For a Euro-Mediterranean "Grenelle" Agreement on sustainable development

Over the last three decades, there have been innumerable international meetings, warnings and proposals by experts concerning the worrying problems for which Man is at the same time the author, actor, spectator and victim: global warming, migrations and survival of living species, poverty, degradations of natural resources, demography, corruption, race for power, unemployment, spread of violence, epidemics, implementation of voted laws, construction of dams, wastes, social conflicts,… Problems fuelled by ignorance present at all social levels of the population, ignorance too often related to education systems unsuited to the realities and needs of the century.

By Jean A. Vergnes

Among all the major international conferences, only the Earth Summit of Rio (1992) proposed a society blueprint, Sustainable Development, and an associated action plan, Agenda 21. Today, one can say that the objective of this project is the partial or total resolution of these planetary problems, and also those which affect the administration/management of a socio-economic structure (ministry, local community, business, school…). The local authorities (local communities) are officially responsible for adapting Agenda 21 to social, economic and ecological specificities of a territory to achieve a local action, a local Agenda 21.

Development and Growth concepts

The definition of the term development implies a set of technical, social and cultural transformations which permit growth. Growth indicates the regular increase in generated wealth. By definition, the concept of development, invented at the end of the 39/45 war, is thus associated with the quantity of produced/consumed/acquired goods. It was the objective of the historical Marshall Plan: a process which had to ensure satisfaction of the fundamental needs for all.
With time, unfortunately, this development has caused an irrational use of natural resources, a race towards productivity, accelerated by technical progress and, consequently, a world where the concepts of misery and overabundance as those of waste and shortage cohabit dangerously.
Paul Valéry was the first, in 1945, to mention the exhaustible and degradable character of land resources, in his book Le temps du monde fini commence (The end of the finite world begins). An obvious fact too often ignored in the political propositions.
One can understand that, today, development is compared to an infernal, ungovernable machine… because it induces irreversible degradations of the biosphere (greenhouse effect…) and human relations (social strains, corruption, terrorism…) which cannot be sufficiently reduced by simple motivational speeches.

Contribution of the international expertise

These concerns are confirmed by 30 years of warnings by the well known international experts, by a UN report on Evaluation of the Ecosystems (4 years of work, 1400 experts, 96 countries) recalling that the capacity of the planet to meet the needs of the generations can no longer be taken for granted and that 60% of the ecosystems sustaining life are degraded. This document recommends radical changes for development and education.
In the same way, the comparative results of the ecological imprint of our various life styles are worrying: taking the average European needs as a reference, the calculation of the ecological imprint shows that the resources of three planets would be necessary to satisfy humanity at the present time: the way our Western societies function will not be able to last.
Lastly, the recent reports of the International Group for Assessment of the Climate on the consequences of the greenhouse effect or that of Nicholas Stern should convince decision makers to take serious measures whether it concerns the future of life on Earth or the astronomical costs resulting from irresponsible political choices. Nicholas Stern (Former vice-president of the World Bank, Adviser to the British Prime Minister) has assessed the annual cost of the measures to be taken now: 1% of the GNP for each country. They will be about 5% to 20% of the GNP if not taken into account right now. For these three percentages, this amounts to, per capita and per year: Mali (6, 30 and 120€), France (200, 1000 and 4000 €), USA (280; 1400 and 5600 €). Despite this high level research work, the political measures currently taken in the majority of the countries are still very insufficient. It even seems that many decision makers of the civilian society have not understood the urgency and exact nature of the measures to be taken, in particular the essential role of the local communities, and the national debates which cannot be overlooked.
The choice of another society based on the growth of the quality of life, rather than the quantity of material requirements, should constitute the great challenge of the 21st century, the natural resources of the Earth being very limited and shaky. If not, an extremely serious crisis cannot be escaped for which possible schedules are already offered by experts recognized by the entire scientific community…

A new concept for another society blueprint

The Club of Rome wrote in 1972, with the American researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a report titled No more growth concluding on the idea of a zero growth on a planetary scale, which does not mean zero growth for all the countries. This recommendation is the historical keystone of a society blueprint, formalised in Rio in 1992 called "Sustainable Development".
A plan which should induce quickly, in each country, a national policy of sustainable development as also in any socio-economic organisation (ministry, company, local community, school,…), a policy considered to be obligatory by the President of the EU.

