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European climate chief: Change growth model or crisis will go global
photo by Hector Garcia (Flickr CC)
Europe’s commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, has stated that the current model for economic growth is not sustainable and could result in a global economic crisis if continued.
Hedegaard equated the current Eurozone crisis with a future one of global scale. She said that economic models based solely on production and consumption are a recipe for failure and only serves to encourage overconsumption. Furthermore, the environment must be taken into account and these issues must be comprehensively addressed at the upcoming summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The summit in Rio this June takes place on the 20-year anniversary of the 1992 summit which launched the global environmental movement to address climate change.
From the Guardian:
The 21st century must have a more intelligent growth model, or else it’s really difficult to see how we feed 7 billion people now and 9 billion people [by 2050]. Resources were cheap before, but it seems we are in for a period where resources become more and more expensive. Oil is coming up in price, so many other commoditiesare coming up in price. Food prices are rising. We need to deal with this.
Hedegaard is far from alone in the opinion that economic growth only based on GDP is no longer adequate and that natural resources like water, clean air and biodiversity can no longer be considered as free commodities which we can exploit heedlessly. Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz has also been a leading voice for the change from GDP-based model of economic value.
Hedegaard also recently told reporters in New Delhi that the countries meeting in Rio in June should double the world’s energy efficiency.
Read more about that story on Bloomberg.
What is also crucial is the twinning of environmentalism and global inequality. Currently the wealthiest 20% of the planet consumes 80% of its resources, while the poorest 20% can scarcely survive – if even that. So we know who is responsible for the environmental crisis and whose leaders are responsible for the economic one.
Tags: climate change, crisis, economic, environmental, GDP, global, growth, Hedegaard, rio
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And yet most media analyses of the global economic crisis equate it with slow or negative growth. They say a number (which most of us don’t know the meaning of anyway) and we are meant to panic. The real panic issues should be unemployment, poverty, inequality and the environment, especially when growth in capitalist countries does not necessarily address any of these issues.
I totally agree with Hedegaard. Actually it is a great observation that we’ve probably missed out for such a long time coz everybody was too busy to cope with the pressure of not to be left behind….definitely there is another factor in growth, aside from consumption and production that should be reckoned , that is restoration. How are we able to continue the use of all these resources if we keep on out-putting without in-putting unless that resources could self-replenish but regardless of that , we know that everything has its limit.