development is a normative concept, dealing with different temporal and spatial scales and with multiple stakeholders. It indicates a process of human progress. Sometimes sustainable development is objectified in terms of goals and principles, but the exact meaning of sustainable development is usually left open. Governance is seen as a means to steer the process of sustainable development. However, governance is not a straightforward concept either. It can be seen as a collection of rules, stakeholder involvement and processes to realise a common goal. The central assumption in this paper is that sustainable development cannot be achieved without governance because of the nature of the sustainable development concept. Sustainable development incorporates wicked issues, social complexity and weak institutionalisation. In this paper we argue that the many perspectives on sustainable development can be described meaningfully between the extremes of the rational, objective perspective and the normative perspective of sustainable development. Furthermore, the variety of modes of governance can be captured between hierarchical governance and co-governance. From this we derive four typologies of state-society relations (governance) for sustainable development: the rational state, the rational society, the normative state and the normative society. The main conclusion of this paper is that the debate on governance for sustainable development will be clarified if the perspective on sustainable development and the mode of governance -and the combination of the two -is made more explicit.