- from : President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change
Abstract:
Sustainable development has become more and more important during the last decades. Nations around the world agreed that development process in the past was heavily focused on economic growth and had left social aspect and nature as well as environment behind. As a result, despite of equitable wealth, what have been seen as the result of that long development process are bigger wealth-gap, increased social issues and problems, and more destruction to our nature and environment. Against that reality, nations agreed to ensure sustainable development globally with three main pillars, namely: the environment, the economy and society. Sustainable development itself is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Environment has become a very important element. Therefore, environmental science and technology as well as environmental policy are playing more role in the process. Environmental science describes and answers the causal-effect relations taking place in the environment through integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach. On top of that, environmental technology is also a key to ensure that our intervention will give positive impact, or at the least minimal negative impact, to our environment. Such technology also includes technology for water, air, soil, waste as well as cleaner and more sustainable energy. The two are also heavily linked and have to be hand-in-hand with relevant policies to ensure that measures are aligned with environmental regulations and law. Compliance with environmental regulations and law will ensure a more sustainable development process, which in 2015 was adopted at the global level with a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Each of those goals has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years, namely in 2030. One of the goals is very closely related to our current biggest challenge, climate change, which is Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
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