Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy

By: Viktor Glied

Pécs, 2015

The volume is funded by:

TÁMOP-4.1.2.D-12/1/KONV-2012-0010 Idegen nyelvi képzési rendszer fejlesztése a Pécsi Tudományegyetemen

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy Viktor Glied

English Language Consultant: István Tarrósy Design and Layout: Zoltán Vörös

Published by the University of Pécs, Department of Political Studies www.politologia2.btk.pte.hu

ISBN: 978-963-642-794-8

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 2015 © Viktor Glied 2015 © University of Pécs

Contents Foreword

7

1. Global Ecological Crisis

9

2. The Evolution of the Idea of Sustainable Development 2.1. The institutionalization of the Club of Rome and sustainable development 2.2. Rio de Janeiro and the consequences

17 18 24

4. The Ideology of Ecologism 4.1. Environmentalism 4.2. The concept of political ecology (ecopolitics) 4.3. Environmental consciousness and ethics 4.4. The political dimensions of political ecology 4.5. The issue of ecological citizenship

47 48 50 51 53 58

6. The theoretical background of environmental politics 6.1. Introduction 6.2. The types of environmental politics 6.3. The principles of environmental politics 6.4. Different national models of environmental politics 6.5. The means of environmental politics 6.6. Municipal aspects of environmental politics

73 73 74 76 77 78 81

3. The Dilemma of Sustainable Development 29 3.1. The Terminology of Sustainable Development and Environmental Awareness 35 3.2. The appearance of sustainability elements in development policies 36

5. “Green Communication” and Mediatization

61

Notes

89

References

91

List of Pictures

95

Foreword

The curriculum discusses the formulation process of sustainable development, the dilemma escalated around this paradigm and its integration in policies, primarily into developmental policy. It also analyses in detail the idea of political ecology (ecopolitics), highlighting its political aspects and directions, moreover, its symbolic system and communication devices of green thought. The second part of the curriculum discusses the concept, the set of instruments and the methods of environmental policy.

1. Global Ecological Crisis

Globalization of environmental and social problems became evident in the third part of the 20th century. Due to industrial activities, air and water pollution were reaching extremely high levels. While the previous is a major problem combined with both the acceleration of urban processes and the impact of vehicle traffic, until then, reaching the adequate quantity of clean water supply is expected to cause problems because of the growing number of population, increased water demand and climate change. Due to the decreasing quantity of drinking water base, water per capita could reach a critical level in countries of water shortage, but it could also cause problems in regions currently rich in water. By 2025, water shortage will have affected 3 billion people of the 8 billion total world population. Image 1. Air Pollution

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Image 2. Water Pollution

Image 3. Population Boom

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In the 1960s and 1970s, acid rains destroyed forests in Middle and Northern Europe. The growth of green house gas concentration and the problem of global warming came to the attention of researchers and decision makers in the 1980s. In the 1970s, researchers pointed out that CFC and HCFC compounds used for industrial activities seriously destroy the ozone layer which has a major role in the protection against UV radiation. Although conventions of the international community were accepted in order to limit the use of CFC gases, tackling the problems of climate change is yet to come. Image 4. Acid Rain Effect

The consequences of growing concentration of greenhouse gas effect influencing climate change and defining the role of humans in this process are still sources of debates. However, it is certain that extreme weather conditions (storms, hails, tornados, hurricanes, heat and frost waves), vanishing of glaciers and the ice around Antarctica and the North Pole, rising of sea-level, growth of deserts, aridity and soil erosion, moreover, decreasing quantity of land capable for cultivation and the different natural and environmental disasters make life more complicated and sometimes even impossible for billions of people (Rakonczai, 2008).

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Image 5. Drylands

Image 6. Vanishing of Lake Chad

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Both the sudden change in the environment and climate change as such can make people find their homes in other places – this process is called environmental and climate migration. The decrease of biodiversity, the destruction of rain forests, acidification and pollution of seas and overfishing bring about other challenges such as the rapid decrease of edible fish, problems of waste (communal, dangerous and nuclear waste), energy dependency and energy crisis, environmental shortages that cause environmental conflicts increasingly endangering the future of humans and their quality of life. Image 7. Deforestation

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Image 8. Greenhouse Effect

Image 9. Conflicts on Natural Sources

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The following list contains almost all the factors that cause ecological crisis combined with the previously listed elements: the accelerating process of urbanization, the expansion of towns, re-evaluation of the relation of towns and its surroundings, disintegration of traditional communities, alienation of individuals, spread of different diseases and epidemics, the growing gap between the richest and the poorest countries, financial dependency and debt spiral, the persistence of poverty and misery, expropriation of public goods, the blurring of cultural differences and the promotion of universal values – such as consumption, the evolution of a consumer society, unsustainable consuming models and accelerated life. Image 10. Population Related Map

2. The Evolution of the Idea of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is not identical with nature and environment protection, it is a more complex idea since ecological problems generate a complex system, thus solving them also needs a complex solution. The issues of environment and development are cohesive and should be handled together. During the last decades, growth, sustainability and development were jointly discussed in the rhetoric of politics and the economy. It is not at random, however, that this pair of ideas became known publicly for political, rather than scientific reasons. Its aim was to build consensus that is to integrate the belief in never-ending development into the idea of the development in a balanced relationship with the environment. Image 11. Silent Spring

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Environment protection has been an important responsibility of humankind for decades. Rachel Carson, an American biologist, published her book, Silent Spring, in 1962. This book informed the world across the borders that our environment was constantly devastated due to different fertilizers. Carson warned that as a consequence of irresponsible use of chemicals, our environment was polluted and we poisoned ourselves at the same time. The publication of Silent Spring almost caused a revolution, it also raised the attention of the American President, John F. Kennedy, and a little later investigation started to justify Carson’s claim. At the end of the 1960s, scientific research proved the assumptions of harmful effects of DDT insecticide, so the substance was officially prohibited. This chemical turned out to cause serious damages in the ecosystem and it reached the tiniest organism through food chain. The first country to ban the use of this chemical was Hungary in 1968, but later on it was put on blacklist in all the developed countries. However, in developing countries DDT is still in use since its effect and cheapness are more important in the struggle against malaria and typhus than its disadvantages. In the spring of 1964, Rachel Carson died. After her death a discussion started which led to a fundamental change in the relation of humans and the environment. After the proposal of activists, the first Earth Day was organised in the United States, on April 22, 1970. 20 million people attended to the event, where they unanimously demonstrated against the devastation of the environment. 2.1. The institutionalization of the Club of Rome and sustainable development At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, both the more serious environmental ambitions and the evolvement of alternative social movements (greens, anarchists, pacifists, defenders of human rights, vegetarians etc.) attracted the attention of politicians to the environmental problems not only in Western countries but in Eastern Europe as well. It could be seen that first the damages caused by the use of chemicals became clear and then the rate of the devastation of wildlife raised the awareness of scientific world to the disadvantageous processes. At the beginning of the 1970s, at the demonstrations organized in many US cities, not only antiVietnamese war slogans appeared but also slogans to control the participants in their economic practices. No book was so determining in the 1970s as the first report of the scientific society called the Club of Rome, established in 1968. Aurelio Peccei, the founder of the club, and his scientists revealed interesting context beneath the visible events and they also found common features among a list of seemingly disconnected facts. Growing population, social injustices, devastation of the environment, energy crisis, terrorism, corruption and non-transparency of financial systems generate a complicated range of problems.

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy | 19 Image 12. Aurelio Peccei

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Image 13. Club of Rome

In 1972, the report called The Limits of Growth and published by a researcher group of the Meadows couple, marked a milestone in the evolution of environmental policy. The book discusses from an economic approach that humans should cease their previous lifestyle, the theory of growth if they want to avoid the four threatening catastrophes: food crisis, overpopulation, depletion of energy carriers and the potential of war due to nuclear armament. Image 14. Covers of The Limits to Growth

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Using different models the analysis presents that the Western development line could not be an example for the developing countries, because, although the result of this model was a never-experienced welfare for many people, it deploys its resources and destroys the environment on a large scale. It replaced the idea of welfare by wasteful consumption; meanwhile, it narrowed the quantity of free time, materialized happiness and built industries to healthcare which would be less necessary without unlimited consumption. The Club of Rome report was also a turning point because in the report the capitalist world could experience the critics of the left-wing policy, the critics of the consumer society and the existence of global injustice. In 1972, the United Nations organized its first international conference on environment protection entitled “Human Environment”. One of the results of the conference was to establish the United Nations Environmental Programme – UNEP. Moreover, environment protection and the necessity of the rational use of natural resources were promoted all over the world as well. In 1981, Lester R. Brown published his book Sustainable Society, so the idea of sustainability got integrated in specialists’ literature. Image 15. Gro Harlem Brundtland

In 1984, as a result of a UN resolution, the World Commission on Environment and Development was established, which is also referred to as the Brundtland Committee. As a result of a compromised decision of a 22-member body, the idea of sustainable development was born instead of the originally used notion of ecological development; an indicator which is clearly understood by all the participants of the global economy appeared before the word ‘development’. The document under the title Common Future1, published in 1987, made an attempt to connect the interaction between economic growth and environmental impacts, and, at the same time,

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it warned about the complicated relations of the economy and the ecosphere. The message of the report was to arrange a world conference in the future in order to solve global problems, not only handling environment protection but also the aspects of development. The report was published in 27 languages, in millions of copies. Its main message was to emphasise the necessity of sustainable development. The idea of sustainable development was not entirely formed at that time, but the committee itself made a concept of the ideas and forwarded it in a form of a message to the decision makers. In 1992, during the preparatory negotiations of the Rio Conference (Earth Summit), the Brundtland Report was accepted as a fundamental document, and its elements were adapted to the main documents of the second world conference. During the work of the committee a perception was formed which says that sustainable development is based on three, closely related pillars: • environmental, • economic, • social pillars.

According to the Common Future report, sustainable development is a kind of development which ensures to fulfil present needs without making impossible to fulfil the needs of future generations. The most important requirements of sustainability are the following: constant social welfare, fulfilment of people’s basic needs, justified distribution of resource benefits, establishing equal opportunities, a holistic approach, the integration of sectors, the use of resources according to their sustainability and supporting capacity, and ensuring the quality of the environment. There have been debates since the establishment of the idea, since it cannot solve but provides alternatives to the following dilemmas: economic growth, fundamental human needs, fight against poverty, relations between different developments. In 1989, Hermann Daly, one of the most acknowledged experts of ecological economy, already modified the idea that was originally elaborated in 1987. According to a more precise definition, sustainable development means to reach a constant social welfare without exceeding ecological supporting capacity. Daly explained the most clearly the difference between growth and development. He said: growth is the difference in quantity after wealth creation, while development means a step towards quality (cited by Láng, 2009). The experience of the 1970s indicated a turning point in the development of modern society, because a new structure in public opinion was created which strongly influenced the transforming political life of the 1980s-1990s questioning the positive aspect of constant growth.

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The first report of the Club of Rome was followed by several others, in addition to which different models and scenarios in connection with demography and climate change were prepared for the future, but crucial change did not happen. Still there has been a constant population growth, new methods and alternatives integrate extremely slowly into the way of thinking and initiatives of economic actors. By the end of the cold war, it was thought that the time of peace and prosperity had come in history and the triumph of liberal democracy would implement the general development principals of liberalism in most of the countries of the world. The American thinker, Francis Fukuyama says the engine of development lies in natural sciences and claims that the theory saying nature cannot be conquered by science. Image 16. Our Common Future

Fukuyama (1994) also claims that civilisation is based on technical achievements and the developed world is, on the one hand, advanced by economic growth in connection with industrial development, and keep a distance from the developing world, on the other. Fukuyama describes vividly, but in a simple and subjective aspect, the ambiguous period of the world, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. He also believes in the superiority of technology which can be responsible for ecological crisis but seems to be the only tool for saving this world threatened by collapse.

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At this point, the researcher’s train of thought sharply separates the greens’ anti-technology attitude, but the solution is – and accepted today – somewhere in the middle: do not allow technology to totally and unnecessarily destroy nature while absorbing liveable and clear nature from humans, but, at the same time, technology should be exploited in order to endorse the aspects of sustainable development. Technical development should not support consumption but a better and quality life.

2.2. Rio de Janeiro and the consequences After the cold war, at the beginning of the 1990s – after the euphoria of the victory of capitalism was over – silence with expectations was characteristic in the international system. But peace did not last for long. Global issues, such as environment protection, energy supply and the global opposition of North and South that were overshadowed by the conflict and armament fight between the two superpowers became the most important issues to solve in the international community. The memory and experience of chemical poisoning in Bhopal (India), killing about four thousand people in 1984, Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in 1986, and running aground of the tanker, Exxon Valdez in 1989 and the shores of Alaska polluted by oil, all live vividly in people’s mind. Image 17. Chernobyl 1986

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After a long preparation process, in 1992, the UN world conference was held in Rio de Janeiro. Sustainable development was in the heart of the event, entitled Environment and Development. There was no sign of consensus and openness that were dominant during the negotiations of ozone agreements. The opposition between the aims of developed countries – led by the United States – and the developing countries (G77) – led by China became evident and was primarily expressed in defining and understanding the right to development. As a result of the series of meetings including 172 countries and their 30 thousand delegates, four documents were accepted: 1. Rio Declaration on environment and development, 2. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 3. Agenda 21, 4. Agreement on biological diversity.

