Tackling over-consumption, not over-population will be key to ensuring sustainable development, according to a new report from Christian Aid.
The paper warns that poor people – often the main source of population growth – should not be blamed for the global environmental crisis in the face of overconsumption of the world’s middle classes.
The group says more sustainable pathways are possible, and all the technologies needed are available but now it is up to policy makers and business to step up ahead of the Rio+20 Summit and align policies with what is achievable.
Currently, around 20% of the world’s population account for around 80% of consumption of global resources, and the world is consuming 50% more than is environmentally sustainable.
With increasing ‘natural resource grabs’ as Christian Aid terms it – from the wealthy countries, richer people and private sector businesses – lack of food, water and energy are leaving the world’s poorest communities more vulnerable to climate change, natural disasters and the economic downturn.
“Sometimes the implication seems to be that it is high birth rates in developing countries, rather than overconsumption by rich people, which is the main cause of climate change and other global environment crises,” said Dr Alison Doig, Christian Aid’s Senior Advisor on Sustainable Development and author of the report “Inequality in a Constrained World”.
“This would be a dangerous misconception, because it diverts attention from where it is desperately needed, which is reining in the runaway consumption of the world’s wealthy and middle classes and transforming their economics to [...]
↧
