INDIA’S INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO UNITE

NATIONS

STUDY GUIDE

COMMITTEE: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT

AGENDA: SUSTAINABLE LIVING IN A WORLD OF

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the main international

Their purpose is to offer management and inspire partnership in being concerned for the
surroundings with the aid of inspiring, informing, and allowing countries and peoples to
enhance their first-class lifestyles without compromising that of destiny generations.

Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, they work by their divisions in addition to their regional,
liaison, and out-published workplaces and a developing community of taking part centers of
excellence. They additionally host numerous environmental conventions, secretariats, and
inter-business enterprise coordinating bodies.

They categorize work into seven vast thematic areas: weather change, failures and conflicts,
surroundings management, environmental governance, chemical substances and waste, useful
resource efficiency, and surroundings beneath neath review. In all of our work, we hold our
overarching dedication to sustainability.

We additionally host the secretariats of many vital multilateral environmental agreements and
studies bodies, bringing collectively countries and the environmental network to address the
finest demanding situations of our time.

INTRODUCTION

How our lifestyle affects our sustainability?

The increasing growth of the human population and the degradation of natural resources such
as water, trees, fish, and fossil fuels are all threats to environmental sustainability. Increased
economic growth and industrialization place strain on the environment, resulting in pollution
and habitat destruction. The climate is influenced by a variety of factors. GHG pollution,
deforestation, and other factors are among them. Both of these are related to human activities
on the planet. In today’s time, we humans focus on a very modern lifestyle without focusing
on how we are destroying the resources. We wish to use high-power devices without
sustainably using them.
According to the 2006 Sustainable Lifestyles Innovation Brief, everyone on the planet will
need five planets to consume resources in the same amounts and rates as those in North
America. Developed countries have the greatest access to energy and thus have the greatest
environmental effects. 86 percent of resource use is accounted for by 20% of the population.
Sustainability is not only a concern for the environment but also the economy. Not only do
we have access to the majority of the planet's natural resources, but we also have access to
the majority of the planet's economic resources, such as education and healthcare. Sixty
percent of people in the global south lack access to basic sanitation, and 25% lack proper
housing. According to a business perspective, future profits (and long-term viability) will
come from making healthier, safer, smarter lifestyles possible, as well as building the
infrastructure and policies that will enable the necessary changes. There are choices available
to individuals. Companies should strive to save energy and water, consume more plants and
less meat, and clean with environmentally friendly goods.

CIRCLES OF SUSTAINABILITY
What are sustainable lifestyles?
Living sustainably in our daily lives means being vigilant and aware of how we deal with our
home appliances, commutes, shopping trips, and other activities. It requires reducing our
spending habits, whether they are financial or energy-related, to protect and develop our
climate. It's accepting the fact that certain resources are limited. Otherwise, our planet would
be depleted if we continue to live at unsustainable levels. Some things that come under a
sustainable lifestyle are:
● Extending the life of things
● Eco-improving our home
● Cooking sustainable & healthier food
● Choosing eco-products & services
● Traveling sustainably
● Setting up & using resources in your community.
● Comparing energy use within the community
● Using & future-proofing outdoor spaces
● Being part of improving the environment, etc.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, if the global population exceeds
9.6 billion people by 2050, “the equivalent of nearly three planets...will be needed to provide
the natural resources required to support current lifestyles.” Some global megatrends require
sustainability in our lifestyles: Population trends and urbanization, Climate change and
health, Economic Growth, jobs, time, and wellbeing, Accumulation of “stuff” and marketing,
Technological and social innovation, etc.

What are the Challenges and Opportunities for a Sustainable Lifestyle?

We must understand that the issue of sustainability is more about quality than quantity. There
are a few common and huge challenges such as the increasing population, climate changes,
technological changes, modern changes, etc. But some subjective problems need to be
addressed first:
● Conceptualizing and implementing sustainable lifestyles are difficult tasks. Even
though there are many promising policies and practices, sustainable lifestyles are not
often considered holistically and frequently suffer from methods that place an
excessive focus on one strategy or theme.
 ● Problems like a zero-waste lifestyle and its awareness are global.
● Disposability, it's the root of all waste we generate in our lives and the methods of
disposing of the waste.
● Concepts like well-being and planetary limits aren't completely explored, the
consideration of urban middle-class lives remains prevalent, and thought is too often
based on traditional consumption realms such as buildings, household products, food,
mobility, and leisure.
● There are a variety of approaches for assessing healthy living strategies and activities,
but they are not widely used and are often complicated and time-consuming.
And many more challenges that are yet to come in front of us. But with challenges,
opportunities come home too:
● The challenge is to educate people across the globe about what is sustainable living
but the opportunity is to start educating and then and there telling them to implement
what they’ve learned.
● The challenge is to frame easier policies to ensure sustainable lives but the
opportunity is to implement the existing policies in a better way.
● The challenge is the non-availability of sustainable methods but the opportunity for us
is to explore more and bring the methods into existence.
● The challenge is to cover the prior destruction of resources due to our lifestyles but
the opportunity is to save our future,
We need to keep trying and many more opportunities are waiting for us out there.