Although many people aimed to lessen the importance of the outcome of the conference because of lack of data, the event could be considered successful because it drew attention to global processes that led to many problems be solved, primarily in the field of environment protection, the elimination of poverty, deforestation, climate change and biodiversity. Image 18. Bhopal 1984

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Very soon after the conference it became clear that the aims of the UN identified in Rio – the elimination of poverty, effective environment protection and the distribution of a sustainable development model – proceed extremely slowly and cannot solve global problems. From the idea of sustainable development, the word “development” was more frequently left out by the second half of the 1990s, actors of the political and economic sphere started to emphasise different elements of sustainability. The failure of the implementation of the Rio aims (e.g.: Agenda 21) had an impact on the negotiations of Rio+5 in New York, 1997, because it turned out that neither an adequate financial basis, nor effective international co-operation were formed from 1992 to 1997. Image 19. Disaster of Exxon Valdez, 1989

Being afraid of responsibility, compunction or the flood of economic and environmental migrants, the international economic community and a number of UN members made a proposal parallel with climate negotiations which became public as the Millennium Development Goals – MDG.2 The UN General Assembly accepted the comprehensive programme package in September 2000. The aim of this decision was to organise a framework for the international aid system, which could meet the new and modern challenges of the 21 st century by 2015. At the millennium, about 1.1 billion people lived under the poverty line of 1 USD/day income, among them every sixth was a child. The eight main aims indicated as priori-

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ties show that the MDG focused mainly on the problems of the developing world, such as decreasing extreme poverty, the distribution of basic education, health protection and the reduction of diseases, environmental safety and the protection of the soil, together with establishing international co-operation. The next sustainable development conference was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, ten years after Rio. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development established after Rio conference was to organize the conference programme. Practically, all delegations of UN members were involved in the negotiations. A great number of different expert organizations and various social groups participated in the sessions. One of the results of the period after Rio was that representatives of major social groups and multinational companies could begin to co-operate for the sake of sustainable development at the level of the UN. During the preparatory session of the world conference, participants could publish their assessments and introduce their proposals. From the “partnership” point of view as a principle of sustainable development, the Global Forum should be considered the most important accompanying event that was held parallel with the conference. The Forum had already been in Rio, a great gathering for NGO people and the platform of their debates. The aim of the conference in Johannesburg was to protect the results of Rio and to strengthen partnership. A Political Declaration and Implementation Plan, as well as proposals were to establish a change in attitude towards sustainable development. This could be considered as a result since strengthening social participation, involving civil organisations in decision making and integrating principles of sustainable development into political documents received further impetus. The financial and credit crisis in 2008 heavily influenced the global economy, and it caused a delay in the initiatives to change social and economic traditions. It could be seen that instead of revealing the results, politics was trying to save the system that caused the global crisis. Researchers warned that during the crisis there was (would have been) the great historical opportunity to start a radical change in the institutional system and the general approach. Instead, bank saving actions (bailouts) and crisis management programmes were initiated, the results of which are still doubtful. This paradox highly influenced the process of climate meetings, which was basically broken after the fiasco in Copenhagen, 2009. In the summer of 2012, the RIO+20 conferences were organized in a political atmosphere which subordinated everything under economic growth. The indicators were not really favourable, so the participants did not expect determining results at the conference. The zero-point draft, which defined the aims of the conference, included the following:

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launching the reform of UN institutions the re-organisation of UNEP reform of ECOSOC (The United Nations Economic and Social Council) improved working conditions for the Sustainable Development Commission supervising the MDGs and its re-launch in 2016 under the name of Sustainable Developmental Aims • developing a green economy • making the initiatives to eliminate poverty more effective • strengthening both the national and international levels, increasing the budget for research and development and the research in environmental technologies.

According to the closing declaration, a 22-member committee had to work out the proposals concerning different fields of sustainable development such as water, energy and food safety by September 2013. It became clear by then that negotiations started in 1992, both on global level, thanks to the UN and on regional level too. They continue at supranational organisations, and accelerate or slow down according to the dynamic change of economy. At the moment, the process is slowing down and it might happen that a serious ecological catastrophe will keep the elites off balance who do not take any political responsibility.

3. The Dilemma of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development has become the most frequently used concept, figure of speech of scientific and political vocabularies in the last three decades. Economy and politics shaped the set of principles created as the synonym for balanced approach of ecological development in their own image, often omitting the word development and only stress sustainability, which can provide a vision of the future for defective structures. The concept is used by politics in accordance with social needs and fashion and by economy with the purpose of promotion. They call the unsustainable systems sustainable economies and sustainable societies. The definition of classical sustainable development has been forming continuously, its meaning has been going by the current decision makers’ world views and expectations, but it is a fact that it has become a benchmark in decision-making processes and been integrated into laws and strategies. The concept of “weak sustainability” appeared, and it originates from a proposition of the standard economic theory called substitutability. In terms of substitutability we can cut down a forest (a type of natural capital) if we devote the incomes arising from that to future generations. Thus, everything can be reduced to monetary value, everything can be substitutable, therefore, we sacrifice our resources for fleeting economic profit and leave the factors determining the quality of life out of consideration. In the Seventies conventional materialistic paradigm was not able to explain the system of human thinking and life anymore. Some social groups started to study environmental problems, human rights, plight of minorities and women more thoroughly, and shortly afterwards a society-wide conversation began about these topics. The traditional opinion was symbolised by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid. At the bottom there are the fundamental levels of needs (food, shelter, safety), while there is the need for self-actualisation at the top (morality, innovation, ideas). According to the theory, a human always tries to “satisfy” the needs at the bottom of the pyramid first and when it is managed, he steps one level up. Individuals (societies) in difficult economic situation place a great deal of emphasis on economic growth and safety. These are materialistic values. Humans (societies) on the other side, who are in favourable economic and financial situation, start to prefer values like protection of the environment, individual freedom of choice, individual-

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ism, humanism and a greater say in political questions. These are post-materialistic values. A significant depreciation of the current post-modern capitalist paradigm and the change of the problems and course of actions of science were the preconditions for the appearance of post-materialistic theories from the 1970s. Formation of new theories is usually preceded by a professionally unstable period. Carrying the aims is made more difficult because the followings are inconsistent with each other: the value system formed and strengthened within the framework of consumer society, the social standards originated from this and the respect of nature. Therefore, ideas have already come up, which find the solution for creating a harmonic connection between nature and science by new theories. This is a further sign of the depreciation of the paradigm. “When scientists meet anomalies or crises, their attitudes to the current paradigm start to change, and, consequently, the nature of their researches change as well. Proliferation of varieties competing with each other, willingness to try anything, declaration of undisguised satisfaction, acceptance of the help of debate about philosophy and principles – they refer to a transition from normal research to extraordinary research.” (Polányi, 1976: 93) After the harmonisation and the balance of interests between present and future generations, local and global, individual and social, developed and developing countries are missing, social and environmental crises are forming and leading to conflicts. The question is whether the knowledge of the reason of a crisis and the measures taken to solve these crises cause the restructuring of the system or just stabilise it. In the latter case the system can face crises again and again. We can say that the reserves of modernisation have run out: we cannot guarantee better livelihoods by optimisation of production and distribution of assets by itself. After this, progress is not a technical question anymore, but depends on the requirements of sustainability. In the thinking and practice of the current modern societies nature is subordinate. It is considered as a resource, a region that can be utilised. Modern science with the help of its results is able to use, transform and, to some extent, rule it. Károly (Karl) Polanyi and others had already warned that more and more efficient economy had damaged nature and society. In other words: economy had put society and, in a sense, nature in a subordinate position by its uncontrolled growth. Economy needs nature as a resource more and more, however, nature does not need people’s economic activity. This contrast cannot be undone, only exact social regulation is able to keep them in a dynamic balance. The structure of the economy does not want and is not able to limit itself, because in that case, basic problems would appear and it would collapse. Increase of production and consumption, namely economic growth became the organising principle of Western culture. According to our mind and values, this is what we call development and the base of our civilisation: newer, better, bigger, faster. But it is worth noting that the current neoliberal economic model can work only until it can grow.

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Utilitarianism and competitive constraints (that are typical of the individuals) in society do not encourage the solid way of thinking and behaviour, which would be important for social cohesion. Growth constraints following from utilitarianism come up against the limits of the capacity of ecosystems and do not help to develop social welfare, but contribute to decrease the growing of the burden on the environment and to increase adaptability. The critics of the system say that it is not welfare that develops in this way, but the vulnerability made by the products and the technological systems that produce these products. The logic of organisation of everyday life in consuming societies is the following: the only sense of working is salary whose rising is proportional to the increase of the efficiency of production. More incomes facilitate to make better and better use of free time. Namely, by using more paid services in shorter periods of time, we can increase the frequency and intensity of our experiences per unit of free time, while less and less physical and mental efforts are needed and we can stay independent of our mates. It is called welfare. Not only the need, but also the Western way of life is favourable to service industry which encourages consumer society, too, through the trade of consumer goods. It markets health, culture, children’s education and family life by the privatisation of public services. The definition and the concept of sustainable development have devaluated by now because of political and diplomatic bargains, the encouragement coming from economic decision makers and media to consume and because of being referred to all the time. It has lost certain aspects of its original meaning and intention like decrease. But correct analysis is very important in moral, economic and ecological crises nowadays because power and mass culture both want the restoration and maintenance of pre-crisis economic growth. It is a misunderstanding that sustainable development is against economic growth in general. Instead, its idea is about proportional and limited growth. Neither the developed nor the developing countries would accept a concept that would slow down economic growth. Since increase in any cost can mean undesirable practice, human relations are coming to the front increasingly: life style, the quality of life, consciousness, conservation, respect of traditions, employment that facilitate to satisfy everyday needs, respect of fundamental human rights and the operation of a democratic institutional network. All these together are preconditions for sustainable development. Ralf Dahrendorf (2004) and Amartya Sen (2003) explain that this discourse is not only about environmental interests and values. The acknowledged scientists widen the ecological discourse limited by the concept of sustainable development that explains the risks of economic growth and over-consumption only by ruining nature. Dahrendorf demonstrates the basic problem well when he asks the important questions of the 21 st century, which play an important role in forming and understanding alternative thoughts: “We have never been so well off as today, but are we happier

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because of this?” What is the purpose of economic and social development? Under what conditions is development successful? According to Sen, growth can only be a means of general aims of development; it cannot be considered as the main purpose. He created conceptual frameworks for the development discourse that explains an economy’s growth and social advantage not only by GDP, but also by the quality of life, indicators of social welfare, lifetime, public health, and the quality of teaching. The Indian philosopher underlines that creating individual freedom can lead to forming such a responsibility and ability that can cause social changes and is for the purposes of economic growth at the same time. Every thesis that forms the balanced system of obligations and rights in creation of social co-operation and consensus is about social participation and active citizenship, in other words responsibility. Only this can water people’s growth constraints down or help those who lag behind in the competition. If we divide social-ecological changes with the pattern of evolution (autonomy and vulnerability, competition and struggle for life; compliance and diversification; collaboration, co-operation, mutual assistance; environmental transformations and changes), we will be given an answer to the question of how social science can understand the quite difficult and complex issues of the era of ecological challenges. Image 20. Amartya Sen

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Diversity of the numerous systems concerned shows the most difficult part in managing sustainability: it is a consistent, complex system. Subsystems do not only exist next to each other, but they are also interwoven, have impacts on each other and the whole system, and they change continuously. As a result of this, another characteristic of the system follows: it changes dynamically. In a dynamically changing, complex system we have to face the uncertainty of epistemology (background knowledge) and causality, and we can never know for sure whether our knowledge is still reliable under constantly changing general conditions. Creating scenarios built on vulnerable, continuously altering general conditions is quite difficult. This is why it is possible that from the Seventies numerous scientific models appeared to help the problems get translated to political language. It is not a coincidence that models are often inconsistent with each other, they either overestimate or underestimate the level of the imagined or the real threat, whether it is about demographic increase, the question of food safety or climate change. Environmental pollution, biodiversity decline, climate change and anomalies of living as part of society pose more and more urgent questions, but effective solutions have not been found yet. One of these is the quite complex package of sustainable development, which is strongly supported and pervades every other system. We are not talking about mature models, rules, but experiments, initiatives, ideas which – depending on the geographical position, period, political system – change and adapt/ can adapt to local realities with positive or negative feedbacks, but in any case can result in radical, modern and rational directions of development. Possible solutions of the system of sustainable development gather around two poles: 1. The first one is about finding professional solutions. It prefers technological (energy, transport, etc.) and economic (blue, green) solutions, it tries to remedy problems by the given paradigms. 2. The other pole is a constellation of politics and power. It debates the cause-effect relations of global crises and the change or persistence of the parts of the system. This pole creates the conditions of environmental policy, controls its possibilities and ensures a background for principles of elaboration and implementation of developing policies.

