21 March 2012: UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner delivered a statement to the German Parliament (Bundestag) titled “Pathways to Sustainable Development” in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).
Steiner updated participants on the background of the two themes for Rio+20, namely the Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and an institutional framework for sustainable development (IFSD). He also outlined progress on reaching outcomes at Rio+20.
On the Green Economy, he provided an overview of the findings of UNEP’s Green Economy report, noting it estimated that a transition to the Green Economy will require a global investment of 2% of global GDP through 2050 in ten key sectors including energy, transport, fisheries, forests and agriculture.
On energy, he noted that the report suggests that investing about 1.25% of global GDP annually in energy efficiency and renewable energies could reduce global primary energy demand by 9% in 2020 and by nearly 40% by 2050. On fisheries, Steiner explained the report suggests investing in strengthened fisheries management, including the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs), and the decommissioning and reduction of fleet capacity.
Looking to Rio+20, Steiner highlighted the need for a new and transformational indicator of wealth. He described UNEP’s call for “committing to the development of an internationally-agreed accounting framework and metrics to complement GDP for better measurement for progress towards sustainable development,” which features in its submissions to the outcome document.
Reflecting on the IFSD debate, he stressed the need to strengthen environmental governance, including at the global level, to achieve a more balanced public policy discourse. He said driving the need for such reform is the fact that environment ministers remain marginalized in respect to their counterparts in ministries of finance and development. Steiner concluded by underscoring there is a desire for a “new kind of progress,” but whether world leaders will “seize the moment,” remains an open question for Rio+20. [UNEP Press Release]