TERI Home


hda.jpg (11658 bytes)

Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2002
Ensuring sustainable livelihoods:

challenges for governments, corporates, and civil society at Rio+10
8 - 11 February 2002, New Delhi

hdx.jpg (5704 bytes)
Home Themes Speakers Papers Bulletin Media coverage
8 Feb. 2002 9 Feb. 2002 10 Feb. 2002 11 Feb. 2002
                                   
    10 February 2002: Keynote 3
               
                   
Chairperson

Real video

Dr Prodipto Ghosh
Additional Secretary, Prime Minister's Office, Government of India

 

 

 

 

          
Speaker

Real video

Prof. Gus Speth
Dean, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, USA

"Our generation comprises people who are overly fond to talk and attend conferences but hardly take any actions."

 

 

                             
Session summary
Prof. Speth emphasized that the ongoing debate on sustainable development has to be freed from the additional baggage it has carried so far and reduced to its essentials. He said that the forthcoming WSSD should address the two most crucial issues of sustainable development - poverty and environment. The summit should be marked with a sense of urgency to find answers to these problems, given the current rate at which the world’s natural resource base is being eroded.

He condemned the US for being the world’s biggest polluter, and yet taking the stand it has on the Kyoto Protocol. He noted that despite 20 years of debate on sustainable development, the world community still falls short of action. Poverty and environmental degradation continue on a larger scale. To this date, international environmental laws are vague and lack enforcement.

Poverty and its relationship to the environment have to be dealt with a new seriousness at the WSSD. Despite growing life expectancy and declining child mortality, the bleak reality of poverty remains. In this context, Dr Speth reiterated the goal set through the United Nations in its Millennium Declaration of halving global poverty by 2015.

Dr Speth said that the WSSD was an opportunity to ‘walk beyond the talk’ and correct past mistakes. This could be achieved through time-bound action plans for all the commitments made. He outlined 10 areas where action-forcing initiatives are need to be agreed at Johannesburg.

He suggested a multi-layered poverty strategy in contrast to the conventional one that singularly stresses the role of economic growth to counter poverty. His strategy focused on seven aspects of successful anti-poverty strategies including large investments in basic services for the poor (e.g. health and education), in regenerating the natural resource base, and in promoting sustainable livelihoods by empowering the poor with productive assets.

Dr Speth said that the world community should strive to get the Kyoto Protocol ratified at the WSSD. He also stressed on the need to renew the Convention on Biodiversity and prepare realistic plans to check deforestation.

Dr Speth stated the need for accountability, including such measures as performance measurement, benchmarking, and best practices approach to assess the goals achieved. He concluded his address by underscoring the urgency to implement these ideas. ‘We do not have the luxury of time any longer,’ he said.