UNEP
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of UNEP, it is a privilege to address you today.
The choice of the topic ? Moving Towards Sustainable Development: Expectations from Rio+20 ? could not have been more visionary, because it is on the day after the UN Conference in June 2012 that we, as a society, will know whether or not we are now, finally, on the road to sustainability.
By then, the contentious debates on the green economy would be water under the bridge. We will be facing the stark reality of living up to our objective: effectively integrating our social, economic and environmental CHOICES for sustainable development and poverty eradication.
The day after Rio +20 presents us with another challenge: Do we spend the next year, or decade, debating HOW TO have an effective institutional framework for sustainable development, rather than use the framework TO DO. The distance between HOW TO and TO DO can be vast and littered with massive obstacles. We may, therefore, find ourselves in a loop of repeating the phrase ? we need urgent action ? from day one to two or three generations later.
For us at UNEP, the two themes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development are not mutually exclusive. They are integrated, and integral to society, aimed at finally getting on the main highway to sustainable development, rather than staying on the side and dusty roads on which we have been traveling for decades.
UNEP has responded to the invitation by the General Assembly in resolutions 64/236, 65/152 and 65/162 to contribute to the success of the Rio +20 preparatory process. UNEP has produced, together with other UN agencies and stakeholders, a wealth of resources and information on green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, which, we hope, is informing your discussions on this issue. Considerable work has also been carried out under the auspices of the Governing Council on international environmental governance. This is a key input to discussions on the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Success at Rio +20 will mean an unambiguous vision and action plan on strengthening our governance regimes at all levels ? international, regional, sub-regional and national. For the environment, we need a strong UNEP at the global level as much as we need strong environmental institutions at the lower levels. They are all interdependent, and ownership by governments of the regulatory structures at these different levels is critical to legitimacy. An institution viewed with suspicion at the international level cannot be effective in working with governments at national levels.
Success at Rio +20 also means national-level commitment to the transition to green economy ? not as a trade barrier or brake on resource use, but rather as an opportunity to use innovation in the use of our resources more efficiently. In other words, to use the limited resources we have more efficiently, in order to eradicate poverty and human and environmental vulnerability, and enhance sustainable development and human well-being.
It?s important to remember that rejection of new ideas is not a solution to our world with many diverse crises, but rather abdication of leadership. Let?s not add a crisis of leadership to the basket full of the other crises: food security crisis, energy crisis, climate change crisis, land degradation, drought and desertification crises, water crisis, and biodiversity loss crisis
I would like to conclude by citing the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future: that ?these are not separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development crisis, and energy crisis. They are all one.?
Thank you.
On behalf of UNEP, it is a privilege to address you today.
The choice of the topic ? Moving Towards Sustainable Development: Expectations from Rio+20 ? could not have been more visionary, because it is on the day after the UN Conference in June 2012 that we, as a society, will know whether or not we are now, finally, on the road to sustainability.
By then, the contentious debates on the green economy would be water under the bridge. We will be facing the stark reality of living up to our objective: effectively integrating our social, economic and environmental CHOICES for sustainable development and poverty eradication.
The day after Rio +20 presents us with another challenge: Do we spend the next year, or decade, debating HOW TO have an effective institutional framework for sustainable development, rather than use the framework TO DO. The distance between HOW TO and TO DO can be vast and littered with massive obstacles. We may, therefore, find ourselves in a loop of repeating the phrase ? we need urgent action ? from day one to two or three generations later.
For us at UNEP, the two themes of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development are not mutually exclusive. They are integrated, and integral to society, aimed at finally getting on the main highway to sustainable development, rather than staying on the side and dusty roads on which we have been traveling for decades.
UNEP has responded to the invitation by the General Assembly in resolutions 64/236, 65/152 and 65/162 to contribute to the success of the Rio +20 preparatory process. UNEP has produced, together with other UN agencies and stakeholders, a wealth of resources and information on green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, which, we hope, is informing your discussions on this issue. Considerable work has also been carried out under the auspices of the Governing Council on international environmental governance. This is a key input to discussions on the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Success at Rio +20 will mean an unambiguous vision and action plan on strengthening our governance regimes at all levels ? international, regional, sub-regional and national. For the environment, we need a strong UNEP at the global level as much as we need strong environmental institutions at the lower levels. They are all interdependent, and ownership by governments of the regulatory structures at these different levels is critical to legitimacy. An institution viewed with suspicion at the international level cannot be effective in working with governments at national levels.
Success at Rio +20 also means national-level commitment to the transition to green economy ? not as a trade barrier or brake on resource use, but rather as an opportunity to use innovation in the use of our resources more efficiently. In other words, to use the limited resources we have more efficiently, in order to eradicate poverty and human and environmental vulnerability, and enhance sustainable development and human well-being.
It?s important to remember that rejection of new ideas is not a solution to our world with many diverse crises, but rather abdication of leadership. Let?s not add a crisis of leadership to the basket full of the other crises: food security crisis, energy crisis, climate change crisis, land degradation, drought and desertification crises, water crisis, and biodiversity loss crisis
I would like to conclude by citing the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future: that ?these are not separate crises: an environmental crisis, a development crisis, and energy crisis. They are all one.?
Thank you.
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