UN Environment of recent released the sixth Global
Environment Outlook report. The report details the numerous challenges facing
the global environment, ranging from climate change, pollution, loss of
biodiversity, deforestation, desertification and scarcity of natural resources.
The report argues that to ensure progress of the world, it
is important to make a radical shift from our current consumption and
production patterns. Without doing so achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals by 2030, with their calls for eradicating hunger and poverty
will be a mirage.
At the heart of the actions is the need to undertake
activities that help conserve and improve the environment. This is in
recognition of the fact that unless we make our world healthy, it is not
possible to improve the health of human beings.
This issue sounds straight forward. It has been debated for
long within the context of the quest for sustainable development. I was
therefore taken back when during a high-level discussion; heated disagreements
arose about the issue. The genesis of the controversy was a statement arguing
that it is not possible for African Countries to develop without relying on
fossil fuels. The argument, which found support from quite several
participants, argued that industrialization necessitated use of fossil fuel. If
these required pollution of the environment and impact on climate change, it
was a necessary consequence of the development process. As a result, developing
countries should not be made to meet the cost of these processes, or to feel
guilty about that development path. In any case, they were following a path
well-trodden by their developed counterparts.
The above argument is not new. In the run up to the first
global environment conference in 1972, the same points were raised, with
developing countries accusing their developed counterparts of conspiring to
derail their development ambitions by seeking to focus on pollution control
from development activities. These arguments led to the evolution of the
concept of sustainable development.
On the energy challenge, the Paris Agreement adopted in
2015, attempted to deal with the long-standing issue of low-carbon development
path. In addition, it resolved the sticky challenge around the concept of
common but differentiated responsibility. This concept recognized that all
countries had a shared responsibility for the carbon emissions that cause
climate change and for the climate change impacts on the environment. While the
responsibility was shared, it was also differentiated. However, there was lack
of consensus of what this meant in practice.
The Paris Accord brought some element of consensus amongst
the developed and developing countries. The one take away from the agreement is
the need for all countries to take national action to mitigate climate change
and adapt to it. It is a recognition that dealing with the global challenge is
not a developed country issue. It is every country’s responsibility.
A low carbon development path is not just possible, it is
desirable. The debate cannot therefore be the impossibility of such aspirations;
it must be how to make it happen. This is the message from the sixth Global
Environment Outlook report.
This challenge is not in energy alone. Already the action
countries are taking to deal with the pollution from plastics is a
demonstration that with resolve and political will, it is possible to achieve
the desire of a healthy planet.
Within countries, there are still many plastics; however,
this provides an opportunity for developing alternatives. In doing so,
innovative businesses will thrive. The spirit of innovation is at the heart of
transiting the world from its current consumption and production patterns,
which not only pollutes the world but also threatens lives and livelihoods.
Whatever development that arises from such a process is not sustainable.
Agriculture and fishing are the primary causes of the
deterioration. Food production has increased dramatically since the 1970s,
which has helped feed a growing global population and generated jobs and economic
growth. But this has come at a high cost. The meat industry has a particularly
heavy impact. Grazing areas for cattle account for about 25% of the world’s
ice-free land and more than 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Crop
production uses 12% of land and creates less than 7% of emissions.
We face the challenge of developing workable socio-economic
systems that have a strong regional element and are not dependent on centralized,
complex technologies-systems that preserve and enhance wealth in a sustainable
way. And we must do this before the chaos of resource exhaustion, ecosystem
collapse and global climate change makes the job even more difficult-or
impossible. International trade in goods and ideas will and should continue,
but the only form of globalization that is acceptable is one that unites
nations in meeting global threats and in preserving the environments, life
forms and civilizations of this planet.
Finally, governments globally need to ensure environmental
sustainability by promoting clean energy and sustainable use of land and
resources in urban development, protect ecosystems and biodiversity, including
adopting healthy lifestyles in harmony with nature, promote sustainable consumption
and production patterns, build urban resilience, reduce disaster risks by mitigating and
adapting to climate change #Environment #SDG15 #SDGS #Sustainability
#Ecosystems #Biodiversity
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