UN panel aims for ‘a future worth choosing’

The world can no longer afford to ignore the environmental cost of economic growth and must redefine the very concept of national wealth, a UN panel of heads of state and environment ministers said.

The panel challenged leaders to recognise that current global development is unsustainable.

“We need to chart a new, more sustainable course for the future, one that strengthens equality and economic growth while protecting our planet,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Addis Ababa.

He was speaking to mark the release of the panel’s report, which outlines more than 50 policy recommendations. By 2030, the report warned, the planet will need at least 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water. Continuing along the same path as today risks irreversible damage to both ecosystems and human communities.

Entitled Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing, the 100-page report seeks to shape in broad strokes the agenda for the Rio+20 summit this summer.The June 20-22 event in Rio de Janeiro takes place 20 years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit that set down the UN conventions for protecting biodiversity and tackling global warming.

Led by Finnish President Tarja Halonen and South African President Jacob Zuma, the 22-member panel said a new blueprint for growth and low-carbon prosperity must be “mainstreamed” into economic policy as quickly as possible.