The Principles of sustainable living are, effective land use and wildlife protection, sustainable
water usage, supporting local and organic foods, the use of sustainable materials, zero waste
and zero carbon, creating own healthy environment and realizing local cultural values.
 HISTORY
What is the origin of sustainability?

In its 1987 paper, "Our Common Future," the now-defunct World Commission on
Environment and Development is thought to have first described and popularized the
concept. The document, which was published by the United Nations and Oxford University
Press, sought to present environmental issues in the sense of political progress. The
emergence of the concept of sustainable development is linked to the industrial revolution.
Western cultures began to realize in the second half of the nineteenth century that their
economic and technological activities directly affected the world and social balance. Several
ecological and social issues have occurred around the world, raising awareness of the need
for a more sustainable model.

Sustainability Timelines

● 1954- On June 27, the first nuclear power plant to produce electricity for a power grid
was started in Obninsk, the Soviet Union adopting a sustainable approach.
● 1962- "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson is published, and it is widely regarded as a
watershed moment in our perception of the interconnections between the
environment, the economy, and social well-being.
● 1972- The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was created (UNEP). The
numerous ties between the global environment and development needs were
addressed for the first time.
 ● 1973- Small Is Beautiful, written by British economist E. F. Schumacher in 1973,
expressed environmentalism's concerns about waste, population growth,
consumerism, and the loss of scarce resources.
● 1992- Rio de Janeiro hosted the Earth Summit, a United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development.
● 2002- In Johannesburg, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held.
● 2007- Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) and
the public’s attention towards climate change increased
● 2015- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted by the UN member
states in 2015.

Declaration that aimed for the Future that We Want

The declaration on sustainable growth and a green economy, The Future We Want, was
adopted on June 19, 2012, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in
Rio de Janeiro. The Declaration has strong sustainability goals in the areas of poverty
eradication, food security, and agriculture energy sustainability. Cities for Sustainable
Transportation Health and Population, as well as Promoting Full and Productive
Employment. It demanded that international Sustainable Development Goals be negotiated
and adopted by the end of 2014. It also called for a UN resolution to improve and consolidate
UNEP financially and institutionally so that it can properly disseminate environmental
information and provide countries with capacity building.

CURRENT SCENARIO

The Insatiable Hunger of Unsustainable consuming

Human beings have needs and wants, we are vile and needy creatures, we use, look and
perceive things as per our needs. Every December, the streets of New York city are filled with
joyous celebrations of the Holy Festival, Christmas, every house has the feeling of giving and
sharing and being kind to everyone, but what are they giving to the environment? In America
every year due to Christmas Celebrations each american increases their average yearly
emissions footprint1 to 650 kg of Co 2 and spending approximately 2.6 billion dollars on just
wrapping paper, this is not a tradition as when referred to some 150 years ago, a present was
rarely wrapped in a fancy sheet and this doesn't have a religious value, this trend only started
when unofficial holidays like Black Friday and Macys started to encourage with technology
and pretty little trinkets which saw it as a means of expression, care and love. What was
supposed to instill feelings like that of love and the sense of giving now symbolises
materialistic things and is commonly practiced because of propaganda, personal desire, social
pressure and status upheaval or signalling not this does not result in personal well being but
only fills the pocket of corporations. Ample amount of research and studies show that once a
person’s needs are met, extra consumption does not increase satisfaction or the well being of
a person, materialistic this do not have an emotional, psychological or mental value but they
do have an economic price tag. Till date, 71% of global emissions are solely due to just 100
companies. An average american uses 100 times an energy when compared to someone from
India and the lifestyle of a German is in a much much worse condition when related to the
Environment. It is our as a World, a Nation, a Community, a Family’s responsibility to not be
included in this rattrap, as green tags and labels by companies are nothing but a hoax, we
wear branded dresses, expensive watches and leather shoes, for what? To feel happy? To feel
confident? To look good? No, we wear these to impress and maintain a repo in society whose
limits we don't even set, clothes protect us from weather and is sometime a religious covering
but more than that, this is nothing but a hoax, majority of billionaires wear simple tees and
shirt, taking example of Mark Zuckerbers, they have much more conscience than us, being in
the same market and seeing this things everyday. To build as a world every individual should
think as a world, for the world, to the world not to his/her family/ community or society, as
time is only what's constant, we come and we fade away very easily, I am no one, We are
everyone, but the most important thing is that “I” makes “We”.