Zero growth, a politically banned concept

Questioning the Western model of society is a taboo topic; the institutional decision makers do not favour it for many reasons. This is not the case for large companies which have reported that implementing a policy of sustainable development in their management/administration has resulted in decreases in operation costs, a signifcant increase in efficiency, productivity and quality of human relations. 70% of the 250 French companies listed on the stock exchange have developed a sustainable development process.

Many definitions for a single concept lead to ambiguities and controversies

Sustainable development is not always clearly defined or is interpreted diversely, reduced sometimes to human ecology by the institutional decision makers, which results in it being badly understood by its detractors and sometimes by its defenders. Despite everything, a policy of sustainable development is regarded as a politically dangerous objective despite the vigorous interventions of the United Nations and the European Union which consider that it is a governmental duty for all the countries
In fact, there is no official universal definition, the first was proposed in 1987: Sustainable development meets the needs of the present, to start with those who need most, without compromising the capacity of the future generations to meet their needs. This definition has a historical interest; since then other definitions have been offered, in particular that of the UN which is very simple: Sustainable development is a response to the requirements of the present without compromising those of the future. The concept, expressed initially in English, already used by the UICN in 1980, and officialised by the Summit of Rio (1992) as Sustainable Development, has been unfortunately translated in different manners. This has given birth to academic disputes and difficulties of communication. Actually, it is the definition of the "development" concept which should fuel the controversy, since it is a "dynamic" concept which indicates growth: unlimited growth and anthropogenic calamities are inseparable. Not accepted electorally because of the insufficiencies of education (information, awareness, and training) in the world today.

These ambiguities have contributed to promote a lack of understanding and have created a gap between two schools of thought. One school fights for a change of society modifying the methods of consumption/production, involving a redefinition of the development and growth concepts (growth of the quality of life, not that of the products to be consumed). This change presumes new currents of political thoughts in adequacy with a new world, that of the 21st century. In effect, the rules and principles of a sustainable development are incompatible with the current economic thinking, the politico-economic interests taking precedence on the future of humanity.

The other school of thought bets on mythical and hypothetical future discoveries of science. These difficulties of implementation are related to insufficient levels of information, knowledge and of responsibility awareness of the civilian society, lack of clarity of concepts used, absence of a real political good-will…
Wishing to maintain the current life styles, declared "untouchable" in an implicit way by almost all the rich countries makes it impossible, rather utopian, to slow down the degradation of the conditions necessary for the maintenance of life on Earth. This trend of the rich countries is condemned by almost all the scientists of the world.

Some revisionists, very often invited by the media, disturb the Governments.
Concerning the declarations on the greenhouse effect of Claude Allègre, one must read the letter of protest (cf Internet) of J. Jouzel (Director of the Laplace Institute), of Mr. Fily (Director of the laboratory of glaciology and geophysics of the environment) and of T. Stocker (Director of the Physic laboratory of the climate and environment of Bern at the Academy of Sciences),… letter addressed to the national Institute of sciences of the universe, to the Ministry for research, in L' Express.

In the USA, there would be some forty special interest groups and known personalities who would do the utmost to denounce global warming as a hoax. They all have a common point: paid by the oil company Exxonmobil (Esso): 8 million $ between 2003 and 2005. The Centre d'étude sur les réglementations, 55,000$. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has initiated legal proceedings against the State in order to stop the diffusion of a report on the impact of climatic changes; 1.348.000 $. Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, 252.000 $. 55 million$ over 6 years to think tanks. The press publishes articles of misinformation (Fox News, Washington Times) on the topic "alarm over extinction of the polar bear is in a sorry state". Associations such as l'Amicale de la Terre froide (The cold Earth club), writers such as Siegfried F. Singer (The scientific case against the global Climate treaty - Cold science - Global warming's unfinished debate) say that there is no convincing scientific proof of global warming. P. Driessen (Eco-imperialism: Green Power…), Crichton (State of Fear, anti-ecologist thriller), a physician invited as an expert to a conference on the topic "Which scientific policy for the 21sr century", P. Michaels ("The satanic Gases"…)… participate in this misinformation campaign. S. Milloy, chronicler of FoxNews, would have received 90,000 $. His shock sentence: the date of entry into force of the protocol of Kyoto will be marked as the seal of scientific and economic infamy. Source: CourrierInternational. Hors Série. 10/2006. Les mensonges du lobby Exxon. C. Mooney.

