Interplay of Climate Change and the Emergence of Sustainability

The Industrial Revolution marked a significant shift in human civilization, leading to exploiting natural resources during colonisation and developing an anthropocentric eco-philosophy in the West. In response, indigenous eco-philosophies have engaged in a contestation with the Western knowledge system, prompting a reflective reconsideration within the latter. Earlier in the Western knowledge system, Eunice Foote, a pioneering female scientist, first identified that increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere could lead to a greenhouse effect, warming the Earth’s surface and was later reinforced by John Tyndall and Svante Arrhenius. In the late 1950s, Charles David Keeling’s research on atmospheric CO2 levels provided concrete evidence of human influence on the environment. The 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of environmentalism, spurred by influential literature such as Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” The scientific research on climate change intensified in the 1980s and 1990s following the establishment of the IPCC. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development released its landmark report titled “Our Common Future.” This report introduced the concept of sustainability. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro resulted in the adoption of Agenda 21. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 to set emission reduction targets, but its effectiveness faced challenges. Subsequent Earth summits continued promoting sustainability. In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Paris Agreement, also established in 2015, set targets to combat climate change by limiting global temperature rise. Climate change has catalysed individual activism and collective environmentalism that supported the emergence of sustainability as a guiding framework for addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. Now, in light of the disproportionate effects on marginalised communities, particularly in the Global South, Critical Sustainability is evolving to prioritise equitable resource distribution and foster inclusive decision-making.