Improvement is a concomitant of development that can be qualitative as well as quantitative, but it matters in which form and what proportion they appear, whether one is at the other’s advantage or just the opposite, they are not in coherence with each other. If we want to balance universal principles of sustainable development with elements of developing policies, we have to determine the rules and frameworks of participation. Already since the beginning of the 1990s numerous reports of the UN have

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underlined the following principals: protection of the environment, participation of society (and the connections related to them). People have to be given the possibility to have their say in forming their own life and environment and creating the right for doing it in the most appropriate form. Stressing participation is essential not only because of vindicating the principle of democracy and good governance, but also because of bringing development into harmony with traditions by the usage of local knowledge that is based on experiences, taking traditions into consideration and being aware of the possibilities. Participation can be considered such an important principle that is able to make a connection between traditions and modern expectations; in addition, it can play a role in making a creative, intercultural dialogue, while it takes into consideration the interests of the stakeholders and the hierarchy of their interests. However, it is also important to emphasise that well-functioning democracy, the existence of the rule of law and good governance are preconditions for each other, and at the same time we are going to see that these are not to be confused with the concept of efficiency, since governance can be efficient without democratic social participation – as we can see it in the case of China. To understand, apply and evaluate the concept of good governance that is used by Western values and hardly applicable by itself, we need to understand the elements that are essential conditions of it: • legal certainty • accountability, options of institutionalised protest activity • increase of transparency and determining the role of civil society in this process • individual and collective responsibility • guarantee of social participation in decisions, determining stakeholders • the government’s “relative independency” of economic participants, interest groups, which means representation of interests of the majority of society.

Today’s world is a system interleaved with complex relations. There are such complicated contexts that are full of compulsive expectations and social dogmas. It happens sometimes, that there are opportunities to change, but most of these are related to crises. The point of a crisis is that since continuous and natural self-regulating changes are not carried out and little problems are solved by the models that caused them, these problems deepen, interleave and manifest as a crisis. Answers are difficult to be given because of the complete or partial lack of social consensus, self-regulation mechanisms and responsibility. If the systems approach is missing from solving any problem, humans are mistaken in acceptance of partial truths during applying theory to practice and, apart from the fact whether part solutions are successful, they face unanswered questions of the other elements of the system over and over again.

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3.1. The Terminology of Sustainable Development and Environmental Awareness It is unclear which concepts are included in the terminology of sustainable development originally and which ones were used by environmental politics and environmental management first and get among the references describing aspects of sustainability later. Using hardly separable definitions together during implementations of strategies, programmes, theories based on the paradigm of sustainable development or absorbing the principles of sustainable development can lead to reaching a higher level of environmental awareness. According to unanimous opinions, this is the only viable way towards sustainability. The following definitions can help to understand the concept of sustainability and in a wide-ranging analysis of the effects of development and investment efforts that are needed for qualitative changes of growth. These definitions are about pragmatic and reasonable efforts that take the followings into consideration: economic and environmental interactions occurring during decisionmaking in public policy, a higher level of responsibility, institutionalised possibility to involve stakeholders, placing cause-effect relations in the systems approach. A radical intervention in a system’s operation can only be successful in the long run and avoid crumbling by resistance of other systems if intervention proceeds on each and every level of the system and takes into consideration the connections between determining elements. We can see that the integration of environmental viewpoints into various policies has been mostly done in the last decades (although measures and efficiency vary), but at the same time we have to say that the green sector is not able to influence the environmental performances of other sectors. This is because of a belief that economy creates material resources needed to solve environmental and social problems. At the same time, it is the economy that creates most of these problems, but it is also the economy that is expected to provide sources to solve them. Concerning sustainability the above-mentioned triple bottom line provides the framework in which basic principles of access and implementation can be placed. The environmental dimension is determined by the concepts of precaution and prevention, and recently decrease and adaptation are the aims of the battle against climate change causing more and more serious problems. In my (and other scientists’) opinion, on the level of society and the economy, the most important thing is locality harmonized with the purposes of medium- and long-term strategic objectives, that is relying on local levels, local communities, local economic opportunities, local business participants and local resources, managing decisions on the local level, regulation of production and consumption. Control of a region and stressing locality are conspicuous endeavours of the environmental movement. Human existence, experiences, purposes and individual ambitions are always local. They have the meaning that the higher level of technical and economic interests cannot have a right in the usage of space over humans living in that space. This is why bottom-up democracy and practising power

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directly, participation and decision making built on negotiation constitute parts of the political model and will that is included in the ecological movement. I believe, localisation and saving resources are built on creativity and turn the attention of many to new opportunities of the economy and public life in general. If we want to know how much we rely on the outside world from the view of the usage of resources (natural, human, asset), we have to take into account how much the community (in the followings it always can be a country, a region, a sub-region or a single settlement) builds its development on local resources. Success of the local level, the paradigm of locality depends on the organisation of the state, regional development, and the principles of policies fostered: decentralisation, subsidiarity, participation and partnership. These definitions are parts of a responsible, democratic system, as they communicate responsibility, relieve the inflexibility of central decision-making, democratise local public life. However, they are questionable in the view of efficiency as well as in the view of converting the principles of sustainable development into economic will. Processes in this field are often experimental because the tools needed for creating a target system are not or just partly available, and society or some groups of society reject the necessity of change. The concept of trust (which is difficult to understand in politics) has an important role; it can serve as the basis for co-operations, mutual aims, and trust in the future. During complying with the crisis, decision makers’ and regional participants’ flexibility and adaptability are very important, which can be enforceable efficiently if subsidiarity is felt in decisionmaking and development policies better than today. On this basis, the reasoning is acceptable, that a “more local” democracy has to/should be based on subsidiarity, which has been talked about so much but rarely and, in a lot of cases, only applied. Accordingly, stakeholders or their representatives, delegates have to decide, as near to the problem and the place of decision as possible. A society’s adaptability can be considered as a standard of the formed culture: “culture is a means to adaptation to nature and if unfavourable patterns form in a culture, adaptation can be unsuccessful and after all it can lead to destruction, disintegration, disappearance of the community”. Adaptation experiments being in progress from decades pose the question whether developed industrial countries are able to adapt to changes and limits of nature within the range of the current economic and political paradigms.

3.2. The appearance of sustainability elements in development policies The majority of developments require the change of the environment. The method and measure which emphasizes to take into consideration and include the sustainability elements in the planning of development policies appeared towards the end of the 1980s. A development policy approach was announced for which economic growth is not the final aim but simply an instrument that cannot lead to the disruption of

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the balance of natural and built environments. The dominance of economic growth elements in the development policy creates forced paths of adjustments that may cause imbalance, while the spiral of problems prevents the system from restoring its own balance. The disruption of the balance and the imbalance becoming permanent may lead to social and environmental conflicts, as it will be shown in chapter three. Development policy planning is not only a technical but also a moral activity which aims to explore and compensate for the value differences behind the differences in interests, and it considers conditions and geographical, regional and municipal features. This is also required, since the development of technical knowledge is ahead of the progress made by other scientific disciplines and leads to developments being described as growth and technical development. Planning does not imply the management of objective processes, rather the motivation of human actions, which also represents the legitimacy of future changes. The application of the sustainability elements of development policies is therefore an adaptation “constraint” at the same time, which seeks prevention, creates opportunity from constraint and builds the scenes for action by ways of strategic planning. Image 21. Selective Garbage

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Involving local energies, capacities and knowledge is an extremely important part of development as such. Creating a social dialogue depends on involvement options and capabilities, which are largely determined by traditions, the degree of political culture, the participation models and the level of social capital. Ideally, the new approach to social sustainability does not only view democratic institutions as a framework within which different social groups must co-operate, but rather as a communications space in which interest articulation and constructive actions have an impact on the development policy, and instead of hampering political will, it provides assistance in exploring the ways of the future. Image 22. Electric cars

The strategic integration of sustainable development into the development policy is performed through environmental policy development. Three conditions must be met in the course of integrating environmental interests into the development policy: the criteria of comprehensiveness, aggregation and consistency. Comprehensiveness denotes to the “comprehensiveness” of space, time and actors, aggregation refers to the holistic assessment of politics, and consistency means the consistency of the

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separate components of the integrated policy. In the development policy special emphasis is placed on environmental integration, primarily in connection with urban development. In addition to the problems regarding cohesion, social exclusion and demography, the Bristol Accord (2005) and the Leipzig Charter (2007) also deal with environmental issues, with particular emphasis put on the special treatment of the integrated urban development policy and the management of disadvantaged neighborhoods, the eradication of “crisis areas”. Image 23. Bike rental in Dublin

Urban development is the development policy that is closest to the people, as it is about the future of their domicile. Its focus is on involving civilians. Let us examine how the principles of environmental interests and sustainable development may appear in urban development. Local sustainability strategies aim to lighten the negative consequences of globalization. Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is the local programme of Agenda 21 approved in Rio. It is a way of thinking, a management style, a lifestyle, and political culture all in one, pervaded by the principle of sustainable development. Its implementation may be achieved by the active participation of the local social and economic actors

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concerned. LA21 is a holistic political approach which integrates the “environment and development” type of problems, planning objectives and values, decision-making processes and implementation mechanisms of each sector. It consciously associates environmental impacts with their underlying economic and political impact (which typically arise from political decisions, the lack of political decisions, and the operational anomalies of the market). It attempts to find correlations between localized issues, cases, decisions and measures and global impacts, whether from environmental or global solidarity/equity aspects. Image 24. Huge bike storage in the Netherlands

LA21 divides the activities in connection with “environment and development” issues into three levels. The first level includes initiatives focusing on the protection of nature and restoring and improving the state of the environment. Environmental issues are interpreted narrowly, from a rather more technical and “scientific” point of view. Such activities can be simply referred to as “environmental initiatives”. On the second and third levels all three pillars of sustainable development appear, but the most important aspect is that any planning affecting the environment should be performed by involving the local community, the local interest groups. By this, a special role is dedicated to the initiative of democratically-elected local governments.

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A strategy-based integrated urban development policy is a key prerequisite to the implementation of sustainable community development and the development strategy, and as such, it requires a complex approach in the course of which local features, capabilities, requirements and social needs should be taken into consideration. Urban development interventions contribute to forming the city’s vision, creating territorial dynamics, increasing attractiveness, as well as solving socio-economic problems in the cities, and by this, developing fine-scale action plans. The highlighted presentation of cities in the development policy is due to their key role in defining the competitiveness of their region. However, in the case of urban development, the sustainability principle – in a social-economic-environmental sense – must appear as a key criterion, which requires an integrated approach to the urban development policy. Incorporating the principles of sustainable development in the urban development legislation, concepts and strategies have been placed growing emphasis on since the 1990s. The basis for this was contained, among several other statements and declarations (Charter of Athens, UN-HABITAT I, HABITAT II), in Agenda 21 and a number of the programmes developed by the OECD in the second half of the 2000s. The most important idea of sustainable development is that the city as a whole has to be dealt with as a single ecosystem, like a service-generating unit, which has basic needs, manufactures products, and meanwhile provides a liveable environment. The recommendation package providing points of reference for the design of 21 stcentury municipal strategy called “Compact City” developed by the OECD between 2009 and 2011 is closely related to the Green Growth Strategy launched by the organisation in June 2009 and to the Green Cities Programme. The primary objective of the programme is to reduce car traffic and, thereby, the carbon dioxide emissions by establishing polycentric cities, and directly connecting local producers with consumers. The initiative is not without precedent, as the European Commission’s Green Paper on the Urban Environment issued in 1990 and the European Spatial Development Perspective issued in 1999 both advocated the idea of ​​a compact city, that is, the city of the smallest possible distance, mixed land use and the abundance of functions in all areas. For this purpose, recommendations have been included in all three pillars of sustainable development. The development of a region and a settlement within the region is affected by a complex set of correlations in the global competition, a number of participants and institutions are concerned, and the development track is far from being only dependent on the source distribution function of the nation-state government. Regional and local governments are also major participants; their role includes catalysing abilities, integrating different sources and participants, and facilitating the deployment of networks. They are the ones that know whom and how to be empowered, and their consensus-forming and conflict-resolution ability by which they involve local sources

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must be complemented with ensuring advocacy opportunities for economic market participants (including knowledge-producing intellectuals, the creative class) in a variety of local communities. One of the key elements of sustainable strategy-making and -planning is therefore reconciliation, which may be an important tool for the social mobilization force. In the abscence of this, any strategy or conception is merely political decision-making, the success of which depends on the efficiency of the implementation mechanism. The long-term scenarios finally created (modeled) in the context of sustainability therefore take account of constant and variable factors, realistic target systems, asset system and participants, and although only to a minor degree: opportunities, directions and future versions that can be adjusted flexibly (Pálné Kovács, 2010). Image 25. The Sustainable City

The set of criteria for improving sustainable development was elaborated during 2012-2014, applying the principles appearing in the classic three pillars and the factors that are relevant in terms of urban development. We intentionally avoided

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setting up a hierarchy between the criteria, emphasizing the importance of a flexible, complex, integrated approach and the principles of sustainability applied by us (reduction, adaptation, efficiency, localisation, decentralisation, subsidiarity, long-term planning, partnership):

1.Economic sustainability: Sustainable use of local and regional resources (human, natural, spiritual, infrastructural), the equalisation of regional differences: infrastructure development, regional and urban development integration and coordination; transport (road and railway development, urban road network, the possibility of rail transport, the availability and quality of public transport, bicycle paths); water management and waste water treatment, energy production (extraction and usage of fossil fuels; options for using renewable energy: water, wind, biomass, geothermal); the generation of nuclear power and radioactive waste; supporting local economic operators; workforce capacity development, job creation and development; quality of public services. 2. Environmental sustainability: The enforcement of environmental and health aspects, use of environmentally friendly technologies, the balance and opportunities of extracting resources; industrial impact on the environment, noise pollution, air quality; protecting and increasing green spaces.

