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Why Recent Crises and SDG Implementation Demand a New Eco-Social Contract

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Financial Crises, Poverty and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges in the Context of the SDGs and Covid-19 Recovery

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

Abstract

The twentieth century social contract—an implicit bargain between economic imperatives of growth and productivity, and the social imperatives of redistribution and social protection—has broken down and cannot sustain the transformative vision of the 2030 Agenda. The breakdown of the social contract has manifested itself in multiple global crises and the deep divisions in our societies. Analyses of the current COVID-19 crisis have documented that inequalities in many dimensions have grown, and people are feeling left-out and left-behind. The failure of the economic model to account for the natural boundaries of our planet has led to environmental destruction and human precarity because of climate change, extreme weather events and health pandemics such as COVID-19. In this chapter we will show why responding to the crisis and getting SDG implementation back on track demand a new eco-social contract; what the claims are of different actors, and how we can build an inclusive and sustainable eco-social contract through inclusion of marginalised views and progressive alliances with previously excluded groups.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The authors are grateful for excellent background research and support provided by Paramita Dutta.

  2. 2.

    The authors define resource nationalism as “… a geopolitical discourse about sovereignty, the state, and territory, as well as the rights and privileges of citizenship, national identity, and the values a group assigns to resources like oil, gas and minerals” (Koch and Perreault 2019: 2).

  3. 3.

    The UN OHCHR fellowship program for young indigenous peoples and minorities representatives has provided excellent capacity, voice and an international platform to many young leaders which have formed their own international network.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Bonn, Germany

    Isabell Kempf

  2. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, Switzerland

    Katja Hujo

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  1. Isabell Kempf
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations & Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK

    Andreas Antoniades

  2. Department of Geography & Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK

    Alexander S. Antonarakis

  3. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Bonn, Germany

    Isabell Kempf

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Kempf, I., Hujo, K. (2022). Why Recent Crises and SDG Implementation Demand a New Eco-Social Contract. In: Antoniades, A., Antonarakis, A.S., Kempf, I. (eds) Financial Crises, Poverty and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges in the Context of the SDGs and Covid-19 Recovery. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87417-9_12

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