A national policy for educating the population in essential sustainable development

The definition, implementation and future of a national policy of sustainable development are related to an unavoidable prerequisite: a policy of education of the populations in sustainable development of all types of public, primarily adults (particularly institutional managers) taking the urgency into account. This obligation is regularly recalled by the United Nations and UNESCO.
Today, this policy is practically non-existent if one considers "the entire population". It is, however, an approach for which higher education will have an important role to play, and for which adults are the priority target because of urgency of the decisions and measures to be taken. This education concept must pool activities of information and awareness for the adults, basic education for the schoolchildren and training (initial and on a continuous basis) in expertise necessary for a "sustainable development" process. These targeted activities aim at making people aware of their responsibilities to enable social debate, dialog and participation of all in the decision-making process. It will be necessary to insist on a multi-disciplinary process, on the dialog/participation of the people in the decision-making processes.

Through education for sustainable development, we can acquire a better understanding of the complex interdependence which exists between the needs of human beings and their natural environment, between the economy and the culture, the local level and planet…
"Education in sustainable development is a demanding challenge for all of us. It requires that we rethink the purpose of education and how all its components are implied". K. Matsuura, GD of UNESCO.

A "Euro-Mediterranean Agreement on Sustainable Development"

Hence, while not losing sight of the fact that the energy as well as the ecology problems (and others) concern sustainable development, it is necessary to implement concrete and efficient actions. A "Euro-Mediterranean Agreement on sustainable Development" should enable all the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region, a very vulnerable region in relation to the problems raised, to identify a set of common and concrete actions while adaptable to the socio- cultural context of each country. "Grenelle", a French term meaning agreement, symbolises the creation of conditions favourable to mobilise the population and attempt socio-cultural transformations considered necessary and unavoidable.

Three proposals of concrete actions, carried out within a framework of exchanges and pooling of the existing expertise in the Euro-Mediterranean area, can be envisaged. Actions for which it will be necessary to define a strategy of follow-up and assessment.

I. - Define and implement, within the Euro-Mediterranean framework, a plan to educate the people in sustainable development adaptable to each country by stressing the priorities and the urgency. Unavoidable prerequisite regularly mentioned by the Secretary-general of the UN and the General Director of UNESCO, education in sustainable development aims at raising the awareness of the population and training in the necessary skills (technical, economic, legal). Adults have a priority status. UNESCO is in charge of promoting education in sustainable development for the decade 2005-2015.

II. - Facilitate for each Euro-Mediterranean country, a "Grenelle" of sustainable development, aiming at the definition and promotion of a policy of sustainable development regarded as a duty for each country by the President of the European Commission.

III. - Define a strategy allowing the completion of a first stage related to the large companies and the higher education establishments.

One should consider that the structures pertaining to tourism belong to the group of large
companies. This project of Euro-Mediterranean strategy adaptable to each country, could be supported by the UN, UNESCO, EC, OECD,… which would be requested to take part in its development, its implementation and its follow-up.

As Olof Palme (1972) said, "the future of the planet is entirely in our hands and if one day, catastrophes occur, it will be because of our bad political decisions or absence of political decisions. Let us act for the well being of the future generations, and ensure that the catastrophes do not happen".
Humanity is sitting on three bombs: ignorance, poverty and the greenhouse effect. The implementation of national policies of sustainable development should contribute to defuse them and also improve the management of socio-economic national, local, family and individual problems. Unfortunately these policies will lead to new socio-economic constraints, but constraints which will be infinitely less difficult to accept compared to those constraints which will arise if these policies are not adopted.

Foot-note:
1. - The Mediterranean Horizons Meetings theme (Saint Tropez, 16, 17, & 18 November 2007): Searching for directions of possible effort to boost the Euro-Mediterranean partnership.
2. - This article is an extract from a 20 page document. Those wishing to obtain the complete document can send a request to jeanvergnes@neuf.fr.