UN Calls Sustainable Development a Top Priority

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The UN High-Level Panel Global Sustainability released its report in Addis Ababa yesterday entitled Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing. The panel’s 99-page report, which will serve as an input to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June, (otherwise known as the Rio+20 Summit) is a call to action, "to address the sustainable development challenge in a fresh and operational way." This document is incredibly rich, beautifully written and filled with a tremendous amount of good thought, clear vision, careful analysis, sober assessment, and useful suggestions for ways to move sustainable development from an abstract concept to the core of mainstream economics.

The UN High-Level Panel Global Sustainability released its report in Addis Ababa yesterday entitled Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing. The panel’s 99-page report, which will serve as an input to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June, (otherwise known as the Rio+20 Summit) is a call to action, "to address the sustainable development challenge in a fresh and operational way." This document is incredibly rich, beautifully written and filled with a tremendous amount of good thought, clear vision, careful analysis, sober assessment, and useful suggestions for ways to move sustainable development from an abstract concept to the core of mainstream economics.

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The panel’s snapshot of the current state includes the following observations:

27 per cent of the world’s population lives in absolute poverty (down from 46 per cent in 1990)

Global economic growth is up 75 per cent since 1992 but inequality is still high

An increase of 20 million undernourished people since 2000

5.2 million hectares net forest loss per year

Ozone layer will recover to pre-1980 levels in 50 years plus

Two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are in decline

85 per cent of all fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted, recovering or fully exploited

38 per cent increase in annual global carbon dioxide emissions between 1990 and 2009

For further information: http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/02/calls-sustainable-development-top-priority/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TriplePundit+%28Triple+Pundit%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/UN_building.jpg