Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that Poverty Eradication, which has been identified at Rio+20 as the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, must remain the central and overarching objective of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda. He was addressing the first United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi on Thursday.
Javadekar had struck a similar chord during his statement earlier this week while speaking at an event to mark the “world day to combat desertification”. He had minced no words stating that India’s net emissions of harmful gases will grow and it will need a window till 2030, 2035 or 2040, before it can start cutting them.
Javadekar pointed out that there is sheer inequity in consumption of world’s resources. He quoted High level panel report of UN Secretary General saying that 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty account for only one percent of world’s consumption of resources, while the richest 1 billion people consume 72 per cent.
He emphasized on the wide difference between the average per capita consumption of energy and other resources in the developed and developing countries as also the huge wastage of food at consumer level in developed countries. This according to him makes it imperative for developed countries to take lead to shift towards Sustainable Consumption & Production (SCP) patterns.
“Clearly, our efforts to put the global economy on a sustainable path must not be and cannot be on the backs of the poor”, he said. At the same time, improving energy efficiency and resource use in production processes is extremely important. Once again, the developed countries have to lead from the front and commit technology transfer to developing countries for them to achieve this.