|
|
 |
  |
| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
'World may perish at our hands' Address by Prof C.Suriyakumaran in Beijing China on the occasion of 20th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations - Sasakawa environment prize. I cannot fail to take note, at this time of my presence in Beijing, of a somewhat unique occasion, of my first visit to China - twenty eight years ago to the day - as an honoured Guest of the Government of the People's Republic of China. It was still the early days, as the phrase goes, when I left for Beijing, with valuable assistance of the Government of Pakistan, by what had come to be known as 'The Kissinger Route' over the Western Himalayan Range and across to China. Being in 'Environment' by then was fortunate - looking back, also on this Special Occasion today - with the entire Visit devoted to the cause and efforts and hopes on behalf of Environment in China, in UNEP and in the World. It was an education too to be here then. And it was Chairman Mao's last year, the foundations of the economic long march to ultimate prosperity having been laid and the economic and social policies readied for the next, and new, phases that brought us to witness China's present redoubtable economic and political progress. On Environment at that time, China's Leaders had already declared that 'Solutions to the problem of the Environment must be sought within the process of Development and not outside of it'. Apart from echoing Indira Gandhi, it was a concept and a declaration which gathered supporters outside, around the World. Years later, Prof. Qu Geping our 1992 Environment Laureate, in the words of his Citation "had for long years been at the head of putting forward measures .... to integrate Environment protection ... within economic and industrial development" - a sentiment which I in my Autumn '91 London School of Economics Lectures on Environmental Planning for Development had emphasized, stating that 'Environment and Development were not two different Tasks, but the same Task, which cannot be performed except together'. A translation of these sentiments and ideas needed clearly defined Policy Instruments, which unfortunately have still been slow in coming; and Countries and the World have progressed only in patches. From Global Warming, to integrated Environment-Development Management, the creation of National Instruments, therefore, and of true Protocols of Accord in support of National endeavours, still have long roads to traverse. In a later statement, shortly after Rio, at an International Conference in Delhi, I had to state "Thus, while the World had so far, even if not with full success, still evolved what may be called an Environment Programme for Conservation, it had still to look at its striking 'vacant area of need' and to formulate an Environment Programme for Development." This is not the time to discourse on them. Yet, they remain, and shall remain, our first and final priorities, if we were not to pay only lip service, and were to go beyond, to a World Environmental Order. Let me therefore end this, albeit somewhat personally, with an extract from a Policy Framework which I had detailed in my own endeavors these preceding years. They were in the form of Four Policy Benchmarks, carrying both Global and National Partnerships in their process. While calling for the best National Policies, these also implied intense International Cooperation and mutual support, for their success. Those four policy benchmarks were - 1. The use in National and Global GDP Computations, in lieu now of the established System of National Accounts, of an "Expanded System of Economic - Environment National Accounting" (SEEA) - like the current GDP System, also advanced for some years by the United Nations. 2. The design of comprehensive "Resources Balance Sheets" - beginning with the National, but extending in time to Regional and Global Levels, - for all major resources of the Environment and, therefore, of Development, with Joint Environment-Economic tools for their utilization. 3. Employment of Integrated Environment-Economic Cost Benefit Presentation in place of the current inadequate Environmental Impact Assessment Statements (EIASS). 4. The use of Environmental Audit at Micro (Firm) level as indispensable complement to the conventional Financial Audits. An honest translation and employment of the foregoing would, in practice, lead to both optimal Environment - Development Policy making at National Level; and certainly, to higher levels of mutual understanding around the International Conference Tables in arriving at protocols, convention and agreements. Personally, and I think, you may agree, I have no doubt of these at sometime, if for no other reason than that, otherwise, the World may perish at our hands - before it does by natural circumstance at a future time. In this journey, we may sometimes be tempted to be misled by the opportunities of Science and Technology, particularly in the Oceans, the Atmosphere and the Sun. At the center of all these perhaps stands Energy, the life blood of economic growth and, on the current rates of its exploitation, a major means to Planetary dis-equilibrium. Any future scenario based on an extension of traditional supply curves, therefore, cannot but be cause for extreme discomfort in our future views of Ecological balance. Perhaps here, in a heightened illustration of development and technology as producers of solutions, we have the prediction of a Space Scientist that, by the early years of the Millennium, the first commercial device producing clean, safe power by low temperature nuclear reactions could go on the market, heralding 'the end of the Fossil Fuel Age'. The fruition of the so-called 'Cold Fusion' process that had begun to be uncovered in the closing years of the last Century, resulting in the availability to the World of limitless clean energy, could become one of our outstanding 'Change Programmes' of the future, opening doors to 'new levels of Environment-Development equilibrium'. Yet, before we leave this vision of a New Heraldry, and a new Plenty, let us also recall, the Universe being what it is, that no change, however absolute, is without its own trail of other creations that we may have to turn our attention to. On Energy itself, the very consequence by the foregoing, in new production surges will leave for sure, trails of fearsome threats from all the mountains of new Wastes. Other consequences too could follow, from completion of the great Traffic standstill on the Roads of the World's Cities, to dis-emboweling the Earth in ravaging the Resources of Nature more than ever before. I am tempted here to recall what an eminent Indian Scientist mentioned at a Conference of Environmental NGOs convened in Delhi sometime in the 70s "In this whole Universe" he said, "the Plant is the only organisms that manufactures its own food. All other organisms either live on plants, or on other organisms that live on those plants". A simple truth indeed, but which drives home to us unrelentingly the indisputability, and indispensability, of the Air, the Sun, the Soil, and Water, before all else. Clearly, therefore in all these four areas, we need to make up our lag in what I called an Environment Programme for Development, at all our Levels, from Village through Country, to the World, as we had so far done purely for Development. On UNEP's fifth topic for attention, namely Regional Progress, I must say, while being brief, that I have to be regretful of opportunities unused, when we had all before us. I may also speak with some confidence in view of the role I was privileged to have in my years in charge of the Asia-Pacific. One of the earliest steps we took in the Seventies was to enter into a dialogue with the Asian Development Bank - with Vice President Mr. Krishnamoorthy in particular - to initiate an Environmental Dimension function in their funding activities, by setting up a well designed arm within the Bank for that purpose. Physically, success was swift and worthy of mutual self satisfactions. But, as in these things, the concepts ceased to develop as expected, and Environment became simply a separate wing, doing 'its own things' instead of being, as intended, a Dimension in all the Sector projects and programmes of the Bank. One must hope that this meeting today offers an opportunity for that needed new look and new orientation in what is after all Asia's own Development Agency, and perhaps its most important. The need of the Future is to embrace the truthful premise that there is no separate God and no Separate Prophet, but One ! There is only one Task and not Two Separate Tasks of Environment as one; and Development as another. The foregoing may now well be an Agenda for Asia, in which the other players too - China, Japan and, indeed, Asian Russia - could discover new common causes and new Fora for joint actions. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
