This was how Jeff McNeely, Chief Scientist of IUCN-The World Conservation Union, summed up the motivation of delegates attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
During an interview here with the Global Youth Reporters, McNeely argued that sustainable development is as much about adapting to change as driving it.
“We know change will happen, it’s evolution,” he said. Summits such as the WSSD are a cauldron of ideas and energy that will help the right choices to be made.
In McNeely’s definition, sustainable development means “maintaining the capacity to adapt to changing conditions."
In order to this, he said, government and multinationals need to cooperate to achieve sustainable development.
It is multinationals that can effect this change: “They know how to make things happen because it is what they do to make money”.
McNeely sees a crucial “action” role for companies of all sizes – not just multinationals – in implementing sustainable development goals. “If you are looking for leadership look to the private sector. They know how to reach a decision quickly,” he said.
However, we now face a contradiction. “We shouldn’t look for a global definition of sustainable development,” McNeely pointed out. Instead, each country should draw up its own localised definition, while respecting cross-boundary responsibilities.
So how can multinationals operate under diverse local conditions?
McNeely had the answer. The trend towards ‘globalisation’ is not new to the private sector. Although operating on an international scale, the multinational corporations are the first to adapt to the needs of individual countries. They also know how to deal with risks.
What about the consequences of allowing progress to be determined by regional or commercial interests?
McNeely’s view is that the advance of technology advance is inevitable, but it is neutral. “We can choose between using it to support or to undermine sustainable development,” he said.
One of the most noticeable advances in technology is Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Some countries, like Argentina which has applied biotechnology research to its soya bean farming, use it to improve their output. On the other hand, Europe has banned GMOs as a menace to human health.
McNeely’s answer to the current controversy over US exports of grain – rejected by some African countries on grounds of GMO risk – is simple and emphatic: “Don’t export the seed, export flour.”
Milled grain cannot be re-planted, unlike seeds, and there is no proof of human health implications if GMOs are simply eaten. Otherwise, why are there are no protests about the widespread use of GMOs in pharmaceuticals?
But what about the ethics of the argument?
“You make money by selling to the rich, not to the poor,” McNeely said. Biotechnology has not been developed to benefit poor farmers – it is expensive and it is driven by the profit motive. If research is not done by public institutions, it will not be done for public benefit.
This is where national governments come in. Sustainable development cannot be left to the hands of the private sector. Moral standards and values are needed, and as McNeely said, “it is the leaders of the country that set the values for the country.”
Although governments are heavier-footed and restricted by short-term political cycles, as opposed to long-term private investment, when it comes to policy it is the politicians who must set standards and provide the ethical and regulatory framework for sustainable development.
With governments and big businesses working together there is scope for hope. All through the Summit delegates are absorbing talk of change that will influence their decisions well beyond the summit itself. This is why McNeely expects the WSSD to have the greatest impact once delegates return home.
“They will have new ideas, new partnerships and they’ll have taken the Summit’s energy back home,” he said. “Let us hope that the energy between delegates is as sustainable as the energy they have come here to promote.”
© Copyright Global Youth Reporters Programme 2002
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