Sustainability transitions in the global South:

some ideas from India

Susannah Fisher, Department of Geography

Summary argument

The ideal of sustainability has a long history in the global South

Divergent ideals of sustainability

Risks leaving behind those most in need of this agenda

Concept must be contested locally to gain saliency: social as well as environmental

Outline

The idea of the sustainability transition

One area of transition: Energy

Two examples- Rural voices- Urban energy policies

Not a new idea

Long history of sustainability ideals

Gandhian ideal of rural villages

Spiritual ecology / Political ecology

Local struggles

Livelihood struggles: Narmada Bachao Andolan, Chipko movement

Often framed as bharati sanskriti versus science and technology

Hinduism and sustainability

Hindu’s are noted for their respect and consideration of the natural world…if for some reason these noble values are displaced by other beliefs which are either thrust on the society or transplanted from another culture by invasions, then the faith of the masses in the early cultural tradition is shaken (Dwivedi and Twivedi 1999 p170; p183).

Although links with Hindutva (Mawdsley 2006) and disjunct from practices (Alley 2002)

Added concepts

Concern with technology

Urban issues: wildlife conservation, urban aesthetics

Linking to international concerns of climate change, biodiversity, energy security

Who is participating?

Urban elites

Grassroots movements

International donors

National policy frameworks

What is bring transitioned?

Quote: environmentalist

I am fully convinced that India, despite its huge population, could easily become a country of milk and honey for all. But whether to should or will ever become a country of Hondas and IBM devices for all – that I don’t know (Agarwal 1999 p36).

What is the end point?

Contested discourse

Long-standing debate over relationship between society and nature

Grassroot framings of Gandhian ideals

Elite framings of ecological modernisation

Outline

The idea of the sustainability transition

One area of transition: Energy

Two examples- Rural voices- Urban energy policies

Energy transition

Energy security / rural electrification

Sustainability of existing systems

Don’t need to be in conflict

Depends on ultimate goal: electrification or sustainability

State-led transition

National Missions on Solar and Energy Efficiencies

Policy frameworks to support investment in wind, solar etc

Obligations on States

National Rural Energy Policy

Grassroot initiatives

Networks of solar entrepreneurs

Off-grid solutions

NGO-led cluster approach to remote areas: mini-hydro

What do people want?

Biomass / black carbon

Major source of energy

Local environmental / social / health problems

Possible strategies for alleviation: LPG connections, subsidised kerosene

Adaptive capacity?

Tensions

Existing infrastructure v new development

Rural or urban visions

Local versus global sustainability

Social or environmental

Outline

The idea of the sustainability transition

The areas of transition: Energy

Two examples- Rural voices- Urban energy policies

Example 1: local ‘sustainable’ voices

Set of climate hearings

Sustainability across scales

NGO networks

Local and global sustainability?

Local messages then translated into outputs

Dominant framings: “climate positive lifestyles”, “resiliency” and “local agency”

“well meaning indigineous rights activists and their middle-class ideas may be shrinking the spaces from which a truly radical politics will

emerge” (Shah 2010 p190)

Example 2: municipal transitions

Urban transition

Solar Cities, urban development plans, international agencies

Technicalist discourse of transition

Not all infrastructure in place to be transitioned

Development before transition?

Understandings amongst the engineers

Understandings of the ‘climate friendly’ city based on making GHG emissions from municipal infrastructure visible

Focus on municipal energy systems

Leaves out other aspects of a sustainable transition

Technical sustainability

Li (2007)

“questions that are rendered technical are simultaneously rendered apolitical”

Avoids key questions of trade-offs, compromises and political decisions

Lack of local saliency

Highly technical projects with little discursive power

Project deadlines and targets

Fulfilling project targets, and performance of local governance activities

Who bears the local cost?

Baviskar (2010): Commonwealth Games and spectacular events

Ghertner (2010): asthetic governmentality of the world city

Does the ‘new sustainability’ risk becoming accreted to this aesthetics agenda?

Two examples: local responses

Sustainable transition essentially political Apolitical risks attachment to other political

agendas Trade-offs must be made Contestation must be allowed to develop the

concept of multiple sustainabilities

“practice of politics” (Li 2007)

Conclusions The transition is a contested idea occurring at

multiple scales with a long history

Accreting local struggles to international discourses can dilute local saliency

Fear of conflicting with development

Positive spin of “sustainability” can hide local contests and trade offs

Any questions?

sef35@cam.ac.uk