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Interview at the Summit Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Natalie Morris, Singapore Aug 27, 2002
Environment   Opinions

  


In principle, I would not rely on businesses to be let alone to find solutions to achieve sustainable development. I think it is even dangerous, because nowadays, especially with globalisation, there is too much short term interest and shareholder interest, and success by making profits in short run, by performance on the stock exchange, which forces businesses. You mentioned the car industry. The car industry is not really the driving force nor an effective vehicle. There is not enough interest for the production as customers do not care about fuel consumption or reserves. What we need is , to bring consumers and the industry to develop alternative products. One way is to increase fuel prices, put taxes on fuels. Then consumers will not go for cars because it becomes too expensive. The car industry will respond in less than a year. ... through increasing fuel prices, and other legislative methods. It never hurt businesses to be innovative and think in terms of sustainable development. ...

When you talk of good governance, are you basically referring to the government setting the tone for action?

Basically, all matters of social, economic and environmental life are regulated, such that you achieve sustainable development. That means you have governments who are dedicated to achieving sustainable development in their actions. ... Good governance means that the public has the possibility to participate, and also that there is the possibility that businesses can play roles in achieving sustainable development. ...

In order for environmental democracy to work, it has already been ascertained that the public needs access to information. However, if the public is not prepared for the kind of information that they get, will this not result in a higher propensity for extremist actions and views with respect to environmental concerns?

It needs to be step-by-step. The South African government representative , said that if you want to make adjustments, it must be step-by-step. If change is at once, you cannot cope -- institutions and people will be overwhelmed. Independent institutions -- not the government; it can be non-governmental organisations -- can support the process and take care that the opposite of what you want is not reached instead. International institutions, like the United Nations, have their limitations. They are bureaucratic and there are too many limitations in the United Nations system. Any change has to be carefully handled and needs a masterplan. In Central and Eastern Europe, the transition was revolutionary in a sense, but it was a process that was step-by-step in most countries, but it’s not the end yet.

Onto more general issues, do you feel that poverty is, more often than not, used as a convenient umbrella term to sweep other issues under the carpet?

This Summit will focus on the environment, sustainable development, poverty and environmental degradation. In the Third World, it is the other way around: the poverty issue is sometimes used by the government as an excuse to focus on the economy to make jobs for people, and the environment later. This is short-sighted.

What do you think is the role of youth in working towards sustainable development?

The process of achieving sustainable development, requires that we target youth, as sustainable development is about using resources so that the next generation, which is growing up now, has the same living standards, or even better, and so on. This is so that we do not destroy the base for human beings and other beings of the world.

Youths do play an important role. Beyond that, because adults do not, or do not want to, see it, we cannot underestimate the impact of youths on adults. The youths of today, will be the decision makers of tomorrow. They understand issues of the environment and sustainable development better than the present generation, and may be able to do things in a different and better way. In Central and Eastern Europe, non-governmental organisations are 90% driven by young people. These young people mostly have an impact and achieve something. That alone, shows the importance of youths. Lots of the projects by our organisation target young people, and have training programmes for them.


That sounds like a positive forecast for the future!

I hope so.

© Global Youth Reporters Programme





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