Research project HL/DD/12 (Research action HL)
Within the framework of a policy geared to sustainable development, one of the most important objectives is to meet the needs of today’s generation without undermining provision for the needs of future generations. In order to ensure that the needs of future generations are still catered for, the environmental effects of modern-day production and consumption should be limited in a way that reduces depletion, pollution and harmful effects. In order to provide for the needs of today’s generation (at the world level), a great deal of effort should be devoted as a priority to social development and the fight against poverty. In these policy fields, it is becoming more and more important to take account of reserves of raw materials, fuel and natural resources generally. In order to determine these objectives as regards providing for the needs of modern-day and future generations, the term ‘environmental utilisation space’ is used. This concept refers to environmental use possibilities for the human race and, at the same time, to the limits of the environmental system. However, research in this sphere is still in its infancy. The environmental movements and third-world movements in Belgium’s neighbouring countries have provided the Wuppertal Institute in Germany with the impetus to flesh out this concept. In the Netherlands, a research establishment has been addressing the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept and methods for its definition. Lessons may be drawn from both these and other investigative approaches in order to develop an idea of the possibilities and limitations of the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept that are well-founded to the greatest possible extent.
This project investigate therefore also the function of the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept within the framework of a policy geared to sustainable development. The research should result in an overview not just of the concept’s possibilities, but also its limitations.
The course of the research project appears as follows:
Year 1: theoretical study of sustainable development, environmental utilisation space,carrying capacity, footprints, systems for servicing the needs of generations today and the problem of world development, rights of future generations and environmental protection, identifying the environmental effects of consumption patterns and production activities, the demographic policy factor, ethical discussions when putting the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept into practice.
Year 2: illustration of the possibilities and limitations of the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept in the area of the Greenhouse Effect:
. Part 1: establishment of a report on the possibilities and limitations of the ‘environmental utilisation space’ concept for the issue of climate change;
. Part 2: valorisation of results from this research project by distributing information about Belgian policy on climate change and how account is being taken of principles such as equity as well as environmental utilisation space.
The entire programme on "Levers for a sustainable development policy", particularly in its opening section, highlights the demand for greater uniformity as regards the term ‘sustainable development’. Working towards such a greater degree of uniformity regarding the principle of sustainable development presupposes investigating and analysing previous concepts and beginnings of theories in the various traditional lines of research in respect of the importance of natural capital, the capacity of the environmental system or the boundaries within which human development can utilise the environment. This research investigating the environmental utilisation space answers the call for greater uniformity in terms of sustainable development, starting out from the crucial relation between human and environmental systems.
Onderzoek naar de mogelijkheden en beperkingen van het concept milieugebruiksruimte: eindrapport
Doom, R. - De Jonge, Walter - Van Assche, Joke ... et al Brussel: DWTC, 2001 (SP0926)
[To download]
[Exhausted]
Onderzoek van de mogelijkheden en beperkingen van het concept milieugebruiksruimte: bijlagen bij het eindrapport
Brussel: DWTC, 2001 (SP0940)
[To download]
The Environmental Utilisation Space, capabilities and limitations of a concept: summary
Brussels: OSTC, 2002 (SP1065)
[To download]
