The World's Search for Sustainable Development: A Perspective from the Global South

This text traces the evolution of sustainable development and climate change from the time it emerged in international consultations and agreements. The three sections of the book, focusing on the framework, climate change and sustainable development, seek to cover the essentials of the politics of natural resource usage at the global level. The book explores the evolution of sustainable development and climate change within the framework of the United Nations, and the way the concept has been defined through intergovernmental meetings, agreements and consensus within the multilateral system. It also explores the best ways of reducing the risk to the planet while enabling societies to pursue sustainable development paths. The challenges call for a transformation of social systems to facilitate a broadly acceptable change. The book also explores the adoption of low-carbon models different from the high-carbon socio-technical systems and related social practices.

Mukul Sanwal obtained a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, Massachusetts. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1971 and served as a senior member in various departments including industry, agriculture and environment. He represented the Indian government at the Rio Conference in 1992 as a lead negotiator for the climate change treaty. He joined the UN in 1993 as Policy Adviser to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and later to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 2011, he was invited to teach a course on international relations at the University of Business and the Economy in Beijing, and in 2013 was invited to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to give a course on the politics of climate change. He is a member of several Indian government committees on sustainability and climate change, and has contributed significantly in the areas of sustainable development, climate policy, governance and global strategic affairs in national and international journals.