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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Environment and development in common cause Professor C. Suriyakumaran, a distinguished former international civil servant and an Honorary CIWEM Fellow, was invited to China last autumn to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Sasakawa Environmental Prize. The professor attended in his capacity as a laureate, having won the prize in 1995. He used the opportunity to speak about the environment and development and the course of events over the last two decades. He recalled words he had used in 1991 when he defined the environment and development as related task 'which cannot be performed except together.' He recognised that progress along this path had been slow and proposed a four point policy framework to further international co-operation. 1. Develop an expanded system of economic environmental accounting at national level. 2. Devis resource balance sheets, starting at national level and extending to regional and global levels, to define major environmental assets. 3. Employ integrated environment-economic cost benefit analysis to replace current environmental impact assessment statements which are inadequate. 4. The environmental auditing at company level to complement financial audits. Adoption of these principles would, he believed, lead to environmental development policies at national level which would provide a basis for international co-operation. Professor Suriyakumaran called for an environmental program to equal the strategy which has so successfully driven economic development. Acknowledging that energy was the 'lifeblood of economic growth' he voiced his concerns about a future which depended on extending energy consumption. In conclusion, the professor told his audience that they should not pat themselves on the back but that they could leave lessons about our past for future generations. Courtesy: WEM, Water and Environment Magazine, London |
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