Three Pillars of Sustainable Development

Sustainable development must be based on three pillars of economy, society and environment. How will development benefit people; how will economic growth not cause the widening of the rich / poor gap and social unrest, not deplete natural resources and destroy the environment, and ensure conditions for the long-term development and take into account benefits of future generations. These general views are easily understood by all listeners but they may face a lot of issues when they fail to meet with sustainable development requirements. In fact, from modern economic standpoint, good economic development will simultaneously resolve social and environmental issues rather than conflict with them. Thus, modern economics finds the solution to the question: How to use scarce resources, including capital resources, technological resources and other resources, in the most effective way to meet the needs of people.

 

In fact, environmental consequences derive from economic development models. If we carry out a growth model based mainly on the consumption of capital, natural resources, labour and technology, consequences of environmental pollution and damage are inevitable. And, if that growth model is prolonged, it will lead to environmental disaster and in turn the environmental disaster will eliminate growth achievement and lead to regression. The efficiency and quality of growth, not the amount of growth, is development criteria. So, we definitely have to adopt a growth model to save resources based on continuous innovation and application of advanced technologies, improved quality of human resources and institutions, including would-be green growth model, which has become a strategic tendency in many countries because of many advantages.

 

Given its present specific conditions, Vietnam has to accept the possibility of low growth for some time until it creates platforms and institutions for long-term growth. All development strategies and plans as well as specific projects must take environment requirements into account. This requires very good awareness of all government levels, policy makers and authorities. Currently, when assessing, deciding and monitoring the implementation of five-year and annual socioeconomic development strategies and plans, we still disregard the analysis and evaluation of environmental indicators. Meanwhile, when assessing and appraising economic development plans and specific projects, environmental assessment is a must to ensure harmonious and sustainable development.

 

Vietnam is among 10 countries with low air quality that affects health most. According to the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam, with 59 points in the ranking environmental performance index, Vietnam ranked 85^th out of 163 countries ranked. The overall environmental picture of Vietnam must be portrayed by a lot of factors like shrinking forests, seriously affected biodiversity, river pollution, technological landfill and waste, agricultural pollution, waste from handicraft village and mining, and air pollution. To address existing problems, there is a need for the change of State management in environment and the change in perceptions of people in environment.

 

The Law on Environmental Protection of 2014 concretises the spirit of Article 43 of the Constitution of 2013 "Everyone has the right to live in a healthy environment and has the obligation to protect that environment". The new law has some new contents, that is, environmental protection planning. Other specialised laws like Law on Biodiversity and the Law on Forest Development and Protection will enhance enforceability of environmental protection.

 

In the current development trend, partners and consumers begin to pay more attention to green, environment-friendly products. Activities that may cause environmental pollution and deplete natural resources are being gradually condemned by consumers. On the other hand, increasingly complicated climate change is pushing up resource prices and reducing working efficiency in contaminated areas, thus affecting the profitability of enterprises. Therefore, to survive and sustain development, enterprises have to pay attention to environmental aspects, ecological efficiency and energy production of each business. To do so, business leaders need to change their thinking and raise their awareness, while building and switching to a new management system with green action plans to shape a firm basis to ensure environmental elements, ecological efficiency, energy use, and greenhouse gas emission limitation.

 

Dr Nguyen Van Phuoc, Director of the Institute of Natural Resources and Environment, noted the three most common types of environment law-violating enterprises: They only care about profit and unknowingly ignore environmental expertise; they know environment expertise but deliberately violate; and they prefer cheap investment prices for waste treatment systems. However, any form of violation of environmental protection regulations must be fined according to the Law on Environmental Protection and penalties must be strong enough to deter future such actions. For its part, the Government needs to support enterprises to access waste treatment technologies and standards. The introduction of standards will help them gain suitable waste treatment technologies to meet environmental output standards. More importantly, they can avoid being fined.

 

In 2015, with the consent of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment held a ceremony to commend good environmental protection models in 2011-2015 in the framework of the Fourth National Environment Conference. The praise of good environment protection models is a practical and important activity, held every five years, to detect, recognise and honour organisations and individuals nationwide with outstanding achievements in environmental protection; follow central guidelines and policies on environmental protection; and socialise environmental protection with sustainable socioeconomic development.