Geneva, 23 June 2011 - Mark Halle, one of a series of experts addressing UNCTAD´s third Public Symposium this week, said it best: "A green economy that´s not fair and equitable isn´t a green economy."
Debate over two days at the symposium centred repeatedly on issues of fairness. These were applied not only to the inevitable upcoming shift to environmentally sustainable economic growth, with panelists pointing out repeatedly that the industrialized countries which are historically responsible for the bulk of greenhouse-gas emissions have a responsibility to help poorer nations cope with climate change.
Fairness also was cited at Wednesday´s session when officials discussed how the world financial system should be reformed after the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"A crisis should be used to learn lessons and do things differently," UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told the meeting. "That hasn´t been happening. We need a system that really takes the needs of developing countries into account - not just Wall Street, but people who don´t have a street to walk on."
The Symposium addressed two topics: "Financial and monetary reforms for sustainable development: Global and regional initiatives," and "Making the transition to a green economy fair and equitable." The discussions will help to sharpen perspectives in advance of several upcoming high-level conferences: the UNCTAD XIII quadrennial session (2012), the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (2012), and the 2011 G20 Summit. Representatives of civil society, the private sector, Parliamentarians, academia, the media, international organizations and governments participated in the symposium.
UNCTAD-XIII has as its theme development-centred globalization. The organization says a shift is necessary because finance-led global economic growth, which has held sway in recent decades, has caused repeated crises, has not reduced widening income disparities, and has not translated into substantial poverty reduction.
"In view of the unanimous judgment of the panelists, the prefix post-crisis is still premature," UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Petko Draganov said at this evening´s closing plenary. "There was also agreement over the causes of the crisis: panelists mostly identified the lack of regulation and possibly an excessive faith in market efficiency as the main factors precipitating the start of the economic meltdown. We heard a view that suggested we are in a kind of pre-crisis, which will be dwarfed by the challenges posed by climate change for both the environment and the economy." He added: "There are still dangers arising from the potential for United States austerity measures, for example; from the Eurozone debt crisis; and from the imbalances that continue to distort economies around the world."
Speakers stressed that while economic statistics may indicate otherwise, from the perspective of developing countries, the global recession is not over. They noted that unemployment remains high, the debt burdens of many poor nations are becoming unsustainable, the global trade regime still does not take sufficient account of the special needs of the most impoverished countries, and the international financial system has not been reformed to prevent future convulsions which can have dire consequences for less-developed States.
Luis Manuel Piantini Munnigh, President of UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Board, said the symposium was taking place "at a time of continuing aftershocks from the crisis," including high food prices and high unemployment. He warned of a possible double-dip recession. Emmanuel Gyekye Tanoh, Team Leader of the Third World Network-Africa, said the crisis "is absolutely not over," adding: "The main effect is that it has made a return to productive investment in developing countries crisis-prone."
A number of speakers said the austerity measures being discussed or enacted in country after country to deal with debt and related financial fallout from the recession threaten to choke off a shaky recovery where it is, in fact, occurring. Especially, severe government cuts invariably reduce social and health programmes that are vital for the poor. They also serve to widen already growing disparities in income.
Mr. Halle, Director of Trade and Investment for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Switzerland), was one of several panelists noting that the practicalities of shifting to "green" economic growth will require a careful balancing of market incentives and government attention to the needs of the poor. All called for attention to the matter.
"The transition to a green economy is inevitable," said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, speaking by video link from UNDP headquarters in Nairobi. "The question is whether it occurs by design or by default."
Speakers noted that economic and other sacrifices necessary for addressing environmental concerns should not include denying the developing world´s basic right to achieving better living standards. Managing to accomplish both that and environmental concerns will not be easy, they said. "We´re in denial about limits," announced Chandran Nair, Founder and Chief Executive of the Global Institute for Tomorrow (Hong Kong, China). "If we have 5 billion Asians consuming like Americans or Europeans in 30 years or so, the game is over. We need to recognize that we have limits and constraints."
Saying that the developed world has an obligation to help the developing world -- since almost all climate damage so far has been caused by the globe´s early industrializers -- Vicente Paolo Yu, Programme Coordinator for Global Governance for Development of the South Centre (Switzerland), told the meeting, "Developed countries have to take the lead. They said they would. They still have not."
