Head of UNEP addresses Moscow on green economy

The head of the UN’s environment agency, Achim Steiner, addressed students in Moscow on Earth Day yesterday on the topic of Inclusive Green Economy.

Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, was speaking at the Lomonosov Moscow State University on Wednesday.

According to Mr. Steiner, the traditional approaches of resource use are no longer viable with a global population of 7 billion and growing.

The current trend could lead to an untenable situation and the collective impact of our activities today is changing the atmosphere of planet Earth, as well as the biosphere.

Steinder stated that exploitation of the world's oceans has also reached a point where fisheries relied upon over millennia are now threatened in terms of the sustainability of fish stocks.

Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the United Nations has led the debate to change this trajectory.

UNEP has aligned the focus of its work accordingly: from documenting the scale of global environmental deterioration, to developing tailored multilateral legal instruments which have significantly evolved to assisting countries in applying holistic government-wide responses to environmental challenges.

As a result of concerted global action under the Montreal Protocol to phase out ozone-depleting substances (ODSs), the ozone layer is healing itself and is expected to recover by the middle of this century.

The Protocol has led to the phase-out of over 98 per cent of the historic levels of production and consumption of ODSs globally.

Steiner suggested that halting the degradation of the environment will not happen through the displacement of individuals and communities, but rather through engaging them in living sustainable lifestyles.

The renewable energy sector is experiencing a robust increase in global investment - with a 17 per cent increase between 2013 and 2014 alone in both developing countries and emerging economies.

Mr. Steiner expressed optimism that the BRICS Environment Ministers meeting - a preparatory forum for the upcoming BRICS summit in July 2015 - will focus on Green Economy opportunities and UNEP is offering findings of its global work on the topic.

He concluded with an appeal to act as a global community towards a sustainable future.