ENVIRONMENTAL SDGs

1
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/emission-footprint
How to make Sustainable Consuming a Trend?

It is not only an individual's responsibility to minimise and assess their consumption but also
a company’s corporate responsibility to the environment to take care of the environment. In
Fact the whole idea of personal carbon footprint is a propaganda campaign created by the
Fossil Fuel Giant BP, one of the World’s largest Oil and Gas Company, this allowed them to
lock decades of fossil fuel use and turned the attention away from their complicity in Climate
change and they blamed the individual for not living the Low Carbon Lifestyle and not
Buying the right thing. We have to understand that Growth leads to two things, more
renewable energy on one hand and on the other hand, it leads to more fossil fuel energy. We
as the United Nations Environment programme need to work upon creating a guideline for
Companies that will help the environment as Environment is only what's to be left, but we
will fade with time.
Analysing the current situation of the world right now

In 2009, In the plan “Green Growth” South Korea shifted 2% of its GDP ( approx 38.1 billion
US Dollars ) to Environmental Projects with the aim to create 1 million green job in just 5
years, this was to spur growth in a slumping economy which would also result as to being
beneficial for the environment as it would reduce Carbon Emissions, there were the massive
investments in clean energy, railway expansions and energy efficiency. The plan seemed to
have the right input and in the beginning years worked and created the required employment
which resulted to higher economic status to people and South Korea became a stronger
economy than before but with respects to the environment, considerably the most important
part, the plan failed, from 2009 to 2014, South Korea’s emissions rose 11.8%, what happened
here? Why didn't this strategy work?

What South Korea was basically trying to do was decoupling emissions from growth but this
is not enough and is indeed incredibly difficult. The reason for the increased emission was
because the total Energy Consumption outpaced renewable installation and energy efficiency
projects.

SUGGESTED MODERATED CAUCUSES

1. How can we aim towards a feasible sustainable lifestyle, considering the challenges
faced?
2. How tackle the problem of insatiable Hunger?
3. Discussing the Role of the UN.
4. Discussing the origin of Sustainability.
5. How to make sustainable consuming a Trend?
6. The current situation of the world in terms of sustainable development?
7. Discussing South Korea trying to go Green in 2009 and why it failed?
8. Discussing the problem of Consumerism.
9. Discussing the Mid 18th Century, about World’s First Consumer Revolution.
10. Growing together Sustainably as a world in terms of Sustainable Living.

RESEARCH LINKS

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_living#History
2. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/sustainable-living-principles-benefits-and-e
xamples.php
3. https://www.unep.org/
4. https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-and-living-sustainably/a-53002651
5. https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/publication/sustainable-developme
nt-goals-report-2020
6. https://impactgarden.org/sustainability-and-impact/
7. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/4239Chapter%204%20Visi
ons,%20scenarios%20and%20future%20pathways%20towards%20sustainable%20de
velopment2.pd
8. https://www.unschools.co/journal-blog/the-rise-of-sustainable-living
9. https://www.ofx.com/en-au/blog/sustainable-living/
10. https://www.scp-centre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/64_Sustainable_Lifestyles_T
odays_facts_and_Tomorrows_trends.pdf
11. https://www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk/a-framework-for-sustainable-lifestyles-defr
a
12. https://youmatter.world/en/definition/definitions-sustainable-development-sustainabili
ty/#:~:text=Sustainable%20development%20is%20the%20idea,the%20Brundtland%2
0Report%20in%201987.
13. https://sustainability.uq.edu.au/article/2020/04/can-you-still-live-sustainably-current-e
nvironment
14. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainab
ility/live_more_sustainably.html
15. https://globescan.com/healthy-sustainable-living-report-2019/
16. https://www.wwf.org.uk/what-we-do/promoting-sustainable-living
17. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/15-ideas-for-sustainable-living.php#:~:text=
%E2%80%9CSustainable%20living%20is%20a%20lifestyle,%2C%20energy%20con
sumption%2C%20and%20diet.
18. https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/what-is-sustainability/
19. https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/3_times_sustainable
20. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100515/three-pillars-corporate-sustai
nability.asp