3. Social sustainability: Creating a demographic balance, the importance of lifelong learning, community development, the degree of activity and development of civil society; improving the social and health situation in society; educational system development, health system development.

The set of criteria applied for the analysis of sustainable development: 1. Region-specific options, the level of existence of adaptation to changes; determination of capabilities of the poles, their participation in regional and larger scale networks 2. Rural and urban relations – city in the county, relationship system of the city ​​and its surroundings – distribution of opportunities based on interest (existence of the traditional hierarchy), but intent to co-operate, mutual developments 3. Sustainable urban development – responsibility level of local government and mayor; improving work and life circumstances and the environment (sustainable energy and environmental management), improving housing conditions; role of local communities in developments, effort to build partnerships, reduced traffic in

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the downtown, reinterpretation of city centres and their development into community spaces (welfare and well-being); regulatory requirements of the building authority and other licensing procedures 4. Demographic dynamisms – population fluctuation (immigration and migration); population retaining force of the municipality 5. Eradication of poverty – poverty measures (balancing process, community rehabilitation, urban regeneration plans); anti-segregation plans – the establishment of harmonious co-existence 6. Environmental decision-making – the integration of environmental considerations in the decision-making systems (political science, economic and legal aspects) 7. Responsibility level and community organizing force of local society; strengthening the role of local and regional non-governmental organisations (NGOs3), developing new partnerships, developing democratic decision-making (social dialogue) 8. Ensuring social participation and active citizenship, role of NGOs in decisionmaking, ensuring the transparency of decisions, institutional transparency, clear and concise plans, strategies, programmes; the relationship between politics and the NGOs (partnership); social controlling function (monitoring) 9. Gender issues: equality of men and women in decision-making – achieving equality; defining the role of women, children and young people – increasing the proportion of women in decision-making, definition of the future generations’ protection and role 10. Education, social awareness, training development: environmental education, awareness building, developing environmental awareness – co-operation between higher education, the non-governmental and the business sector and the government; creating financial resources and mechanisms: various community and international funds 11. Ensuring the right of access to environmental information 12. Developing sustainable consumption models – the balance of production and consumption; food safety; satisfying the needs should be the priority instead of meeting demands; community responsibility 13. Resources – developing sustainable earth and land use methods, opportunities for local population; involvement of producers in decision-making processes, extraction and utilization of raw materials, the role of international trade in extracting resources 14. Effects of global climate change and local adaptation; climate-friendly network of settlements 15. Freshwater protection and the integrated development of their use; water management development; water supply of the urban population; role of water in the life of the village

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16. Protection of the atmosphere (air pollution, the level of emissions) – power generation, efficiency, consumption, transport and delivery, industrial production, land use; taking into account government strategies; reducing motorization, designing environmentally friendly transport options, quality, availability and costs of public transport 17. Waste and wastewater treatment, toxic chemicals; safe storage, handling, transport, and disposal of hazardous and nuclear waste; sustainable consumption and waste treatment, enforcement of packaging guidelines; risk reduction programs; international conventions and programs of measures proposed – development of treatment, recycling options 18. Health protection – development of healthcare, reduction of infections and chronic diseases, protection of vulnerable social groups; treatment and prevention of health problems caused by environmental pollution (general principle of prevention effort) 19. Scientific and technical communities: more efficient co-operation in the development and use of eco-friendly technology, transfer of knowledge and information, development and transfer of eco-friendly technology, development and transfer of know-how 20. Role and responsibility of the business sector: rational use of resources, ecofriendly operation, cleaner production (energy, waste, public utilities) – involving local businesses in decision-making, opportunities for giving preference to local firms; taxation; creating opportunities 21. Commerce – The role of cities in international, national and regional commerce, the position of local traders and giving priority to local producers and traders (locality) 22. Financing and debt management – finding appropriate financial methods during the developments (the effects of the crisis that started in 2008, debt spiral) 23. Vision and proposals (Glied, 2013.)

4. The Ideology of Ecologism

One way of recovering from the economic crisis may be offered by – as we have seen – the paradigm of sustainable development, which is part of a broader, more complex conceptual system with philosophical, economic, social, cultural and political dimensions, based on a green alternative. By the reconsideration of the relationship between man and the environment, the idea was formulated into a complex ideological unit called ecologism, i.e. the system of ecological thinking. Ecologism is an intellectual trend that appeared in recent decades establishing new grounds for the relationship between man and the environment, and aiming to define its place within society and economic development. The appearance of visible and observed signs of environmental crisis and postmodern and post-material values played a major role in the development process. The ideology created from the summary of sub-disciplines states that humans are part of nature; therefore, they have no right to destroy it, even more so because by this they ruin their own living conditions. Ecologism cannot be, nor is it necessary to be intrinsically separated from the idea of sustainable development, since they both commence from the same theory and have the same goal: human activity may not exceed the limits of nature or the rational limits to growth. In view of the quick demise of ecosystems and environmental degradation, the task of ecologism is reconstructive understanding, which is built on the most comprehensible message of the idea: “we have lost the right way, try to restore the natural state”, and information provision and forecasting, which tries to envisage the future. Many argue that ecologism – and the ecological movement – finds justification in the arising crisis. The slogan of “this is going to happen, it can happen if we don’t change” is often used by the advocates of ecologism, researchers, civilians and politicians alike. This plays a significant role in terms of the mobilization of people, since it criticises the status quo and looks optimistically to the inevitable changes. The green movement is based on ecologism in defining the objectives of the ideological background of its aims, and the greens’ political objectives are controlled by the same principle, in most cases, within the framework of a more pragmatic environmental policy. It is important how the “ideology” which was built on the responsibility, openness and discretion of the individual and society at large, and extended

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by ecologism, will be able to create active systems in the midst of current economic trends. The continuous future reference, which builds on expected environmental disasters, argues for the ecological thought effectively, but not quite convincingly. All the more so because the idea itself is being formed and shaped, its synthesizing effect is not felt sufficiently, and it only partly fails to provide alternatives that can be used for the target system, or is unable to establish their financial coverage and instruments, as well as their social base. Provided that ecologism is described as an ideology and considered as the next phase of social progress, its radicalism must be subdued in order to create social openness and political consensus. This, however, may imply giving up the idea, and may destroy the values contained in it.  We can therefore conclude that this is a progressive idea still evolving, which can be interpreted as a counter-ideology to modernism and consumerism, and which plays a significant role in identifying the problems, creating environmental awareness, shaping identity, and determining the action fields (environmental issues).

4.1. Environmentalism In order to better understand the concept of ecologism, we shall first define the difference between the concepts of environmentalism and ecologism. The term environmentalism covers all types of interactions related to nature and the environment, which explain the relationship of mankind and its environment and include it in a model. The concept is primarily used for administrative action for the protection and against the pollution and destruction of the environment (in the “polity” sense). In this case, environment is represented as an entity that can be utilised and demands protection, which requires instruments of its protection, using the opportunities of government regulation, environmental law and technology. In the political dimension, as a result of political science discourse and the development of sectoral policies, environmentalism is called environmental politics and thus can be understood as a policy. Environmentalism provides a framework for actions related to the environment, and at the same time it offers pragmatic, practical implementation options to both the members and the supporters of the green movement. The compliance of the concept with the system enables it to try enforcing the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection together with other policies, included within those, in a manner that aims to adapt to possibilities. Environmental protection means an individual’s change of lifestyle and establishing its environmentally conscious behaviour, i.e. the conscious limitation of its own consumption. Individual decisions are summarised at the level of the society, and beyond a certain level these provide a large enough potential to influence business entities, enforcing them to provide the alternative opportunity of an environmentally conscious option. The government plays a major role in regulating the operation of

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the economy and the market, and intertwined with the economy it is able to establish the framework of decision, to control processes and at the same time to legitimise such decisions. The government establishes the funding system which – in harmony with the economy, based on co-operation – could provide financing for research and development and thus the basis of the green economy and the research of ecologically efficient technologies. The government has a major responsibility in specifying taxes, duties and fines related to environmental protection, in launching system-level transformations and the establishment of the aforementioned alternative option. Therefore, it is apparent that in environmental decision-making, environmentalism establishes a space for actions adhering to the instrumental-structuralist approach, for individuals, society, politics and the economy as well. The general, complex system of transforming ecosystems covers everything from the individual to the government, including action against pollution, destruction of the environment, the prevention thereof, the definition of alternative options, systems of values and the consequences of decisions. The (legal, political, economic) means of decision-making adapt to the different types of political and economic opportunities, they do not overstep them. However, because of consumption- and growth-centric thinking, both the objectives and the means of environmentalism are hard to understand and apply. The conscious limitation of consumption typically leads to discontent in a consumer society, and most of the parties do not take individual and direct responsibility for it in the framework of a democratic system. The restriction of environmental standards and the drastic increase of fines may redirect the capital required for creating jobs toward developing countries, and they also increase the environmental load and vulnerability of the developing world, which the environmental and global justice movements protests. However, the saving and reduction paradigm may provide opportunities for companies in the field of alternative energy production, waste management, research and development, as well as education that can create jobs and make up for the opportunities previously offered by the terminated polluters. Understanding environmentalism is a moral issue, meaning environmental responsibility and action at the same time. The issue has been recognised, the paradigm of environmentally conscious thinking and behaviour is being established; major deficiencies are present in the fields of real actions and responsibility, since after an environmental and social breakdown the space for action are also narrowed. Nowadays, more and more people talk about the environmentalist approach becoming universal, which can cause the decrease of the importance of the green movement. The main reason is the following: from the 1970s onward several hundred laws were introduced all over the world covering the protection of nature and the environment, with an impact on all segments thereof (especially environmental protection laws which have been introduced in almost every country of the world). Environmental standards have been becoming stricter all over the world; the prin-

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ciples of sustainable development have been included in strategies, concepts and are considered (more or less) during decision-making related to developments and investments. Environmental protection and sustainable development have become institutionalised at the national and the international level as well, environmental ministries and parliamentary committees were created, environmentalism has been included in policies and through environmental politics it has also developed into a policy, so this phenomenon is called post-environmentalism. The political importance of environmental protection and sustainable development continuously increases (although in my opinion in rather small steps, depending on the capacity of the economy), reflecting the demise of the environment, and it has become a reference point for politics against the complaints of the greens, related to development and energy policy decisions. 4.2. The concept of political ecology (ecopolitics) Political ecology is a wider concept than environmentalism, because it provides a framework to new forms of the coexistence of the individual, the environment and the communities. It extends the levels of establishing a stricter kind of self-regulation affecting harmonious coexistence, solidarity, fairness, ethics and morality to the spaces of economic and political dimensions. Political ecology is a set of theories and certain aspirations that consider mankind the part of a larger ecosystem and with a dynamic development approach wishes to maintain the balance of the system. Political ecology can also be considered a “system of green ideas” in which ideology, theory and practice are interconnected, building a bridge between theoretic and pragmatic actions (participation, strategic planning, suggestion of alternatives, political engagement), and at the same time creating the concept of ecopolitics and its space of actions. So, it does not only emphasise the protection of the environment, but also conveys a complex approach, in which environmental protection, the criticism of consumer society (locality, preference for the local economy), community-based thinking (justice and participation) and the search for alternatives (together with persuasion) provide the framework. It has become obvious that the particularistic approach limited by the traditional scientific and policy-related framework is not adequate to understand global problems, and even less to solve them. Political ecology steps beyond the theoretical framework and creates the scientific and political dimensions of human ecology at the same time. The values of post-materialism played a key role in establishing political ecology as an ideology, while the idea of participation in decision-making related to the environment is closely linked to democracy theories and examines the options of participation. Therefore, firstly political ecology summarises the theoretical background of the system of green thought, establishes its

