Gland: Taxes, incentives,
regulations, subsidies, trade and public
procurement need to be realigned to favour
sustainable consumption and production patterns
if the world wants to end poverty, according
to the UN High Level Panel charged with
setting the new direction for global development.
“Without environmental
sustainability we cannot end poverty,” said
the UN’s High Level Panel on the post-2015
Development Agenda.
The report of the 26-member
panel, which included UK Prime Minister
David Cameron, Indonesia’s President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Queen Rania of Jordan
and Unilever CEO Paul Polman, has the potential
to influence over USD 25 trillion of development
spending and marks a clear break from the
practice of treating development and sustainability
as separate topics.
“The Millennium Development
Goals were a first global attempt to address
poverty and other development challenges
but protection of the environment was barely
acknowledged and hardly addressed,” said
Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International.
“Nearly fifteen years
on, there is finally recognition that poverty
cannot be eradicated and the well-being
of people across the globe cannot be secured
without addressing the grave pressures on
the environment and the natural systems
that support human life on this planet,”
Leape added.
The report calls for
hard-hitting measures to be taken in both
developed and developing countries to reduce
the impacts of consumption, production,
trade, waste and pollution.
The Panel’s findings
have the potential to influence over USD
25 trillion of international resource flows
to developing countries to redraft government
and corporate behaviours.
“We came to the conclusion
that the moment is right to merge the poverty
and environmental tracks guiding international
development” states the Panel report.
The Panel underlined
the inadequacies of GDP measures of progress
and recommended mandatory social and environmental
reporting by all companies with a market
capitalisation above USD 100 million.
Proposed goals to secure
food, water and energy for a growing world
population should include key targets to
safeguard sustainable agriculture, fisheries,
freshwater systems and energy supplies,
the report said.
The High Level Panel
also affirmed that the new development agenda
is a global one.
“The world has changed
since the MDGs were agreed,” said Jim Leape.
“The global financial
and economic crises have shown that poverty
and growing inequality are problems for
all countries. Production and consumption
choices in one place have environmental
impacts across the globe.”
“We now look to all
countries to build on the High Level Panel’s
report and agree an ambitious set of goals
and targets that will spur urgent action,”
said Leape.
