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Structural Impediments to Sustainable Development in Australia and Its Asia-Pacific Region

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Pathways to a Sustainable Economy

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Abstract

In its efforts to administer a collective global response towards combating climate change and limiting global warming, the United Nations, at its 2015 Climate Change Conference, succeeded in committing member nations to the Paris Agreement. Through the Agreement, the United Nations exemplified its dedication to supporting sustainable development. Accordingly, the primary objective of this chapter is to investigate structural impediments that prevent Australia and the Asia-Pacific region from achieving their Paris Agreement targets and consolidating sustainable development. While neoliberal globalisation has nurtured ecological damage and widespread poverty and wealth inequality in a systematic manner, this chapter argues that the accumulation and persistence of these structural deficiencies portend severe implications against the attainment of sustainability targets. The chapter introduces an assessment approach suggesting the stage of economic development, the extent of social equity and the political orientation of each country to distinguish its vulnerability and exposure to these structural impediments. It further addresses difficulties that governments, businesses and civil societies face with a focus on solving them. Lastly, it anticipates a paradigm shift away from the GDP growth-based, fossil fuel-driven industrial type of economic development towards a more inclusive and equitable model comprising eco-efficient low-carbon enterprises and economies. The chapter concludes that only the equitable, more inclusive and democratic developmental regimes are capable of consolidating sustainable development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Structural/systematic impediments, failures, challenges or deficiencies are terms used interchangeably within the chapter to identify core and fundamental dysfunctionalities that are not resolvable by minor modifications such as, for example, state bailouts or new regulations. However, only major structural interventions are applicable, which implies a replacement rather than series of corrections or adjustments to the overall design and framework; see Kotz (2009) and Mészáros (2012).

  2. 2.

    Analytics of governmentality refers to analytical tools applied in studying the rationalities, regularities, logic, strategies, mechanisms, as well as economic orientations that shape the identity of regimes of governance. More importantly, it extends beyond claimed, presumed or declared values of governance and enables detecting embedded systematic impediments and challenges. It facilitates exposing and solving what Max Weber describes as “inconvenient facts”; see Dean (2009, p. 48). These are areas in systems that appear to malfunction or provoke resistance to change and reformation. By becoming familiar with these complexities, Foucault suggests analytics of governmentality contributes towards highlighting and removing concealed problematic causes and reveal possible formulation of alternatives that otherwise might have been undetectable or “taken for granted”; see also Dean (2009), p. 50).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

    Ahmed Badreldin

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  1. Ahmed Badreldin
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Correspondence to Ahmed Badreldin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith Asia Institute and Department of International Business and Asian Studies, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Moazzem Hossain

  2. Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Robert Hales

  3. Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise and Department of International Business and Asian Studies, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    Tapan Sarker

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Badreldin, A. (2018). Structural Impediments to Sustainable Development in Australia and Its Asia-Pacific Region. In: Hossain, M., Hales, R., Sarker, T. (eds) Pathways to a Sustainable Economy . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67702-6_4

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