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set of values, its interface points, and through environmental democracy it defines the rules of an ideal social participation, albeit this works laboriously in Central Europe. Considering the green paradigms, environmental democracy has reached such a stage of development so far, which enables it to compare it with traditional ideologies. This paradigm was created through the promotion of post-materialistic values, so the theory of environmental democracy is primarily a theory of value: it focuses on environmental values, and thus obviously the protection of human values. Communication is the basis of the theory of environmental democracy. Communication enables the acquisition, processing of environmental information, and it also serves as the foundation of understanding and acting. Therefore, environmental democracy does not destroy the framework of established democracy; it rather adapts it to new challenges, adding a value theory aspect to the action theory approach. Thus, environmental democracy is a new step in the evolution of democracy, a value-based approach of environmentalism which builds upon participation. Nowadays, the role of political institutions is changing: simultaneously with the slow deconstruction of the welfare state, a transition from government to governance (based on dynamically changing regulation and a network-scheme co-operation) is apparent. On the other hand, the increasing importance of policy (especially environmental policy) considerations is also present in decision-making. The processes of co-operation and negotiating specific interests are clear with regard to environmental democracy because (although the main issue remains unchanged) it constantly generates conflicts and relies on co-operation. 4.3. Environmental consciousness and ethics For ecological movements, increasing environmental consciousness is a key issue from the aspect of sustainability – and it currently seems to be the only possible solution. People have to learn again how to live together with the environment, without ruling over it. However, “in a technicised and built environment of the post-modern age, with an uncontrollable amount of information, as mere players of not influencable economic processes and power structures, it is almost impossible”. The only thing left is adaptation, the idea of acceptance and making a higher level of responsibility fashionable, which affect the decisions of both the consumer and the citizen, business operators and legislators, as well. Therefore, the ability of increasing ecological intelligence may enable people to examine the correlations between the systems of the world properly. Causes and consequences become parts of the collective knowledge that is able to establish the new empathy, openness and co-operation. This type of sensitivity shall be expressed toward nature and our fellow humans, as well. The Gaia hypothesis elaborated by James Lovelock (Lovelock, 2000) in the 1960-70s was the first general theory to include this new type of relationship; this is why it

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became essential for researchers of political ecology. According to Lovelock’s definition, Gaia is the Earth itself, a living entity, a complex unit which is able to establish/ sustain the optimal physical and chemical environment for life. Gaia is therefore a complex unit, which includes the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and other waters of the Earth, its belt of rocks and soil and jointly forms a cybernetic feedback system that is able to sustain a state suitable for life, for a long period. As Vincent argues, this revolutionary new hypothesis (which became spiritual after multiple interpretations and also a primary reference to the New Age and hippie movements) was a great step for political ecology, because it connected natural sciences with morality and social sciences. According to Lovelock, consensual thinking is a product of the 20th century and it does not yield results, because it only postpones problems instead of solving them. He also criticises model-based thinking, when political action programmes are constructed upon them, because an originally ecological programme appears in the sphere of power and it get reinterpreted, or may entirely get lost in the dimension of political games. For Niklas Luhmann (2010), environmental responsibility primarily means ethical behaviour which is relevant to the individuals. By constructing a moral approach, a new morality the green movement can rely on effectively, together with a new, widely understood, symbolic imagery, it can result in the increase of the level of responsibility. The appearance of responsibility at the level of society is the key, and in this case the condemnation of the polluter is a moral and ethic requirement, while the damages and consequences shall be completely covered by the party who caused the damage. People do not only have to be reliable for past and present actions, but also for actions with a future impact. “Dual morality” related to the protection of the environment is one of the main dilemmas of plural democracy, present in all fields. Politicians accept the importance of protecting the environment and environmental values, yet they often subordinate them to the acquisition and keeping of power, similarly to economic goals and maximising profit. A number of surveys prove that both the population of developing and developed countries consider protecting the environment important, but they only make such sacrifices to a limited extent (especially in the financial sense). Their willingness greatly depends on the living standard of the specific society and the degree of environmental consciousness. With regard to the ecological crisis, science is also full of contradictions, dilemmas, arguments for and against, rebuttals and direct misleadings. The specialisation of science, the mapping of our environment and its better understanding had not brought about the creation of the system required for insight and responsible selfcontrol. This is especially true in the field of economy. Simultaneously with the creation of capitalism, the levels of social justice and responsibility both decreased, and they are only slowly rebuilt in corporate ethics, until the point they start to endanger profit.

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4.4. The political dimensions of political ecology How can the ideas of political ecology be enforced in the field of politics, primarily in case of public policy decision-making? We have already clarified that political ecology entered (about to enter) the dimension of policy through sustainable development, and become an integral part of decision-making related to development, thus establishing its own division of policy (environmentalism). In politics, sustainability means the representation of ecological interests. Politics can be labelled ecological, if it aims to protect the natural and cultural conditions of a humane life that is in danger. The moral basis of political ecology is provided by the dual recognition, which originates in our responsibilities to future generations (care, prevention, reducing consumption, saving money, prudent management, etc.), and which is also meant to protect wildlife diversity (biodiversity). This may only be satisfied if we recognise our own personal responsibility with regard to the consequences of technological systems and economic networks, and we act accordingly in both our private and public life. Political participation according to political ecology – i.e. the transformation of economy and society with political means (political ecology) and the effective social participation at different levels of development policy (especially NGOs and movements) – may only be enforced, if governance establishes the conditions of validating interests in cases concerning the transformation and the use of the environment (development policies, transportation, energy, policies related to natural and built environment). This is the third dimension, which includes the dimensions of possibly undertaking responsibility by increasing environmental consciousness and the options of enforcing interests based on justice and partnership, which can also be considered ideologies and mediation mechanisms at the same time. When society (or some part of it) finds existing mediation mechanisms inadequate in the accepted forms of enforcing interests, one or all of the dimensions of the political sphere, decision-making or economic is/are missing, that may be the vantage point and organising force of protest, resistance and withdrawal (deliberate isolation). In the political dimension, interests can be enforced in an overcomplicated system of connections, often not representing the wishes apparent in the discovery, articulation and mediation of problems. Nowadays, the discussions about specifying public objectives and value preferences mainly aim to persuade others (to conquer the majority of opinions and to neutralise minority opinions) and not to understand and define the diversity of opinions, which would mean a sensible dialogue. In a modern society dialogue is the legitimate foundation of constructing social co-operation. The debate on the allocation of assets should be preceded an exchange of views on the appropriateness of objectives. Without it, we cannot determine what and how we want to distribute, and what we would consider fair. It is also questionable how political ecology can align with the rationality of public policy decision-making (from planning to implementation and monitoring), since the alternative also includes emo-

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tional signals and “quasi responsibility and ethics” levels, since the former merges the imperatives of loyalty, goodwill and duty with self-interests and the dominance of political and economic profit. In addition, the diversity the mixed ideological background and the novelty of green thinking also makes it more difficult to define the dimension of action and the political perspectives of political ecology, adding up to the above dilemmas. It is exactly the series of political roles influenced by ideological impact, which is why green thinking is criticised the most. The guiding principle of the ecological paradigm (consisting of a mix of socialism, anarchism, liberalism, conservatism and feminism (gender) elements) is rethinking our relationship to the environment, revitalising local communities, restoring ecological balance and the development of sustainable social and economic models. Political ecology is also present in the dimensions on science, politics and the economy, but while theoretical ideas are confined to a theoretical space, political actions lead to contradictions, since the current political constellations also means boundaries. The frameworks of the nation-state and supranational entities, political culture and legislation provide the opportunity to represent ecological values, and this provides the opportunity and also the necessity to “fight”. In this dimension, utopian ideas do not play a role, but rather realistic plans, feasible ideas and alternatives are required. Nowadays, there is a broad agreement all over the world (especially in Europe) among different parties of the political spectrum, governments, journalists, researchers and professors about the nature and possible solutions of the environmental crisis. They all agree that the environmental crisis is caused by the market, and the problem cannot be managed without changing the dominant economic policy approach and the effective role of the government. The main question is how to solve environmental problems within the frameworks of the current social-economic institutions. Are radical reforms or a paradigm shift (the creation of a new social-economic system, the significant limitation of the market economy) necessary to respond to the ecological crisis? Political ecology basically asks three questions, represented at the level of politics: 1. Which strategy can enable such a major social change that has an impact on the political system and the economy? 2. How can a sustainable society be established, and how can the principles of sustainability adapted effectively into public policy decision-making? 3. How can efficient social participation – which builds on mutual benefits, partnership and considers environmental and specific social interests – be achieved?

There are no clear answers to these questions (similarly to the sections discussing the dilemmas of sustainable development), because utopian-idealistic theories,

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expectations, attempts, solutions not feasible in “real life” and the economic environment keep appearing, both at the global and the local level. Andrew Dobson (1990) és Herman Daly (1977) emphasise the diversity of the steps required for reforming the current social-economic system, the lack of a “single recipe” and the importance of an existence (or right the opposite: the lack of?) the ability to adapt and openness, while they also highlight the single most important question of political ecology: What concrete specifics and real alternatives does green thinking offer? According to Daly, passing on messages about the economic crisis or a nearing breakdown is not enough to facilitate social change. Necessary changes are so profound that only a catastrophe can bring about the political will which is required to initiate and carry out changes. Since these have not taken place, they are not able to influence the attitude of society as a whole. If there is no issue that society recognises as the effort of green parties, only marginal factors remain and they will not be able to position themselves as a relevant political force. The green movement, that appeared in the 1960-1970s as a counter-movement and announced an alternative, later adapted to Western systems, and instead of a radical transformation it proposed the reform of the system. When it was elected to parliaments, ecopolitics accepted the space of action provided by the democratic-liberal side, and the activity of the greens adheres to these boundaries. It is a historic fact that crises increase the power of the extremists. The green alternative can be the revolutionary force, which – adhering the democratic framework – can initiate changes through radical means. The aspects an ecological political organisation shall comply with: • Communities based on individual autonomy; the protection of personal freedom rights. • Co-operative, community-based society; localisation, decentralisation. • Consideration of non-material values, openness to spirituality. • Holistic, synthesising and integrating thinking. • Solidarity, equality, harmonious coexistence. • Non-violence, pacifism. • Sustainability, responsibility and self-discipline. • Volunteering, labour-intensive economy; science should serve the well-being of the people instead of the economy. • Participation and direct democracy (communities). • Use of renewable energy and reducing consumption. In the 1980s, in the spirit of the dominant neoliberalism, green thinkers also gave priority to reducing the size of government, involving a transformation of public services and pushing the decision-making mechanism from a centralised structure toward a network-based, decentralised co-operation. It is questionable whether in

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such a system the government can effectively intervene into processes, or it is only able to transform them, and it is also disputed if the centralised or the decentralised path of development is more efficient. There are positive and negative examples of both cases. Since the appearance of green thinking, the strategic issue of enforcing principles has always been dominant. Green principles can be enforced within the political system, step by step, or through the reform of the political system, with a complete transformation thereof. According to the “all or nothing” option, green reforms can only be implemented in a general and complete manner, with radical means. It is currently proven that despite a number of reforms launched and the necessary environmental programmes, orthodox economic principles have not changed profoundly and the crisis after 2008 has not affected these processes either. It is safe to say that we are in the middle of a process that will cause the criticism of the system to be removed from the theory of revolt, which is typical for the greens, and they will realise that the system as a whole can only be changed from within, by changing the entire system itself. The key to the green political revolution is to take political power that stems from crisis. This is also the greatest dilemma of the green movement: can they “smartly” give up the alternative for adapting within the boundaries of the political systems, or shall they build upon “outsider opposition” that is not limited by the current regime. We are talking about changes that cannot be implemented in the framework of the currently existing political-economic system and cannot count on the support of the majority either, so they remain the choice of a political minority. The feasible strategy of the green movement is to identify and motivate groups of society that are relatively independent and are able to lay down the foundations of a sustainable life. Researchers agree that the middle class is able to do that, so it is exactly the social group that is typically the strongest base of mass parties. So, we have to accept that this dilemma is currently unresolvable. According to this presumption, the forces of political ecology can only gain power in times of a crisis, when it might be too late already. Therefore, the concept of persuasion, the symbolic imagery, the definitive statement that makes people realise that they should think globally for the present and future generations, and act at the local level, controlling the activities of the local political elite strictly, all play a key role. Steps taken toward sustainability are implemented slowly in the framework of the system (and as I wrote in my assumption) they will initiate changes only to a limited extent, without adequate results. Efforts of the international community are ranked first, which has positioned environmental politics as increasingly important during the last decades, and through the concept of sustainable development it has also established the ability to consensually and flexibly modify it. National action and the importance of the government’s responsibility is ranked second. The government shall establish the levels of political-economic change, by providing system-level alternatives that provide the opportunity for ac-

