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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL OPENS HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF SUBSTANTIVE SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS ON THEME ‘ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT’
President Says Rising Commodity Prices, Deepening Income Disparities,
Climate Change ‘Serious Threats to Our Efforts to Lift People Out of Poverty’
With soaring commodity prices and the onset of global warming threatening to undo hard-won progress made to alleviate poverty in the developing world, the President of the Economic and Social Council today urged national Governments and the United Nations system to collaborate on integrated approaches to development that placed sustainability at the core of coherent economic growth strategies.
Council President Léo Mérorès, of Haiti, said that the 54-member body, which opened the high-level segment of its annual substantive session in New York today, was meeting as recent global prosperity and economic growth was being pressured by rising food and oil prices, deeper income disparities, and increased competition for resources. “We are facing serious threats to our efforts to lift people out of poverty,” he said, adding that those challenges were further compounded by climate change and the more frequent and more intense storms, floods and droughts that came with it.
This year’s Annual Ministerial Review, which traditionally kicks off the Council’s month-long session, would contribute to promoting collective solutions, including strengthening governance and global cooperation, increasing financial assistance and promoting technology transfer, he said. The two-day Review would also bolster current efforts to better integrate the three elements of sustainable development — economic growth, social development and environmental protection — because, he said: “It seems that if development is not sustainable, it will not be attainable.”
He also said that with uncertainty growing about the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the Council’s Development Cooperation Forum, which held its first biennial meeting today, was envisioned as a United Nations forum for ensuring coherence in cooperation towards attaining globally agreed development targets. The Forum was uniquely placed to bring together a wide range of development actors and, therefore, had the potential to be a leading venue for inclusive global dialogue and policy review on key development issues.
Under-Secretary-General of Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang, who delivered a message on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General, noted that this was “a critical juncture” in the implementation of the United Nations development agenda. The fragile state of the major developed market economies, and broader economic turbulence were slowing global economic growth, while rising food and energy prices were hitting the poor and vulnerable especially hard.
Urgent collective action was needed, particularly to address global economic imbalances and widespread scepticism about globalization, which many felt was leaving behind the most vulnerable and increasing economic insecurity among the middle classes. “No social or economic order is secure if it fails to benefit the majority of those who live under it,” he said, adding that: “This session of ECOSOC should give new impetus to the realization of our long-standing goal of achieving economic growth, social development and environmental protection in an integrated and balanced manner, which is the key to the prosperity of humankind.”
Today’s opening session also featured keynote addresses by Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Nobel-prize winning group of scientists tasked with studying human activity’s effects on the environment; and Lord Stern of Brentford, economist and author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the groundbreaking 2006 report that assessed the effect of climate change and global warming on the world economy.
“We’re all in this together,” said Lord Stern, outlining the key elements of a global framework to tackle climate change. The targets of such a framework would include worldwide cuts in emissions by 50 per cent by 2050, with rich countries cutting at least 80 per cent. Developing countries should take on targets by, at latest, 2020, as rich countries demonstrated low-carbon growth, lived up to funding agreements, and shared technologies.
He cautioned that any new deal must not “be like a WTO deal where nobody does anything until everybody agreed on everything. We don’t have that kind time.” There was a need to accelerate public policy design, and research and technology development, and to generate the political will to put policies into action, especially towards low carbon growth. The new framework for action required each individual country to start acting now, with the understanding that other countries would come along. The effort depended on global political leadership and would involve the largest collaborative effort the world had ever seen.
Also today, the Council held a high-level policy dialogue with international financial and trade institutions on current developments in the world economy that featured statements from: Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Murilo Portugal, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund; Justin Lin, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of the World Bank; Valentine Rugwabiza, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization; Ricardo French-Davis, Chairman of the Committee for Development Policy; Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme; and Mr. Sha.
Ms. Rugwabiza said that, while the WTO’s Doha Development round could not provide immediate solutions to many problems, its successful conclusion could form part of the midterm solutions to help put the world back on the path of economic growth. But, differences would have to be bridged, and every attempt be made to push the limits of political will and to strive for the adoption of the modalities in agriculture and non-agricultural goods by the end of next month.
Indeed, Mr. Panitchpakdi cautioned that, although the world was now standing at the threshold of a breakthrough for this round of negotiations, a breakthrough had to be made by July or a crucial window would close.
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The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today opened the four-day high-level segment of its annual substantive session, which will run at Headquarters until 25 July.
