These three aspects of a policy may or may not be supportive to each other. However, in environmental planning and sustainability problems, these elements may show a relationship to each other and can be correlated to a particular resource status targeting to sustainability. If a policy is not “problem closure” for a resource, then it can be seen whether it was “discursive closure” or was “socially accommodated.” Thus, the basis of sustainability assessment of a resource policy will be sound if the resource dimensions can be coordinated with social dimensions.

In many cases, policy formation of different countries shows the dominant form of regulation for controlling the resource use. Most of them have given rise to the environmental changes because they were not socially accommodated. Thus, an understanding of policy problem is related to the society addressed by the policy and the way problems of resources are addressed. Therefore, before focusing on sustainability themes, it is important to develop an idea about the components and ingredients of a policy and their relationship with the society. This chapter is aimed at presenting a review on those aspects of policy. At first, the views are organized and presented considering the emergence of a sustainability concept, which is the main target of policy evaluation. Then, the basic concepts and basic considerations of policy evaluation are reviewed. Policy-related social elements are also considered before presenting specific elements of policy climates important for assessment. The specific points of resource issue and their possible relationship with the environment, market, and other policies of the society are also explored.

2.2 EMERGENCE OF POLICY SUSTAINABILITY

The evolution of ideas of sustainability in a society may have strong linkage with the evolution of policy climate and emphasis of policy target. Norton and Noonan (2007) have given an account on the evolution of the discipline with considerable debate; not only on what constitutes sustainable development but also on what the term itself means. Although the World Commission for Environment and Development (WCED) has brought the concept of sustainable development into the limelight in 1987, the sustainability issues were first undertaken in global negotiation in the 1992 Earth Summit of Rio de Janerio outlined under agenda 21. Following the summit, concerns

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around the impacts of unsustainable consumption and production activities have led to the call for the establishment of 10-year framework of programs (10YFPs) in the Johannesburg plan of implementation, agreed at the 2nd World Summit 2002 on sustainable development. The aim of the 10YFPs was to accelerate a shift toward Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), thus promoting social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by integrating economic growth with environmental improvement.

The Marrakech Process on SCP was developed under the 10YFP on SCP to be a global framework for action on SCP that countries can endorse and commit to in order to accelerate the shift toward sustainable consumption and production patterns. Although the global emphasis on sustainability management is quite strong, the policies of different societies are not equally committed to maintaining the resources and environment. Policy climate is thus expected to reveal an understanding on ambiguities of resource and environmental sustainability. The following section presents the factors and issues associated with the emergence of sustainability ideas in general. Subsequently, those factors and issues will be considered within the elements of policy climate for outlining the principles of sustainability assessment.

2.2.1 Population and Resource

The understanding about the impact of population growth on environmental resources and human welfare issues are as old as beginning of civilization. Dietz and Rosa (1994) cited references of a famine of the fifth century BC and how population outfaced the production of food. The idea of linkage between population and resources was conceived in more concrete form in the eleventh century, when population enumeration used to be done to allocate the resources on priority areas.

Nevertheless, it was not until 1798, when Robert Thomas Malthus (1766 1834) published his famous work Essay on Population, that the

systematic relationship of population and resources was addressed.

The debate continued almost for a whole century as “present and predicted competition of species for resources” until nineteenth century

when Charles Darwin (1859) developed his theory of evolution The Origin of Species. He described the competition within and among spe-

cies for resources and environments under the theory “survival of the

fittest,” showing how the species survive and evolve. The discoveries of Darwin first brought the science into the sustainability concept. Subsequently, social sciences and biological sciences were looking into sustainability as a common problem and many explanations of Malthus’ proposition have been tried in the light of Darwin’s theory.

This debate has been addressed in the social sciences as a “human welfare issue” of policy for two centuries with the help of “welfare economics,” mainly in the form of distribution of resources. Involvement of biological sciences flourished in the discourse of ecology in this line. Thus, social modernization and scientific progress blended together producing a new reflex of policy target. The issues of sustainability thus developed from social problem to policy problem. In practice, policy confusion of environmental sustainability remains how to address the boundaries of economic and environmental welfare of human society. However, the word “sustainability” was brought to the policy attention only recently (Holdren et al., 1995), within a couple of decades, and spread not only to environmental scientists but also to other actors like activists, economists, social scientists, and policy makers. Thus, the policy outcome of sustainability became dependent on how the social institutions and organizations were modernized to coordinate and accommodate the roles of those actors in the society.

2.2.2 Modernity and Sustainability

Modernity started from the age of the industrial revolution. While industrial revolution is about 200 years old, the sustainability, environmental sustainability in particular, has been seen as a problem only in about the last three decades. On the other hand, while the industrial revolution happened in few societies, sustainability is an issue of all the societies. Therefore, modernity and sustainability did not occupy the same position in the policy. At the same time, the prophecy of global doom (Meadows et al., 1972) enlightened different aspects of reality and was discussed in different issues of sustainability of resources. The fear of nuclear power started a new era of environmental movement in 1970s and mass demonstration started proclaiming for a safe environment. Thus, within a short time the sustainability paradigm received a global dimension on the wing of environmental stability. Therefore, the dynamics of policy climate remains limited for modernity but global movement is accelerated for sustainability.

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The environmental movement in the 1980s stepped beyond the mass demonstration and became more radical and practically policy oriented (Hajer, 1995), which in turn has brought the new incentive in the resource policy process with a change in the political strategies and organizational structure. However, the constitution of environmental movement in 1980s started changing due to direct involvement of the secondary international institutions. Almost in the same period of political cold war, sustainability movement of the states became techno-biased. However, it is undeniable that the origin of street demonstrations on environment in 1970s has awakened politicians and policy makers to develop sustainable policy discourses in the society.

There is a spatial variation among the societies as to how the transition to sustainability has been pursued (Grainger, 1999). Different societies pursued the transition in different way. While in developing countries, regulatory instruments got preference for ensuring a policy environmentally worthy, in developed countries, organizations like OECD were in favor of economic and fiscal instruments (OECD, 1984). Eventually, two schools of thought have developed around the issues of sustainability, both having merits and demerits of their own.

In certain aspects, however, the anticipatory policy measures (this and that will happen) did not go further for environmental sustainability because technological innovation has always meant that the anticipation was incorrect and political motivation did not like the measures

to be taken. Instead, several publications like Facing the Future (Interfuture, 1979), Our Common Future (WCED, 1987), North South: A Programme for Survival (ICIDI, 1980), and North South Common

Crisis (ICIDI, 1983) have changed the sustainability concept toward mutual cooperation in the field of environment. Thus, the transfixing of words “environment” and “sustainability” as a term “environmental sustainability” could have been caused by few factors:

1.Substantial advancement of the scientific understanding about the consequences of environmental change.

2.The leading countries of the world became free from cold war phenomena and took the leadership in environmental sustainability.

3.Paying world’s attention to the behavior of the developing world for meeting their basic needs.

4.An avalanche of reports and subsequent works on sustainable development.