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tions that are less harmful to the environment, at both an individual and a social level. The third and fourth ranks put the opportunity of actions into the hands of local communities, local politics (which I also consider key actors), in cases of, for instance, ensuring local energy supply, technological development, the introduction of a local currency, local producers, local trade. The politics of participation (considered so important for the political participation of ecopolitics) requires a radical redefinition of present institutions, instead of using them in a manner that would encourage participation. Seizing power from below assumes that holders of power pass on competences to the lower levels and accept the decisions made there. According to Andrew Dobson (2007), this is related to the realisation that the state is not able to fulfil all its duties related to subsystems of society, and thus it tries to outsource them or control them. As a tendency, this is analogous with the course of the neoliberal deconstruction of the state, which has generated serious disputes throughout the last decades. The participation of NGOs at the local level is primarily an opportunity for the greens, both from aspects of controlling the authority and from articulating a sustainable local society and economy. Participation in local decision-making is also an excellent opportunity to enforce global green values locally. Dobson systematically constructs the system of green thinking and action in his important book Green Political Thought. First, he asks whether it is political ecology that has an impact on the development of the green movement, or if it is the green movement that contributes to political economy gaining ground. According to Dobson, social changes and the appearance of the demand for green politcs enabled the greens to enter legislations and to become major actors of public life both as member of the parliament and outside the national legislative body. Although it faces constant challenges in the 21 st century, democracy enables the enforcement of partial social interests, as well. While radical greens consider partial interests more important than interests of society at large, claiming that human pettiness and selfishness would block executing changes that require restraint, moderate greens try to find the “golden mean”, involving restraint and the dilution of the original goals. This causes perpetual tension and division within the green movement, although even green theorists agree: the political implementation of the ecological thought may also involve antiliberal and antidemocratic means to avoid a catastrophe, at the levels of decision-making and execution as well. The “greenification” processes that have taken place during the last three decades support the assumption that the political dimension always involves consensual political actions and decision, in the Netherlands, Germany or in Austria, as well. If we approach the possible solutions free from ideology, from the viewpoint of the interaction of rational economics (environmental management) and environmental politics, we are going to see the more accurate, but not always ethical answers. The

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profit (and vote) maximising politicians tend to accept that the political and the economic sector can act to eliminate environmental problems together, but it is still questionable where NGOs stand in this process and what role they play. According to them, there is a need for fundamental change, especially in the field of economics. Locality (satisfying local demand), a clean environment and human health shall come before market values. The works of Ernst Schumacher4 or Erich Fromm consider ethics the integral part of economics. According to one view, technical innovation can contribute to reaching all this, because with a more just kind of distribution, capitalism established the conditions to “making things better”. Environment, health and free time have all become new spheres of competition for the business sector, and thus business entities also aim to comply with the demands of a more environmentally conscious society. Therefore they develop environmentally friendly products and they are forced to perform technological innovation constantly. Government initiatives and proceedings which primarily intend to persuade consumers through fiscal incentives or sanctions to act in an environmentally conscious way will not be efficient enough, and without internal motivation they cannot cause profound changes in the individual’s attitude. The introduction and spreading of environmentally conscious norms is the only means of strengthening sustainable consumption, consciousness and responsibility. Therefore, environmentalism and political ecology are two processes supplementing each other, in strong correlation, which can establish a space of action in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, influenced by political, cultural and economic impacts.

4.5. The issue of ecological citizenship The issue of consciousness of responsibility and obligations plays a key role in establishing social participation and persuading the public, which can be interpreted through the concept of ecological citizenship. Ecological citizenship means the obligation related to nature and the future generations, which is not based on mutuality. Literature in the field primarily considers ecological citizenship as the means of ensuring a greener future, which may mask the democratic sensitivity the citizenship can bring into politics related to nature. Researchers of green citizenship highlight the fact that the two definitions contradict each other completely. The liberal model considers citizenship a public law status, which ensures the citizenship, political and social rights of the holder. The civic conservative model emphasises the duties of the members of the community and also the virtue and practice of citizenship. Unlike radical greens, the followers of the liberal model try to avoid sustainability being the ultimate goal of citizenship, since they hold the pluralism of values in high regard. A further advantage of the liberal approach is that during the interpretation of laws, the range of subjects (affected by rights and obligations) can be expanded widely, and

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also that the actual contents of social rights are very important in liberal democracies. “Ecological citizens” also represent the interests of animals and the future generations, and they bring them in to the spheres of culture, regulations and constitutional rights. They think that there is a hierarchy of values, in which “universal ecological values or principles” (the preservation of biodiversity or the basic needs of future generations) are at a higher level than “specific ecological values” (such as the protection of certain species). According to the other approach, environmentalists argue for extending social rights, such as demanding that access to fresh air or clean water shall be a fundamental right. These examples show the extent greens have included liberal ideology and its approach emphasising rights into their own ideology, in order to provide answers to environmental problems. The issue of “common good” (which plays an important role in conservative tradition) supports the efforts of the greens to ensure that citizens refrain from being too selfish and the related impacts that are harmful to the environment. However, the viewpoint of greens is also divergent on how the issue of “natural world” can be accommodated in the humanist concept of the common good. According to their explanation, common good (which necessarily includes the natural environment as well) can only be maintained through the active practice of citizenship, which also involves commitment to activities that can maintain the common good in spite of the disruptive influence of selfishness.

5. “Green Communication” and Mediatization

Communication plays a major role in the life of the ecological movement for several reasons. Firstly, it possesses a key role in creating the collective consciousness and actions of the movement, secondly, it provides information which has an impact on the public at large and the political-economic sector as well, when it draws attention to issues related to the environment, regardless of their negative or positive associations. Different forms of communication, the special or unified use of communication channels can put new, previously unknown issues on the political agenda, or can transfer an already existing issue into a frame of reference ( framing) that can be grasped and understood by decision-makers and citizens as well. The exact message and communication channel that proves successful in a specific case depends on the circumstances, the actors, the target group and the type of the case. When the ecological argument is supplemented by other areas, by pragmatic elements that can affect people’s lives, prove sensible to them, which can be felt and lived, it becomes easier to transfer and will presumably become more efficient as well. Image 26. Eco-labels

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Strong imagery with an impact on feelings, genres of music, subcultures and common entertainment attitudes have a cohesive force that can create a common action potential that is present both at the local and global levels. In this sphere of action, symbols, slogans, protests again something and action for a purpose play a major role. Often less significant events and conflicts provoke a major impact, when a community (movement, group, organisation, etc.) successfully thematises them, upgrades them with a symbolic meaning, or translates them to the language of the followers/ sympathizers. It is quite common that values and beliefs related to the programme of a movement are not definitive even among potential supporters. In this case, the organisation of the movement is forced to extend the conceptual base related to its activity, or to persuade others about the importance of the values and the programme it represents. There are several options for this. The most well-known of these is the phenomenon of “changing arenas”, i.e. transferring the original conflict into another series of arguments, communicating it in an easier to understand form; and promotion which brings the problem closer to the people, through organising personal meetings, forums, street demonstrations, or conveys objectives with the assistance of celebrities, musicians, etc. Image 27. Recycle Sign

Communication has a major role in information and persuasion, as well. With displaying suggestive imagery or invoking such sound effects, pieces of music, such an emotional connection can be established via images (posters, leaflets, internet flash animations, memes) films, video clips that can convey positive (supportive), awareness-raising (often shocking) or negative (mobilising, attacking or opposing) messages to the public. As electronic media gained ground, a widened public space was created which could step beyond the narrow interactions of the printed press and established an entirely new communication space. It is not clear, however, that

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information will give birth to an open and constructive dispute, especially due to the imagery conveyed through commercial broadcasting, which blur the differences between real and fictitious worlds, create parallel universes and also limit the growth of the citizens’ awareness. Decision-makers and government bodies do not react meaningfully to events (such as protests or other actions of resistance), if they are not represented in the media, and it is also customary that the affected parties send messages to each other through the media instead of (or in addition to) personal negotiations. With the appearance of the Internet, the dynamism of exchanging messages takes places more rapidly, the online space is able to provide instant replies, and nowadays it also reaches more people than the print media. The degree of possible mediatization in case of unexpected, dramatically represented events defines the extent to which the public follows the event and the seriousness of reactions from politicians as well. Establishing and improving the collective identity, and also the identification of allies and foes in each case, as well as being a stakeholder in a conflict are important from the viewpoint of mobilisation in a movement. In addition to personal, individual and social experiences, from the late 20th century, media also play a major role in defining those. In case of a specific case, several properties shall be considered when examining the role of the media and co-operation with them. First, the flow of information shall be established within a specific group, and the Internet and modern telecommunication devices are effective means for that purpose. There has not been any simpler or faster communication channel available to people throughout the entire history. Viewpoints defined for a certain case shall be communicated to the public and to the media as well. Media presentation – the use of words and imagery, editing, colours, style – both have an impact on the acceptance of a case and its role on the political agenda. Thirdly, communication also has a great impact on how a movement/organisation/group is positioned, which defined the degree and extent of the attention they receive from political decision-makers. As an information system, the Internet also has a double function. It provides an alternative to the mainstream news of mass media, so it is able to present certain news elements from another viewpoint, to spread subjective opinions rapidly, to overwhelm the reader with an enormous, uncontrollable mass of information, and in addition to making information easier to access, it makes discernment harder (if there is such a thing). The question of the dependence of social movements on their representation on the Internet and in the electronic media is already very important. I do not subscribe to the argument (as seen in case of the events of the Arab Spring) that society is only a follower of the opportunities provided by the Internet, which strengthens the changes ongoing and the authority relationships existing in society. New social movements and the development of the Internet are organically intertwined, global networks still products of the 1990s. The spread of the Internet brought about the age

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of digital consumption, but those who have no Internet connection and access miss this opportunity. The “language of images” and the availability of images take over the place of speech, arguments and text to an increasing extent. The logic of the images, their relevance to each other, their messages – and also the likeliness of their credibility – define political communication in a new way. The style of entertaining visual impressions takes over the controlling function in political communication as well, thus decreasing the value of the explanatory argument style of communication. In the mediatized communication of the 21 st century, actors present themselves and their messages through aiming to convey feelings through those, which enable the easier, more reliable and foreseeable mobilization of the viewer than what is achieved merely through persuasive and explanatory arguments. The huge impact of mass media on public opinion, the dawn of the age of mediocrity means that the global media is not only the mirror of reality, but it also creates and shapes reality. The free operation of the media already modifies political processes in themselves. Therefore, the political processes of the democratic and constitutional state can only (and then) be understood, when we involve mass media and its role in modifying reality in the research. Politics and the media also typically represent ecological organisations as elements that prevent developments and hinder growth, highlighting imagery of a news value about protests, marches, clashes with the police. Partnership, participation in development policy and environmental initiatives garner much less attention than “scandals”. Since they wanted to change their not too positive image, greens created their own virtual representation rapidly, simultaneously with the appearance and spread of the Internet, which uses a unique, double symbolism, and often uses shocking imagery to call attention to the destruction of the environment and social injustices. This double symbolism is represented in the creation of group symbols, as a means of creating and establishing an internal identity (such as the peace sign, the radiation hazard warning sign or the symbols of plants and animals) that is characterised by opposite pairs. The most typical symbolic message forms: • Up- and devaluation, i.e. representing value hierarchies in the images (material world–natural world; built environment–natural environment; plastic world–objects made of organic materials, etc.). • The contrast of small–big; the small one is represented as weak and requiring protection, e.g. a flower, animal, etc. Members of the green movement are represented as elements fighting with much larger forces, symbolising the fight of David and Goliath – the struggle of green organisations against “enormous, invincible polluters”. It builds upon on the sense of sympathy for the small one (a reference to childhood), while in many cases the analogy of “small but strong” also appears, symbolising social power as well.

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• The contrast of useful–useless; this system typically ridicules and criticises consumer society and its useless objects. • The contrast of harmony–disharmony; it emphasises the difference between the natural and the transformed environment, disapproves destroying harmony, representation of strong imagery. Female symbols (Mother Earth, Gaia, etc.) and oriental representations (yin and yang, Buddhist, Taoist symbols) play a role in this context. Image 28. The image draws attention to the melting of the ice caps (the hour glass motif appears, symbolising the passing of time): “We are running out of time. Act before it is too late.”

Double conveyance – a proprietary, internal communication space and set of symbols – includes the natural or metaphorical representation of environmental destruction. The initial shocking imagery (which called for resistance) has been moderated during the last decade and started to prefer metaphorical, food for thought repre-

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sentations that also affect the average citizen who lives as ‘a’ part of the system (the consumer). The intention of enforcing interest has been highlighted, regardless of the target audience (average citizen or political decision-makers, economic operators). Greens consider mass communication a tool at both the global and the local levels, and they win it over to be on their side. They aim at mediatization, the colourful, exciting and brief representation of news, exploiting the effect of shocking and sometimes scandal. These all serve the purpose of enabling the public to rapidly understand and receive information, and to think about the problem and solution thereof. Image 29. The image confronts us with deforestation, using a chessboard to symbolise the struggle of nature and the people destroying it.

Information and the supply of information to the public are also tools, playing a major role in establishing environmental consciousness, in addition to raising awareness. This effort is based on the role of emotions, and they use an imagery that provides the sense of easy identification, empathy and solidarity in the reader, viewer or online user (“the everyman”), even if the issue is distant and they have never experienced it personally.

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy | 67 Image 30. Poster of the PETA global animal protection organisation: “Help stop the cruel seal hunt”.

