10 February 2002: Keynote 3
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| Chairperson |
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Dr Prodipto Ghosh
Additional Secretary, Prime Minister's Office,
Government of India
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| Speaker |
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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."
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| 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.
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