|
 The
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says
that major threats to the planet such as climate
change, the rate of extinction of species, and the
challenge of feeding a growing population are among
the many that today remain unresolved, and all of
which put humanity at risk. The warning comes in its
latest Global Environment Outlook: environment
for development (GEO-4) report published 20
years after the World Commission on Environment and
Development (the Brundtland Commission) produced its
seminal report, Our Common Future in 1987.
The work of more than 390 experts and reviewed by
more than 1 000 others across the world, GEO-4
is a comprehensive assessment of the current state
of the global atmosphere, land, water and
biodiversity, describes the changes since 1987, and
identifies priorities for action.
It salutes the world’s progress in tackling some
relatively straightforward problems, with the
environment now much closer to mainstream politics
everywhere.
However, there remain the harder-to-manage issues,
the “persistent” problems ranging from the rapid
rise of oxygen ‘dead zones’ in the oceans to the
resurgence of new and old diseases linked in part
with environmental degradation: “There are no major
issues raised in Our Common Future for which
the foreseeable trends are favourable. --- Failure
to address these persistent problems may undo all
the achievements so far on the simpler issues, and
may threaten humanity’s survival. ---Meanwhile,
institutions like UNEP, established to counter the
root causes, remain under-resourced and weak,” said
Mr. Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP
Executive Director.
But the objective is not to present a dark and
gloomy scenario, but an urgent call for action.
“The international community’s response to the
Brundtland Commission has in some cases been
courageous and inspiring. ---- Over the past 20
years, the international community has cut, by 95
percent, the production of ozone-layer damaging
chemicals; created a greenhouse gas emission
reduction treaty along with innovative carbon
trading and carbon offset markets; supported a rise
in terrestrial protected areas to cover roughly 12
percent of the Earth and devised numerous important
instruments covering issues from biodiversity and
desertification to the trade in hazardous wastes and
living modified organisms,” Mr. Steiner added.
“But, as GEO-4 points out, there continue to
be ‘persistent’ and intractable problems unresolved
and unaddressed. Climate change is now a “global
priority”, demanding political will and leadership.
Yet it finds “a remarkable lack of urgency”, and a
“woefully inadequate” global response. Several
highly-polluting countries have refused to ratify
the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate
agreement which obligates countries to control
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiations
are due to start in December on a treaty to replace
the Protocol. Although it exempts all developing
countries from emission reduction commitments, there
is growing pressure for some rapidly-industrialising
countries, now substantial emitters themselves, to
agree to emission reductions.
GEO-4 also warns of the effects of rising
population growth. The human population is now so
large that “the amount of resources needed to
sustain it exceeds what is available... humanity’s
footprint [its environmental demand] is 21.9
hectares per person while the Earth’s biological
capacity is, on average, only 15.7 hectares per
person... “. And it says the well-being of billions
of people in the developing world is because of a
failure to remedy the relatively simple problems
which have been successfully tackled elsewhere.
GEO-4 recalls the Brundtland Commission’s
statement that the world does not face separate
crises - the “environmental crisis”, “development
crisis”, and “energy crisis” are all one. This
crisis includes not just climate change, extinction
rates and hunger, but other problems driven by
growing human numbers, the rising consumption of the
rich and the desperation of the poor.
Other critical points the report identifies and
analyses are water, fish: biodiversity:
This is also the first GEO report in which the
potential impacts of climate change on all seven of
the world’s regions are highlighted. In Africa for
example, land degradation and desertification are
threats; per capita food production has declined by
12 percent since 1981. Unfair agricultural subsidies
in developed regions continue to hinder progress
towards increasing yields. Priorities for Asia and
the Pacific include urban air quality, fresh water
stress, degraded ecosystems, agricultural land use
and increased waste. Drinking water provision has
made remarkable progress in the last decade, but the
illegal traffic in electronic and hazardous waste is
a new challenge. Latin America and the Caribbean
face urban growth, biodiversity threats, coastal
damage and marine pollution, and vulnerability to
climate change. But protected areas now cover about
12 percent of the land, and annual deforestation
rates in the Amazon are falling.
The Future
GEO-4 acknowledges that technology can help
to reduce people’s vulnerability to environmental
stresses, but says there is sometimes a need “to
correct the technology-centred development
paradigm”. The real future will be largely
determined by the decisions individuals and society
make now: “There have been enough wake-up calls
since Brundtland. I sincerely hope GEO-4 is
the final one. The systematic destruction of the
Earth’s natural and nature-based resources has
reached a point where the economic viability of
economies is being challenged—challenged—and where
the bill we hand on to our children may prove
impossible to pay,” said Mr. Steiner.
For more information:
http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/
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