Call goes out in ugent effort for environment
Call goes out in ugent effort for environment
UNITED NATIONS (AP): Despite improvements in the last 30 years, efforts to keep the globe eco-friendly remain the world's "urgent, unfinished agenda," the deputy United Nations chief said on Wednesday.
In a speech to environment ministers attending a UN conference on sustainable development -- the term for environmentally sound economic growth -- Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette called for a new ethic of conservation and stewardship to guide development in the 21st century.
"There is no denying the environmental achievements of the past three decades," Frechette said, listing the creation of government environment ministries and landmark treaties on climate change, biodiversity and the depletion of the ozone layer.
"However," she said, "we must acknowledge the presence of an urgent, unfinished agenda: humans continue to plunder the global environment, unsustainable practices remain deeply embedded in the fabric of our daily lives, and despite some honorable exceptions, our responses to the challenges of sustainability have been too few, too little and too late."
The environment conference of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development is meeting at UN headquarters to prepare for the 10th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where world leaders adopted a broad agenda to protect forests, clean up water, reverse atmospheric pollution, alleviate poverty and address other problems.
The environment group Greenpeace pointed out that the conference was occurring at U.N. headquarters at the same time as a monthlong review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
"In one room, the rich few will argue that they have no money to spare for sustainable development, in the other they will struggle to maintain and further develop their multi-billion dollar nuclear arsenal," said Remi Parmentier, head of Greenpeace's international political unit.
"If only a portion of what is spent by the nuclear weapons states to maintain and further develop their nuclear weapons was re-routed towards the protection of the environment, sustainable development could become a reality," Parmentier said in a statement.