Question

The 15thSDG is Life and Land

a. Explain how it relates to sustainability

b. Briefly contrast the weak and strong sustainability criteria. Comment on whether your chosen goal relates to either criteria.

c. Instead of sustainability, should your chosen SDGs be framed in terms of achieving an efficient use of resources? Explain.

Answer 1

a. The 15thSDG Life and Land focus on protecting the natural habitat and ecosystem from the loss that is caused by the activities of humans. The key focus of this goal is on securing the biodiversities, water security, mitigation of climate change, and providing peace. It has increase the financial assistance towards the protection of the ecosystem. It is related to sustainability as it aims to maintain the ecosystem and biodiversity at a specific level. The goal aims to reduce the rate of depletion of biodiversity and natural resources so that it is available to future generation also. Therefore, the 15thSDG Life and Land aims to bring sustainability in the ecosystem.

b. The concept of week sustainability is based on the fact that the human and natural capital are substitutes of each other. Whereas, the concept of strong sustainability is based on the fact that human capital and natural capital are not substitutable whereas they are complementary.

The 15thSDG is related to the strong substitutability as it states that human needs nature for their survival and hence there is need to protect the ecosystem.

c. Yes, SDGs could be viewed as the goal to achieve efficient use of resources as it tends to protect the nature from overexploitation and hence limited resources will be available to the individuals. The limited resources will compel the individuals to use the resources more carefully and in an efficient manner.