During the 1990s, the business sector also realised (albeit only at a rhetorical level) the shift in the social attitude, the development of environmental consciousness, the spread of environmentally friendly products and the importance of protecting the environment. It took efforts to adapt to the demands and turned its products “greener”, establishing a green brand image. It is hard to find a single definition to the concept of greenwashing. Greenpeace tried to define it like this: 1. The attempt of destructive, socially harmful corporations to keep or extend their markets, acting like they were environmentally friendly, giving the impression that they consider the fight against environmental harm important. 2. Any attempt to form the opinions of consumers or decision-makers, seeking to make them presume that large polluting corporations are the key to the environmentally sustainable development. Series of marketing strategies that give the impression to the consumer that a corporation acts responsibly and behaves in an environmentally conscious manner.

Greenwashing presumes that the company does not take meaningful steps (or not to the adequate extent) toward a more environmentally friendly way of production or service, and it rather spends the expenses of transformation on advertising. The untrue or partially “green” branding is used for further destructive activities and maximising profit. Another common practice is the use of so-called “NGOs” that campaign against the arguments of environmental groups, representing the interests of the industry, and they cite scientists for their cause who argue against the fact of climate change or the risks of GMO products. During the 15 years since 2000, the

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volume of green commercials has increased 40-fold, faster than in case of any other sector. All these efforts have the objective of companies avoiding the introduction of regulations on limiting activities that are harmful to the environment. Image 31. Poster of a well-known soft drink company, during the climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. The hopeful international public had great hopes regarding the negotiations in Copenhagen. A bottle of hope, the poster announces. “Look behind the green paint” – an unknown protester added. (Photo taken by the author)

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Nowadays, the attitudes and conducts determining our behaviour are connected to the virtual environment and concern the relationships existing within that. They are unrelated to the physical environment which the urban citizen of the 21 st century typically does not even meet. For the “future” generation using the Internet and social networks, “techno and telemedia” offer almost everything required for their lives: knowledge, a living, entertainment, all these through messages from distant and uncontrolled sources, which are not explicitly targeted to them, but to “anyone”. There is one thing these sources cannot provide: identity. Their identity is based on self-assured orientation in a limited social space which is organised around familiar locations and persons; also on affected participation in the processes within there. So, we meet the well-known slogan again: “Think globally, act locally”. Image 32. Lungs of the Earth

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Image 33. Oil refinery, Texas, USA

Image 34. Sea pollution

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy | 71 Image 35. Save the Arctic campaign

6. The Theoretical Background of Environmental Politics

6.1. Introduction In the last decades one of the most spectacular social and political recognitions was the significant impact of human activity on the state of the Earth. After the late 1960s it became obvious that the development of technology/industry/economy, originally thought to be limitless, drastically changes our natural environment, pollutes our waters, soils and changes our climate. Researchers involved in the complex range of problems, focused during the 1960s on analysing and managing the increasing apparent demographic problems and the troubles of the developing world, while the 1980s and the 1990s were mostly about solving the burning environmental and social anomalies. A lot of high quality works were created on the impact of mankind on the planet, from the works of the Club of Rome since 1968, The Limits to Growth written by Mrs. and Mr. Meadows, to the works of the UN Conference of 1972 in Stockholm, and then the activities of the Brundtland Commission during the 1980s. The commission (established within the framework of the UN) performed pioneering work, since it was the first to define the principle of sustainable development arguing, that “it is the kind of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” At the United Nations Conference of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable development has already become a main buzzword and started to be an orientation point for policy planning principles. The optimistic international atmosphere after the end of the Cold War accepted and acknowledged that although capitalism and democracy have “defeated” communism, the majority of the issues affecting the entire humanity remained unresolved, and broke to the surface with an elementary force. The concept of sustainable development and the different paths of achieving it were manifested in general programmes, as they were also included in the declarations of the Rio Summit. Sustainability became a landmark point, an unavoidable requirement, so it is no wonder that different types of organisations also started pursuing it (governments, the business sector, green and anti-globalisation movements, etc.). Therefore, it is no surprise that complex explanations developed around the concept.

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6.2. The types of environmental politics Similarly to sustainable development, environmental protection also has several different definitions and explanations. I would like to highlight one of these. According to the general definitions, “environmental protection is the conscious, organised, institutionalised human (social) activity that aims to alleviate and prevent the harmful effects of mankind’s industrial, agricultural, mining activities, in order to ensure the persistence of nature and humans without damage”. Accordingly, the most important tasks of environmental protection include: • pre-damage protection; • elimination of the damage caused; • improving the environment; • and the rational management of natural resources.

We simultaneously recognised that environmental protection as a necessary government/social action cannot be meaningfully interpreted as a policy, it cannot be an isolated sector in society. Environmental problems affect all other sectors (economy, healthcare, education, development policy, etc.) in some way, and therefore, the answers to such challenges shall also cover the entire range of government policies – the environmental protection approach shall be represented in each sector. In order to stop (or at least to slow down) the pace of destroying the environment, a complex, long-term strategy is required, which often opposes the current economic interests. Its task is to counter short-term government policies/interests, for the purpose of sustainable development, ecological stability and the protection of natural resources. These long-term strategies shall be defined in a manner that ensure the clarity of the responsibilities and duties of every social-economic level, in addition to the role of the individual. Environmental politics is responsible for the execution and co-ordination of this complex, long-term, multi-step strategy, and the national level “mobilisation” of those. Although it is a government policy, it is important to emphasise (which poses a challenge to decision-makers) that environmental politics cannot be a simple strict listing of objectives and means. Environmental politics shall be the most flexible and dynamic, as the location and the time enables it. An elementary criterion of environmental politics is flexibility. This means that the regulator shall consider local requirements and the dynamic changes thereof during the creation of rules. In order to avoid that environmental politics would only consist of boastful promises and desires, it is important to accurately know the elements of the economic-polluter chain.

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In case these analyses are made for certain areas (for countries in the simplest case) and the specific environmental policies based on the analyses, the environmental politics drafted can be divided into four main groups: These are the following: • healing environmental politics • impact-oriented environmental politics • source-oriented environmental politics • structure shifting, preventive environmental politics

Healing environmental politics focuses on impacts, and therefore, it has a strong “responsive” character. Its most important objective is alleviating the already occurred damage. This type of approach is typically the most expensive and the least effective. Although damage caused to the built environment can be somewhat alleviated, destroyed buildings and monuments can be restored, but their original cultural-artistic-historic message will not be the same anymore, and this is also much harder to achieve with nearly extinct plant and animal species. The essence of impact-oriented environmental politics is trying to improve environmental quality and the state of emissions, ensuring that meanwhile output is not reduced. This basically means technical tools, such as improving the air condition of the cities with bypass roads, or reducing the noise generated by roads through construction noise-reduction walls. So, the emphasis is not on blocking or reducing events that cause damage to the environment, but on reducing the negative impacts on the living conditions they cause. The means and methods of source-oriented environmental politics are the most widespread. Its objective is to reduce the emission of harmful substances. Classic examples include filters installed in chimneys, water purifiers, etc. The advantage is that in case of significant pollution it can produce serious results, providing the sense of success to the community. There is a further (economic) advantage: depending on the technology, it can contribute to recovering useful substances (e.g., utilisation of waste oil). Its disadvantage is that the underlying technology remains polluting, leading to two consequences: different type of filtering equipment will always cause extra expenses, and the affected parties will try to avoid the system. It is still true that filters will not eliminate pollutants; rather they only collect those, transforming them into concentrated hazardous waste, which requires further treatment actions. The aim of structure shifting, preventive environmental politics is to steer the entire society toward sustainability. It is the transformation of every system and the micro and macro structures of society, economy and politics, which ensure “different operation” in the long run. Obviously, this type of environmental politics receives the

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most positive rating, but its implementation requires enormous social co-operation and a compliant political will, which is very rarely present in the world.

6.3. The principles of environmental politics The research and theory work on environmental protection and politics launched in the 1960s established a unified (albeit constantly changing) theoretical framework by the early 1990s, which went on to become officially recognised by the European Community (European Union) and through the conferences and decrees of the UN. The Stockholm Conference in 1972 made the development of environmental regulations faster in member states, and in 1973 the EC launched the First Environment Action Programme (1973-76), which was then followed by five others. Based on these programmes, approximately 200 laws were promulgated, dealing with preventing the pollution of air, soil and waters; waste management; safety regulations affecting chemicals and biotechnology; product standards; the evaluation of environmental impacts; and the protection of nature. The wording in these laws may naturally be different, but their contents and subjects are very similar. The strategic objective of domestic environmental politics is to define the long-, medium- and short-term environmental goals of the countries and the tools of achieving them, considering the country’s circumstances, its social and economic development, and obligations related to international and EU memberships. The principles of environmental politics: • Sustainable development As mentioned earlier, sustainable development merges the preservation of environmental values and the rights of the future generation, aiming to reach balance between improving human living standards and protecting the values of the environment.

• The principle of precaution As mentioned at the beginning of our narrative, as human activities extended and as social and geographical division of labour intensified, environmental risks increased to an unseen extent, and the environmental impact of new production technologies is still not exactly understood. Typical examples include the management of chemicals or nuclear materials, and the unforeseeable future risks related to them. • The principle of prevention The promotion of the prevention principle is (would be) the next major step toward sustainability. On the one hand, the truth is that prevention is always more economical then subsequently conducted intervention, on the other hand, in case of environ-

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mental values, the original state often simply cannot be restored. The principle of prevention should mean that environmental aspects are already considered during the economic-technical-technological planning phase and steer the specific developments toward sustainability. • Partnership On the one hand, this means a partner relationship between different levels of public administration, invoking subsidiary solutions, the involvement of municipalities (local governments) and their associations in decision-making, and it also means partnership with the private sector and co-operation with NGOs. Environmental protection shall be a common affair of the government and the private sector (companies, farmers, NGOs), because a good system cannot operate without mutual trust. A practical example: the options of participation for farmers shall be extended within environmental protection, and systems of incentives shall be established for this purpose. • Due care The subject of environmental protection (as mentioned above) basically contradicts short-term economic interests, so certain environmental tasks cannot be connected to market mechanisms. Therefore, the government shall act as an owner, undertake reliability and engage in exemplary behaviour. This can be performed the most efficiently, if the subject of environmental protection is specified accurately: environmental problems typically arise first locally, therefore, the role of the local level is extremely important in managing them, through participation and intervention.

6.4. Different national models of environmental politics Four typical national models of implementing environmental politics have evolved throughout the years. These four types represent the specific regulations forms, techniques and traditions distinctively. 1. The predominance of government regulation (French model) Typical for developed and well-trained administrative systems, its archetype is the highly centralised government operating in France. Since a well-trained public administration is highly informed, the system enables this organisation to handle regulations, especially through imposing taxes and specifying norms. 2. Reconciliation of interests, stakeholder involvement (English model) Compared to the previous model, the English model supports more subsidiary solutions. It rejects top-down regulation, and practical solutions are developed through the involvement of local stakeholders, by way of compromise. This model created

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successful methods, followed by the European Union as well, such as the BAT5, or “voluntary agreement” system.

3. Government regulation with involving the industry (German model) This model is very similar to the French example and can be considered a mutation thereof. Accordingly, taxes and norms also play a key role in this case. Also, in this model, the industrial-professional chambers (which are quite strong in Germany) play a key role. Government regulation greatly relies on the opinions of these organisations, and this also has long traditions in the region.

4. Government regulation and competition (American model) This is also a mixed model, with the elements of the French and British examples. The United States is unique in the sense that a high level of freedom in market economy, and strict federal regulation are both present at the same time. In practice, this causes market-based competition within the framework specified by the authorities. 6.5. The means of environmental politics In case of the means of environmental politics and the regulation of environmental protection, the “polluter pays principle” is typically very popular. In the economic sense this means that macroeconomic impacts generated within the framework of the market economy (i.e. environmental damage) can be transformed into corporate costs. This converts pollution into costs of the company. The aim of the environmental regulation is to enable business associations to engage in activities in a way that ensures that the state of the environment remains adequate on the long term and certain environmental quality standards are followed by everyone. Research works on environmental politics typically define 10 criteria of a good environmental protection regulation, which are the following: • The state of the environment shall improve, or at least not deteriorate. To this end, it is necessary to define the acceptable level of pollution. • Polluting activities of business organisations shall be monitored and measured. • Sanctions should be imposed on those who fail to meet the standards. • Sanctions shall be specified in a way that encourages businesses to invest in more modern investments (innovation) and to switch to environmentally friendly technologies. • The specific environmental quality should be achieved with the lowest possible social cost. • Regulation shall take into account that markets are not perfect anywhere and the environmental policies should comply with mechanisms of other areas of the economy.

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• It shall be politically acceptable. • It shall be flexible, i.e. able to adhere to changing economic circumstances. • It shall be clear: in a too complex regulatory system, the obstacles of implementation damage efficiency. • It shall also play a role in accumulating resources, create a financing fund for the provision of certain environmental activities, and (what is even more important) it shall guide business organisations.

