Hey folks,
I hope you are all enjoying the Super Bowl now.
I’m going to take advantage of the halftime to give you guys a rather encouraging article. BBC reports Costa Rica’s effort on going green.
While the regulation seems to be a obstacle in development, Costa Rica seems to be doing just fine balancing development and environmental sustainability.
How can other countries, like China, follow suit? Is it possible to balance development and sustainability in larger countries?
Though cognizant of our rather large carbon emissions, China actually has made sweeping changes in the past as well as recently to push more sustainable plans through. We hope to mirror Costa Rica’s success through our very own attempts at building an empire that will prioritize environmental protection. In the past few years, we have made changes to our national policy to support a reduction in emissions and have declared a 40-45% emissions reduction target by the year 2050. The People’s Republic of China is confident that larger countries, such as ours, are fully capable of balancing development and sustainability. In fact, we ourselves have reduced our energy intensity index by 10% and our water pollution by 4.4% over the past few years without disrupting economic growth. Some projects that have helped us to achieve this includes our joint management of World Wide Paints which utilizes solar hot water to make environmentally pure water based paints, our China Environmental Health Project which addresses all environmental problems in our country, and our Top-1,000 Program which uses energy audits to reduce energy primarily for the top 1,000 emitting corporations in our country. In this way, these programs still encourage development, just in a safe, non-threatening way. Though these programs wouldn’t necessarily work for all nations, it is our belief that if other large countries put sustainability at the top of their political agenda, the international community could make a significant difference.
Cuba sent UNDP email address (bmun58undp(at)gmail.com) the following comment, so I thought I’d share:
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Regarding the article on Costa Rica’s environmental policy: Cuba finds Costa Rica’s envorinmental policy and the importance which they place on this issue highly commendable. The success which they have had in this effort, coming first in NEF’s Happy Planet Index and third in the Environmental Performance Index, just goes to show that balancing envirnomental sustainability with development is an extremely achievable goal, the policies for this change just need to be implemented. Because of this, Cuba feels that large countries, such as China, are defenitly able to achieve a balance between development and environmental sustainability, just through adopting “green” policies, such as tree planting campaigns, low carbon-footprint production techniques and renewable energy resources. It is in fact easier for these developed countries to make this change, as they have the capital and established systems already in place, and can therefore afford to make (possibly more costly) adjustments for environmental sustainability, and can also put more money into “green technology” and research. Whereas developing countries are usually short of the extra capital and resources necessary to make these changes.
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By the way, comments should work; the chairs just have to approve them, so don’t worry if your comment does not show up right away.
The United Kingdom fully agrees that it is possible for larger countries to balance development as well as sustainability. It is also necessary that these two features be intertwined as many countries are not engaging in sustainable development and are therefore degrading the environment. We have also tried to create more accountability from businesses, public sectors, as well as waste management agencies. In 2009 we passed Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2009 SI 153, which forces those that create environmental risk to pay fees if they violate these regulations. While not feasible for all countries, the United Kingdom encourages more governments to create laws that establish some sort of fines or punishments for those responsible for environmental damage.
In addition, to create more sustainable development, the United Kingdom feels that the governments should become more involved especially when dealing with community health, an issue that is becoming increasingly wide spread. This is why the United Kingdom would like to implement the Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health, which works with governments to identify research needs that governments need to focus on while also revealing the federal resources and capacities that are able to address these needs. It also assists governments by working with federal scientific agencies to create strategic plans that address the health effects of climate change within the nation. Through this, the United Kingdom hopes that governments will take a more active role and be encouraged to address issues involved with climate change.
It is no surprise that climate change directly affects community health, and it seems that Costa Rica is on the right track to preserving not only the environment, but simultaneously the health and well-being of their citizens. Kuwait agrees with this article in the development and environmental sustainability is attainable as Kuwait held the Global Development Network’s 10th Annual Conference in February of last year. ( http://www.greenprophet.com/2009/02/02/6562/kuwait-conference-gdn/) The main focus of this conference was “Natural Resources and Development” and included presentations by K.S. Kavikumar and Stephen Howes, who talked about climate change in relation to developing nations and developed nations, respectively. Kuwait is extremely concerned with the current rates of climate change, especially its impact on local water. It has been reported that “since 1985, seawater temperature in Kuwait Bay, northern Arabian Gulf, has increased on average 0.6°C per decade. (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/nocs-cci113009.php) Water changes are of a huge concern for Kuwait seeing that one of our main income sources, other than oil of course, is fishing as opposed to agriculture. If climate change continues to negatively impact our water sources, many of our citizens’ jobs and lives will be in jeopardy. About 90 to 93% of Kuwait’s daily consumed fresh water comes from desalination plants, however, these plants will have to be deactivated if water temperatures reach 37-38°C. Although developing nations may struggle more than developed nations in mitigating climate change, it is still of utmost importance to developing nations such as Kuwait to reach climate change goals, as the long term effects of look grim and devastating to economies, health, and overall well-being.