Oluf Langhelle

Sustainable Development as Concept and Norm

The idea of sustainable development has survived nearly a decade of rhetorical excess and academic criticism. From the Brundtland Report Our Common Future to Agenda 21, it has remained the central goal and guiding norm of environment-and-development politics. Though an ‘essentially contested concept’, it retains a widespread moral appeal. This is possibly due to the concept’s dual ethical foundation. By giving expression to both ‘realist’ (natural-law) and ‘consensualist’ (democratic) norms, it can claim support with respect to a broad spectrum of moral imperatives. The potential of the idea as a mobilising force for domestic political change lies in a combination of scientifically based moral urgency and a near-unanimous global acclamation. In addition, the politics of the UNCED process provide new and effective arenas for an emerging global civil society at a time of declining influence for national interest groups.

Food security and trade: reconciling discourses in the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Trade Organization

A contested issue in the international debate on food security is the role of trade in safeguarding food security at the global and national level. This paper explores how the issue of food security and trade has been discursively framed in two international organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO), from 1945 to 2014. We argue that there are identifiable shifts in FAO’s positions on food security and trade in the 1980s and 1990s towards trade liberalization as advocated by the WTO. The official view of the WTO secretariat and many of its member states (proponents of trade liberalization in agriculture) is that trade liberalization is both necessary and conducive for food security. The FAO has adopted this discourse. Although this is the dominant discursive framing, counter-framings of the food security - trade problem has played an important role in the deadlock of the Doha Round negotiations. We consider how this may influence the global food trading regime.

Future Challenges of Sustainable Development

The purpose of the present volume has been to probe the meaning and import of the concept of sustainable development as first put forth by the Brundtland Commission and later pursued through the UNCED process. In concluding our collection of studies, we wish to first present an overall ‘meta-perspective’ on the concept, and then try to illustrate the implications of our interpretation with reference to climate policy.

Sustainable Development as a Global-Arctic Matter: Imaginaries and Controversies

This chapter investigates Arctic imaginaries embedded in the sustainable development discourse and discusses various potential conceptual and political meanings of the concept in an Arctic context. The chapter thereby identifies and assesses complementarities and inconsistencies between three prevailing imaginaries of the Arctic as a ‘resource frontier’, a ‘nature reserve’ and a ‘homeland’ to indigenous communities. The authors place these imaginaries between the local and the global dimensions of Arctic change and discuss the implications of a global approach to sustainable development for the Arctic as a region (‘the Global in the Arctic’) and, in turn, the specific challenges for sustainable development seen from the Arctic (‘the Arctic in the Global’).

The resilience of paradigm mixes: food security in a post-exceptionalist trade regime

ABSTRACT This paper argues that a policy regime based on a paradigm mix may be resilient when challenged by changing power balances and new agendas. Controversies between the actors can be contained within the paradigm mix as it enables them to legitimize different ideational positions. Rather than engaging in conflict over the foundation of the regime, they are more likely to rebalance the paradigm blend. We show that despite being a mixture of two contradictory paradigms, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture has proven resilient when the power balance within the WTO and the policy context changed. The paradigm mix proved sufficiently flexible to accommodate food security concerns and at the same time continue to take steps toward further liberalization. Indeed, the main players have not challenged the paradigm mix.

Nature, Market and Ignorance: Can Development Be Managed?

Is it possible to steer development towards a more sustainable path? There seems to be widespread agreement that present development is not sustainable. At the same time, it appears to be very difficult to change the course of development, and there appears to be widespread scepticism towards the possibilities for social management (Sejersted, 1988, 1989).

Role of Gas-Fuelled Solutions in Support of Future Sustainable Energy World: Part II: Case Studies

Following Part I of this study, this chapter highlights each region in the world as having its own solution and approach to considering natural gas as a fuel of choice for smooth transition towards a sustainable energy world. Although energy sustainability is recognised as a global challenge, many of the issues inherent in this domain are site-specific. Therefore, it is necessary to identify suitable local solutions whilst taking into account resources, infrastructure, economic aspects, as well as the local/national energy policies. This means that there is not one solution that fits all cases; therefore, tailor-made solutions devised in mind of different circumstances need to be considered. The case study presented in this chapter compares different countries, i.e. industrial vs developing and those with national resources vs import dependent countries, with the aim of illuminating the fact that final choices and approaches that are seen to have a major impact on global warming due to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels might look very different. In this part of the study, focus is centred on the utilisation of natural gas as the ideal partner complementary to renewables in a future sustainable energy mix, in support of different regions’ policies. In this way, security of supply as a foundation for industrial development and the continued functioning of a modern society have to be maintained independent of the energy mix applied in each country. Different scenarios are presented and analysed in the case study, with attention paid towards discussing and illuminating the possible ways in which natural gas may be seen as a transition fuel from a global perspective so as to pave the way for the realisation of carbon-neutral or carbon-free energy solutions for the future. Since the examples presented cover four different categories of country (India, Iran, Norway and UK), combined characteristics may be recognised as representative for a large number of countries, thus making the generality of the conclusions rather strong.