Sustainability has become one of the most familiar words in public life – a badge worn by governments, corporations and charities alike. But what if the idea itself is no longer fit for purpose?
This is the question at the heart of a forthcoming talk by Dr Tommy Lynch, a political theologian and philosopher at the University of Chichester, who will speak at Chichester’s Oxfam bookshop next month.
Lynch argues that “sustainable development”, despite its good intentions, has become an increasingly hollow response to the scale of the climate crisis. In particular, he questions the way the term is used to imply environmental responsibility without demanding meaningful change.
“Sustainability doesn’t mean what most people think it means,” he says.
“People tend to hear it as an environmental commitment – and it can be – but it’s also a very broad framework. That breadth allows organisations to claim progress while avoiding the hardest questions about climate and ecological damage.”
At the centre of Lynch’s critique are the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which range from climate action to gender equality, education and economic growth. While the goals are designed to be holistic, Lynch argues they can also be selectively deployed.
“Companies in sectors like oil and gas can point to work on education or equality and say they are ‘sustainable’, even if their environmental impact barely changes,” he says. “The language gives cover to continuity rather than transformation.”
Lynch’s wider research focuses on how societies imagine endings – from religious apocalypses to secular visions of collapse – and he sees climate change as inseparable from those narratives.
“My main research is on the end of the world,” he says, matter-of-factly.
“Climate change sits right at the centre of that. It’s frightening, and that fear is part of the problem. You can’t respond seriously to a crisis you’re not prepared to confront honestly.”
The talk will explore why sustainability has become such a dominant idea, what it obscures as well as what it enables, and whether new ways of thinking are needed if societies are to respond to climate breakdown with the urgency it demands.
Dr Lynch will speak at the Oxfam bookshop, 36 East Street, Chichester, on Wednesday 4 February, from 5.30pm to 6pm. Tickets cost £5 and are available in store.
