Saturday 11 February 2012

UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability delivers a final report

In August 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) "that bring together renowned world figures to formulate a new blueprint for a sustainable future on a planet under increasing stress resulting from human activities".

The Panel, which was co-chaired by Finnish President Tarja Halonen and South African President Jacob Zuma, met a few times - with Zuma not present on most occasions - to hear what the bureaucrats and "experts", who actually wrote the report, had on their mind.

The GSP launched its final report, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing" on January 30 in Addis Ababa.

As was to be expected, there has more or less been silence after the launch. Who in the world would be interested in yet another compilation of UN "sustainability speak"?!

Here are a just a few excerpts to show you what was written in the name of these "renowned world figures":

The long-term vision of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability is to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality and make growth inclusive, and production and consumption more sustainable, while combating climate change and respecting a range of other planetary boundaries. This reaffirms the landmark 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development, "Our Common Future" (United Nations document A/42/427, annex), known to all as the Brundtland report.

But what, then, is to be done if we are to make a real difference for the world’s people and the planet? We must grasp the dimensions of the challenge. We must recognize that the drivers of that challenge include unsustainable lifestyles, production and consumption patterns and the impact of population growth.

The current global development model is unsustainable. We can no longer assume that our collective actions will not trigger tipping points as environmental thresholds are breached, risking irreversible damage to both ecosystems and human communities. At the same time, such thresholds should not be used to impose arbitrary growth ceilings on developing countries seeking to lift their people out of poverty.


It is time for bold global efforts, including launching a major global scientific initiative, to strengthen the interface between science and policy. We must define, through science, what scientists refer to as "planetary boundaries", "environmental thresholds" and "tipping points".

Most goods and services sold today fail to bear the full environmental and social cost of production and consumption. Based on the science, we need to reach consensus, over time, on methodologies to price them properly. Costing environmental externalities could open new opportunities for green growth and green jobs;

International governance for sustainable development must be strengthened by using existing institutions more dynamically and by considering the creation of a global sustainable development council and the adoption of sustainable development goals;

Note the key words and phrases:


  • unsustainable lifestyles, production and consumption patterns
  • The current global development model is unsustainable
  • "planetary boundaries", "environmental thresholds" and "tipping points"
  • Based on the science, we need to reach consensus, over time, on methodologies to price them (goods and services) properly
  • the creation of a global sustainable development council

What these "sustainability socialists" want is in reality to have some kind of world (socialist) government to decide our lifestyle, production, consumtion, markets and prices. Fortunately, their dream will never come true, but it will keep hundreds - if not thousands - of highly paid bureaucrats and "experts" busy planning the next major totally useless "sustainability" reports.

1 comment:

Sue said...

They're merely following the "plan" - Agenda 21

http://muffledvociferation.blogspot.com/p/agenda-21.html

But.. it will fail :)