Obviously, these criteria are quite complex already. Probably no country in the world can ensure that all these aspects are enforced simultaneously, but every country has the duty to aim at complying with them. The most popular type is direct, normative regulation. It aims to reach environmental politics objectives through the impact of constraint, in the forms of authority regulations and legislation. Historically, these methods have long preceded economic regulation, and they are also traditional in Hungary. Direct regulation is basically based on four norms, which are the following: • Objectives: goals related to environmental quality, established through the political decision of a community or society, based on common agreement. Since this is a political decision and not scientific measurement, it can be grotesquely different how each country considers a state of hygiene or environmental quality critical or acceptable. • Criteria: specifying certain technical parameters based on the defined objectives, in case of the use of certain environmental elements. E.g. water is considered potable if the concentration of certain pollutants does not exceed a specified value. • Emission (environmental quality norms): They define the volume of contaminants certain environmental elements (soil, air, water) can contain for a specified period or in the long run, without endangering wildlife or causing an adverse ecological effect. It defines the environmental norm specifically for the region, regardless of the ability of the locally operating polluters to comply with the requirement. In addition to the volume of contamination, the amount of emission is also influenced by certain geographical factors (atmospheric conditions, velocity of water flow, etc.) and the effect certain pollutants have on each other. E.g. smog alert plans are based on such scientifically defined norms. • Emission standards (norms): The volume of pollutants to be emitted is specified per each chimney or plant of the pollution sources. Environmental quality can actually be regulated through emission standards. When defining them, emission should be used as a starting point and allowed volumes should be calculated scientifically using spread models.

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There are three major groups of normative regulation. The first one (obligations, prohibitions) is practically a group of authority regulative measures, which consider pollution exceeding a specified norm unlawful, and impose taxes or fines on the producing person or organisation. Another form of authority regulation is the licensing process. When new corporations are established, the project plans and the applied technologies need to undergo a licensing procedure at the affected authority, which may also require the preparation of environmental impact assessment. The essence of regulation based on emission standards defines the maximum allowed volume of pollution, rather than distributing this total volume among the facilities. So, in this case, the emission of the specific sources does not have be specified. However, this third group equals with an extraordinarily radical form of regulation, because it only focuses on pollution, and does not care about the practical possibility of the limitation it specifies, neither the technical possibilities. In addition to this, emission does not consider different natural conditions either (different winds, topography, different pollution for each municipality for such reasons). Emission standards are defined for the specific product unit or technology, and this type of regulation proved to be very popular. However, it can also be dangerous because it may conflict with the interests of potential polluters: when a more modern, newer solution is found to reduce pollution, it will drive the authorities to make standards more stricter (due to social pressure), claiming that an even more environmentally friendly technology is available to the producers, and if they fail to adapt it, they will be fined. But this will create a “cartel of silence” where producers will simply hide new developments. In summary, advantages of direct regulation include: • Instructions, prohibitions are clear, so the expected reactions are also foreseeable. • Controlling compliance with regulations is simple. • Their introduction leads to achieving results relatively quickly. In summary, disadvantages of direct regulation include: • hardships of specifying the standards; different national regulations, • relatively high administrative costs (fragmented regulatory systems, licensing procedures, etc.), • constant social-political issues/problems related to the regulation (such as the collision of the financial and the NGO lobbies in case of introducing stricter or looser regulations), • lack of incentives for developing environmental protection activities,

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• environmental use is free of charge for those who pollute below the specified standard.

Indirect or economic regulation emphasises economic interests instead of the previously detailed direct instructions, and it tries to steer business organisations toward a more environmentally conscious behaviour based on the former. This methodology incentivises more and proves to be more flexible than the normative regulation. The introduction of indirect regulation forms has become unavoidable when it turned out that negative environmental impacts are clearly associated with business processes. It is worth noting at this point that although normative regulation possesses several advantages, it is unable to actually influence polluting behaviour or to change social values in the long run. “Because through traditional solutions, damages caused to society or any other community other than the polluter are not represented as costs influencing the financial evaluation of the polluting activity and its efficiency.” The essence of such regulation is the following: access to the user of the environment and the process of feedback, through market sanctions and the judgement of the business sector. As mentioned before, such market tools aim to include environmental requirements in the conditions of market criteria and business activities. This is obviously a long-term process, but it may enable a fundamental change of the economic-social structure.

6.6. Municipal aspects of environmental politics Policy planning has become one of the most important aspects of development policy decision-making in the 21st century. At municipality level, this includes the areas of infrastructure, natural and built environment, energy supply and transportation. Although to a different degree, each and every development has an impact on the environment, so development policy planning cannot be separated from environmental policy decisions. Environmental politics does not only affect environmental issues, it is also connected to every decision-making process and policy planning activity, where environmental or environmental protection issues are affected, including preventive, living conditions improving or adaptation measures. So, regarding this approach, environmental politics is not only an independent policy field, but also a system that synthesises certain segments of fellow policies and implements concerns of environmental politics in them. The impact of the policy means constantly invoked in case of municipal development, present at the national, municipal, NGO and corporate levels, is appreciable in every segment nowadays. Environmental planning does not only mean the promulgation of laws, it is rather a complex planning system that connect decision related to international obligations with local opportunities, and aims to review different aspects at the same time.

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Among the aspects of development and planning, principles of environmental politics are typically represented as the minimum requirements set forth in law, in cases where there is no extra funding available for the purpose (selective waste collection bins, construction of bypass roads, downtown traffic restrictions, distribution of composting boxes, dog waste containers, park-building and lawn construction activities, etc.). However, if financing can also be linked to environmental investments, the prevalence of environmental aspects can become more important for the local residents, as well. Extra funding may not only be provided by the government or the municipality, but by business organisations and NGOs, too. Ideas are often implemented through co-operation, the joint work of the municipality, corporations and NGOs, in case of e.g. green playgrounds or the renovation of parks, or also of environmental and animal protection events. Image 36. Community garden in Budapest

As mentioned before, subsidiarity is one of the main principles of environmental politics. In this regard, ideally every issue or task related to the protection of the environment shall be managed at the lowest level possible, which is the level of municipalities (local governments) in public administration. In this context, in the implementation of environmental politics municipalities basically have two kinds of tasks: The first role is difficult to define, it is “due care”. By supporting and keeping environmental issues on the agenda, municipalities have to convey to the local residents

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the importance of such issues, and the existence of values in their direct vicinity. Second, local level communication is also very important: truly useful and best practices can be developed through local thinking and action. These methods cannot be forced upon a community from the top, the development of these techniques may only be achieved by constant communication at the same level. In order to support these, the municipality creates environmental protection plans, which primarily concern the areas of water management, energy, green areas, air quality and living conditions. Through responsible environmental politics thinking, a municipality can achieve serious results at the local level. Image 37. Bicycle road

The following types of municipal tasks exist: • Compliance with and enforcement of authority regulations. • Optional tasks of the municipal governments related to the environment (urban development, environmental concepts, preparation of programmes, water management, stormwater drainage, sanitation, public transportation, promotion of healthy lifestyles, etc.). • Mandatory requirements of the municipal governments related to the environment (providing healthy drinking water, sanitation tasks).

Pursuant to the national environmental protection programmes, in addition to the analysis of the status of the environment, general environmental plans also had to include environmental goals, developments implemented to achieve goals, regulatory, monitoring and evaluation tools, and the planned financial resources.

84 | Viktor Glied • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The municipal environmental protection programme typically covers these topics: environmental assessment of the situation and situation analysis; air pollution reduction measures; noise maps and noise protection; green space management; municipality sanitation; water supply; storm water management; municipal wastewater treatment; waste management; energy management; transportation and freight management; nature and landscape protection; environmental education and information; social participation, involvement of the residents; controlling environmental hazards and pollution (prevention).

The principle of sustainability requires the municipalities to reasonably and sparingly manage land, agricultural land and biologically active surfaces. The harmonious development of municipalities, the enforcement of sustainability aspects and their promotion through municipal development and planning means play an increasingly important role in the policies of international organisations and the EU, as well. This is represented in the EU’s Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment, the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities (2007), the Budapest Declaration approved during the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2011, and the objective of “increasing the sustainability of EU cities” in the 7 th Environment Action Programme.

Sustainable Development, Political Ecology and Environmental Policy | 85 Image 38. Solar system on the roofs

Integrated urban development policy based on the strategy is the key precondition of implementing any community sustainable development strategy, and as such, it requires a complex approach, during which local circumstances, specifics, needs and social demands all have to be considered. Urban development interventions contribute, on the one hand, to shaping the vision of the city’s future, to establishing regional dynamics, to increasing attractiveness, and on the other hand, to solving the social-economic problems of the city and thus to developing specific action plans. The highlighted representation of cities in development policy is justified by their key role in defining the competitiveness of their regions. However, the principle of sustainability in the social-economic-environmental sense shall also be present as a major aspect in urban development, and it requires an integrated approach in urban politics. The contribution of cities to economic growth is primarily applied in a polycentric, co-operative urban network of development poles, a network that creates a living tissue between the city and its environment. While county capitals typically functions as traditional poles and urban centres, and define the possibilities and development paths of their vicinity, middle-sized cities play an important role in establishing a spatial balance and increasing their own spatial organisation ability.

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Middle-sized cities can be considered the centres of economic development, as they play a very important role between regional centres and small towns, and they have a major role in stimulating rural and often peripheral, underdeveloped regions or decreasing their rate of falling behind. The polycentric approach development patterns affect small towns and middle-sized cities as the carriers of actual functional hierarchies: “the development of less important areas is subordinated to the development of metropolis regions”; “small towns and middle-size cities are evaluated through the lens of metropolitan development concepts, and their existence is based on whether they can adapt to the order defined by urban areas”. In rural areas, convergence-related development has two major directions: increasing the regional service and organisation role of their central functions, with special regard to developing services provided to their region; and also improving accessibility. Image 39. Tree planting in Philippines

One of the means of enforcing the right to a healthy environment is the spatial planning activity performed by municipalities. Pursuant to the affected legislation, the objective of municipal development and planning is to establish a spatial plan ensuring sustainable development and the high quality of the environment in order to improve the living conditions of the residents and the competitiveness of the municipality; to improve and protect natural, landscape and architectural values; and to promote the reasonable and environmentally friendly use of resources.

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Notes

1 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. http://www.undocuments.net/our-common-future.pdf 2 http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ 3 Non-governmental organization 4 According to economist Ernst Schumacher, the most important task ahead of humanity is to leave the current inescapable path. This is a task for everybody. They have to understand problems clearly and shall consider the option to establish a new way of life, a lifestyle that plans ahead for a long term. It is not enough to be clever, wisdom is also important. (Schumacher, 1991) 5 In summary, Best Available Techniques means techniques and methods that are the most efficient in preventing or reducing environmental load.

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List of Pictures

1. Air pollution http://www.airbetter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/AIR-POLLUTION.jpg

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2. Water pollution http://urbanupdate.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/22.pollution1.jpg

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4. Acid rain effect http://earthuntouched.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fi3-1728x800_c.jpg

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3. Population boom 10 http://www.geography.hunter.cuny.edu/~tbw/ncc/Notes/Chapter6.pop/Chapter6. pop/ave.world.pop.change.jpg

5. Drylands http://www.unccd.int/PublishingImages/UNCCD/Arid-zones-forests.jpg

6. Vanishing of Lake Chad http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/jpg/0281-lakechad-EN.jpg

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7. Deforestation http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1999024/images/o-PALM-OIL-facebook.jpg

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9. Conflicts on natural sources

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8. Greenhouse effects 14 http://www.deutschesklimaportal.de/SharedDocs/Bilder/EN/Topics/greenhouse_ effect.jpg?__blob=normal 10. Population related map

11. Rachel Carson: Silent Spring

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12. Portrait of Aurelio Peccei 13. Sign of the Club of Rome

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14. Covers of The Limits to Growth

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16. Cover of the book: Our Common Future

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15. Portrait of Gro Harlem Brundtland

17. Chernobyl 1986 http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/chernobyl25/c02_05010183.jpg

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18. Bhopal 1984 25 http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/06/07/article-1284623-005B2ACF00000258841_468x337.jpg 19. Disaster of Exxon Valdez 1989

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21. Selective garbage

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20. Amartya Sen 32 ht t p://w w w.t hehindu.com/mult imedia/dy namic/00921/ V BK-A M A RT YA _ SEN_921820f.jpg 22. Electric cars http://savalinews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Electric-Cars.jpg

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24. Huge bike storage in the Netherlands

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26. Eco-labels

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23. Bike rental in Dublin 25. The Sustainable City 27. Recycle Sign

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28. The image draws attention to the melting of the ice caps (the hour glass motif appears, symbolising the passing of time): “We are running out of time. Act before it is too late.” 65 29. The image confronts us with deforestation, using a chessboard to symbolise the struggle of nature and the people destroying it 30. Poster of the PETA global animal protection organisation: “Help stop the cruel seal hunt”

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31. Poster of a well-known soft drink company, during the climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. The hopeful international public had great hopes regarding the negotiations in Copenhagen. A bottle of hope, the poster announces. “Look behind the green paint” – an unknown protester added 68 32. Lungs of the Earth http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/wwf_lungs

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34. Sea pollution

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33. Oil refinery, Texas, USA

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35. Save the Arctic campaign by Greenpeace

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36. Community garden in Budapest

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37. Bicycle road

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39. Tree planting in Philippines

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38. Solar system on the roofs 40. Biogas plant

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