TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainable Statehood: Reflections on Critical (Pre-)Conditions, Requirements and Design Options

AU - Heinrichs, Harald

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the author.

PY - 2022/8/2

Y1 - 2022/8/2

N2 - Thirty years after the seminal UN conference on environment and development, where the global agenda for sustainable development was agreed upon by the international community, uncountable initiatives in public policy, business and civil society have been activated. Despite all efforts, pressure on life-supporting Earth systems remain on an ecologically, socially and economically unsustainable pathway. Global collective action for sustainable development has so far been insufficient regarding the scientifically well-diagnosed need for substantial transformation. Given that the world remains a world of nation states, notwithstanding processes of globalization and transnationalization, internationalization and subnationalization, the quest for sustainable statehood is of utmost importance. Based on the expectations of nation states expressed in the UN Transformation Agenda 2030, it is argued that underlying and cross-cutting structures, procedures and instruments of statehood, which precede decision-making processes and policy-making in specific fields of sustainable development, such as climate change or biodiversity, are of key relevance. In this regard critical requirements and (pre-)conditions for sustainable statehood are discussed and design options for sustainable statehood in the Anthropocene are proposed.

AB - Thirty years after the seminal UN conference on environment and development, where the global agenda for sustainable development was agreed upon by the international community, uncountable initiatives in public policy, business and civil society have been activated. Despite all efforts, pressure on life-supporting Earth systems remain on an ecologically, socially and economically unsustainable pathway. Global collective action for sustainable development has so far been insufficient regarding the scientifically well-diagnosed need for substantial transformation. Given that the world remains a world of nation states, notwithstanding processes of globalization and transnationalization, internationalization and subnationalization, the quest for sustainable statehood is of utmost importance. Based on the expectations of nation states expressed in the UN Transformation Agenda 2030, it is argued that underlying and cross-cutting structures, procedures and instruments of statehood, which precede decision-making processes and policy-making in specific fields of sustainable development, such as climate change or biodiversity, are of key relevance. In this regard critical requirements and (pre-)conditions for sustainable statehood are discussed and design options for sustainable statehood in the Anthropocene are proposed.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - sustainable development

KW - nation state

KW - sustainable statehood

KW - sustainability transformation

KW - Anthropocene

KW - science-policy interface

KW - participation

KW - public administration

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/daa2f870-fc45-384d-9bc3-e604bf73781c/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137240748&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/su14159461

DO - 10.3390/su14159461

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 14

JO - Sustainability

JF - Sustainability

SN - 2071-1050

IS - 15

M1 - 9461

ER -