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Sustainability
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Transformations for a Sustainable Future
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Transformations for a Sustainable Future

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 10116

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Stacy-ann Robinson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Environmental Studies Program, Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA
Interests: climate change adaptation; small island developing states; adaptation finance; climate justice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is consensus that extensive transformations will be required in order for countries to achieve the goals and targets set out in the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda. But what is ‘transformation’? Is it different from ‘resilience’, or ‘sustainable development’? How are they related? What exactly will these transformations require? Will they vary according to country or geographic region? How should they be operationalized? Which stakeholders and partnerships will be critical and why? What are the barriers? Are there limits? What opportunities exist or can be created?

A recent paper by Sachs et al. (2019) argues that there are six transformations that simultaneously synergize several of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and provide an actionable roadmap:

  1. Education, gender, and inequality - SDG 1, 5, 7-10, 12-15, 17
  2. Health, wellbeing, and demography - SDG 1-5, 8, 10
  3. Energy decarbonization, and sustainable industry - SDG 1-16
  4. Sustainable food, land, water, and oceans - SDG 1-3, 5-6, 8, 10-15
  5. Sustainable cities and communities - SDG 1-16
  6. Digital revolution for sustainable development - SDG 1-4, 7-13, 17

This Special Issue will feature research articles, reviews, and case studies that answer the above questions from various theoretical, methodological, conceptual, and geographic perspectives. Papers will interrogate the extent to which the six transformations are relevant or applicable to the Global South, particularly small island developing states, the least developed countries, and African countries, given their complex histories and varying development circumstances and trajectories. Where the transformations are relevant or applicable, papers will critically engage with ideas around whether one might be more relevant or applicable than others, and the modifications that will be required in the political, economic, social, and environmental spheres at various scales—from individual to international. Also of interest are papers that consider the role of transformations in non-traditional, underrepresented, or otherwise neglected domains, including but not limited to institutional/governance architectures, climate change adaptation and climate-related loss and damage, justice and human rights, and cultural economies/creative industries.

Reference:

Sachs J D, Schmidt-Traub G, Mazzucato M, Messner D, Nakicenovic N, Rockström J (2019). Six Transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Sustainability, doi: 10.1038/s41893-019-0352-9.

Dr. Stacy-ann Robinson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Africa
  • Global South
  • least developed countries (LDCs)
  • resilience
  • small island developing states (SIDS)
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • transformation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 933 KiB  
Article
Planning for Climate Change in Small Island Developing States: Can Dominica’s Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan Be a Model for Transformation in the Caribbean?
by Stacy-ann Robinson and Conall Butchart
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5089; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095089 - 23 Apr 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4213
Abstract
In response to a series of historical and contemporary extreme weather events, Dominica, a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Caribbean, is pursuing an objective of climate resilience by 2030. In 2018, the Government developed the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020–2030 [...] Read more.
In response to a series of historical and contemporary extreme weather events, Dominica, a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Caribbean, is pursuing an objective of climate resilience by 2030. In 2018, the Government developed the Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan 2020–2030 (CRRP) in the context of its National Resilience Development Strategy. These policy responses have been hailed as transformational. In this paper, we focus on the CRRP and investigate its quality. To achieve this, we conduct a desk-based qualitative assessment of the CRRP’s (1) information base; (2) vision, goals and objectives; (3) priorities and options; (4) actions and implementation; and (5) monitoring and evaluation. We find that the CRRP is strongest on (1) and (3), which is not uncommon for similar policies. We also discuss whether it can be a model for transformation in the Caribbean, given the region’s long history with trying to recover from and build resilience to disasters. We conclude that, in order for it to be used as a model, there are three key factors that other jurisdictions would need to consider. The first consideration is developing mechanisms for equitably sharing any benefits derived from the blue economy. The second consideration is centering Indigenous perspectives in environmental policy- and decision-making. The third consideration is adequately accounting for exogenous, unexpected risks. Given these three considerations, we see this study as contributing to discussions about what constitutes good policy in a SIDS context, which is an underexplored area in the existing academic literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transformations for a Sustainable Future)
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14 pages, 628 KiB  
Article
Climate Adaptation Finance in World Bank Economic Development Programs: The Challenges of Systemic Transformation via “Scaling Up”
by Todd A. Eisenstadt, Ifeoluwa Olawole and Michael A. Toman
Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10553; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910553 - 23 Sep 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4081
Abstract
Worldwide only about four percent of the estimated $500 billion-plus in public and private climate finance in 2017 was destined for adaptation. However, institutions like the World Bank are positioning themselves for a transformation in adaptation finance, seeking to provide substantially more adaptation [...] Read more.
Worldwide only about four percent of the estimated $500 billion-plus in public and private climate finance in 2017 was destined for adaptation. However, institutions like the World Bank are positioning themselves for a transformation in adaptation finance, seeking to provide substantially more adaptation finance as distinct from financial support for greenhouse gas mitigation. This article explores the recent emergence of adaptation as a higher priority and how a longer-term time horizon is necessary if a transformation in climate change governance is to occur which places greater emphasis on sustainable development goals relating to improvement of circumstances of citizens in the most climate-vulnerable nations, mostly in the Global South. The article also considers the important debate in the climate change policy literature over the extent to which funds supporting adaptation are going to lower-income nations or people, as might be anticipated given the view that the poor are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Data linking World Bank project funding to climate change adaptation and mitigation, derived from a keyword-matching approach, show that from 2010 to 2018, the share of climate-change-related finance devoted to adaptation in World Bank projects increased considerably. The data indicate that adaptation funding tends to be directed more to more climate-vulnerable nations and those with greater state fragility, but not to low-income countries versus high-income countries. Implications are considered for how this change might be “scaled up” to achieve a transformational status. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transformations for a Sustainable Future)
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