Research & Project Outputs

This paper will be delivered at conferences in Copenhagen and Brisbane taking place in August and September 2012 respectively. Building on the core arguments developed in his book co-authored with Eve Annecke entitled Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World, this paper examines storlines of the future developed from various influential perspectives. Using the Multi-Level Perspective, Mark Swilling elaborates and extends his conception of transition to a more sustainable world.

Dr. Camaren Peter and Prof Mark Swilling. 2012. Sustainable, Resource Efficient Cities - Making It Happen! This report was commissioned by UNEP based on a paper prepared for UNEP presented at a Conference in South Korea in 2011. This Report was launched at the Rio + 20 Conference that took place in June 2011.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: Urbanisation in the 21st century - trends and pressures

Chapter 2: City infrastructures: sustainability challenges and choices

Chapter 3: How cities can transition to sustainable, resource efficient growth

Mark Swilling - Growth, Resource Use and Decoupling: Towards a 'Green New Deal' for South Africa? ECSECC Working Papers Series 14. East London: ECSECC.

Review of International and African Climate Change Legislation and Policies. Report Commissioned by AWEPA Parliamentary Support Programme in South Africa. 20 March 2012.

Paper presented by Mark Swilling to the Winelands Conference on Integrity and Governance, Stellenbosch University, April 2012. This papers applies material flow analysis to the question of Africa's future economic growth and proposes that unless new modes of governance are found the resource curse will persist.

Katherine Hyman - Economic Development, Decoupling and Urban Infrastructure: lessons from Cape Town's urban system. Paper based on her Mphil thesis research presented at the World Resource Forum, Davos, August 2011. Abstract: While the current economic development trajectory, as determined by global resource flows, is fundamentally unsustainable, decoupling can be adopted as an alternative growth paradigm which allows human development through non-material growth, without the environmental and social casualties of the incumbent model. Particularly, decoupling at the city scale, using networked urban infrastructure as the intervention point, has the greatest capacity to contribute to the resolution of environmental resource constraints. By nature cities are responsible for the majority of production and consumption activities attributed to environmental degradation while simultaneously acting as the primary location for economic, institutional, and human capital which promote innovation. Innovation systems, in particular sustainability orientated innovation systems that stimulate urban transitions are pertinent to the successful implementation of decoupling. The case of Cape Town offers valuable lessons in light of the advanced understanding of urban resource flows and the potential to realise an urban scale transition.
Keywords: Decoupling, Innovation System, Sustainability Orientated Innovation System, Socio-technical, transition.

Philip Fourie help project manage the implementation of aspects of the housing development at Lyneodch. This experience provides the basis for this article in a journal on operations research.