Sustainable development pathways

The report “Sustainable Development pathways for South Asia” would focus on the environmental pressures associated with four issues, important for the sustainability of development efforts in the region: food security, water security, energy security and sustainable urbanisation. Attaining food security, water security and energy security involves processes that draw heavily on the natural resource base. Also, the consumption of food, water and energy changes the environmental resources base and exercises pressure on it through the generation of wastes and emissions. All the three above-mentioned needs assume increasing importance given the prevailing poverty and inequities juxtaposed with the dominant demographic trend in the region towards resource intensity, a major manifestation of which is large-scale urban expansion. The prevalent poverty and inequities in the region, along with increasingly resource intensive livelihoods, also make South Asia more vulnerable to the impending impacts of climate change. In the project, environmental pressures would be identified at two broad levels with respect to food security, water security, energy security and sustainable urbanisation: local environmental pressures that result in immediate impacts on the health and welfare of the population; and environmental pressures across space and time due to the impacts of anthropogenic activities on air, water and land.