COVID-19 and sustainable development

Abstract

This perspective article examines the current sustainable development framework in the context of COVID-19, and argues that it is robust enough to face multiple long-term global challenges including pandemics, poverty and climate change. COVID-19 highlights major existing unsustainabilities, including unhealthy interactions between ecological and socio-economic systems, like human encroachments into wildlife habitats that have facilitated coronavirus transmission. Seven preliminary policy-relevant lessons are given to re-prioritise sustainable development issues -protect the environmental base and avoid dangerous feedbacks; find integrated, globally-coordinated, systems-based long-term solutions for multiple problems; empower individuals to act now; focus on social issues; pursue a transformative path to sustainability via balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG); promote sustainable urban habitats and lifestyles by leveraging digital technology; and use better risk analysis and management. The practical and integrated way forward towards BIGG is discussed, in the context of currently unsustainable human activities. Key problems of implementation are outlined, including linkages with UN SDG and 2030 Agenda.

Metals in the soil of urban cemeteries in Carazinho (South Brazil) in view of the increase in deaths from COVID-19: projects for cemeteries to mitigate environmental impacts

“…This is materialized, according to Neckel et al ( 2021 ) for the use of accesses and ramps with widths and slopes that allow the movement of people through wide spaces. While it is hopeful that the lifespan of these structures will exceed the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unknown when another pandemic will come (Munasinghe, 2020 ). Designing in the present for adequate future social distancing is encouraged whether current and future pathogens are easily transmissible or not (Tay et al, 2020 ).…”

Environmental assessment for results of the local territories positioning

“…The theoretical and methodical basis of the research presented by lays of the sustainable development concept, regional and local economy, works of the foreign and domestic scientists, in particular J. Milán-García, J. Uribe-Toril [1], I. Budnikevich [2], Z. Siryk [3], I. Mikhno, V. Koval [4], M. Munasinghe [5], J. Xiangfeng, U. Muhammad [6], O. Trokhymets [7], K. Kostetska, N. Khumarova [8].…”

Territorial Dimension for Sustainable Development of Infrastructure Enterprises: Information and Administrative Component

“…The issues of theoretical and methodological imperative in relation to the infrastructural support of sustainable development in local territories have been researched quite widely by foreign and domestic scientists, among which J. Milán-García, J. Uribe-Toril (Milán-García, Uribe-Toril et al, 2019), F. Blomsma, G. Brennan (Blomsma, Brennan, 2017), J. Xiangfeng, U. Muhammad, A. Shahid (Xiangfeng, Muhammad, Shahid et al, 2020), V. Šipilova, I. Ostrovska, E. Jermolajeva (Šipilova, Ostrovska, Jermolajeva et al, 2017), I. Budnikevich and O. Kolomytseva (Budnikevich, Kolomytseva et al, 2021), Z. Siryk, N. Popadynets, M. Pityulych (Siryk, Popadynets, Pityulych et al, 2021), M. Munasinghe (Munasinghe, 2020), I. Zablodska, S. Hrechana (Zablodska, Hrechana et al, 2020), etc. Scientists focus on the need to restore critical infrastructure facilities in conflict territories, forgetting to analyze the current state of sustainable development of infrastructure enterprises.…”