Sustainability

6Analytical Tools and Methodologies to Evaluate Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations with Special Reference to Asia

Gamini Herath

School of Business, Monash University, Malaysia

6.1 Introduction

Sustainable development (SD) is commonly defined as increasing human welfare in a way that meets the needs of the current generation without threatening the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987). SD has gained significance since the 1970s due to severe depletion of land, soils, water, biodiversity and climate change threatening the livelihoods of millions of poverty-stricken people around the world.

Deforestation and industrialization generated excessive greenhouse gases (GHGs) leading to climate change with frequent occurrence of extreme events (IPCC 2001; Meigh et al. 1998). Heavy logging in the Malaysian state of Sarawak led to a loss of around 30% of the forest area between 1962 and 1985. The heaviest logging of forest between 1981 and 1990 was in Southeast Asia. Expansion of industry increased GHGs contributing to climate change, which has affected the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, and the sea level rises threatening people who rely on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods. Climate change will be a serious threat to many small nations in Asia such as the Maldives.

Excessive abstraction of groundwater in India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan reduced water quality and caused a drop in the water table (Shah et ...