A global public goods perspective on environment and poverty

Abstract

This chapter traces the historical shift in development cooperation towards a sustainable development perspective that considers global public goods at its centre. It emphasizes the need to consider risk when evaluating sustainability. Climate change has added new elements of unpredictability that pose the need to turn sustainability into an adaptation issue to be considered when evaluating how to best address global public goods. The chapter places the discussion in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the Paris Climate Agreement, tracking the new thinking on sustainable development and how this relates to managing and evaluating global public goods. The chapter concludes that climate change is making it increasingly difficult to correctly identify environmental risks. When we turn sustainability into an adaptation issue, we are able to take the public goods perspective into account when looking at what can be solved by markets and private initiatives versus a perspective in which governments and international organizations are essential to ensuring a sustainable future.