West must cut appetite for cars

chief Helen Clark said in an interview ahead of the Rio+20 summit starting tomorrow.
The 116 heads of state and government and their populations — rich and poor — face “chaos” unless the three day summit can at least lay the groundwork for economic growth that eases poverty and preserves natural resources, said the former New Zealand prime minister.
“I think there is a high level of awareness that the planet is in peril, to put it bluntly,” said Clark, who will be one of the key figures at the Rio de Janeiro event.
Negotiators are struggling to get agreement on the final declaration.
Differences between rich and poor, east and west on topics such as how to define “green economy” and how to set new global development goals have bedeviled negotiations for months.
Clark insists though that every leader agrees on the key problem: how to ensure economic growth that helps the most destitute without further damaging an environment that is being “wrecked underneath our feet.”
“So the issue is how to get human development that will see it continue to rise for the world’s poorest people and people in developing countries. Because frankly human development in the West — we don’t need more cars, more TVs, more whatever.
“Our needs are by and large satisfied, although the recession has put a lot of strains on that.”
“There is, in my opinion, a very heavy responsibility on the countries of the north to look at how they sustain their living standards with a much lower environmental footprint,” Clark added.
Setting up a new index for economic progress to rival the venerable Gross Domestic Product and pressing the case for the Green Economy — economic decision-making that takes into account the impact on the environment — will feature highly on Clark’s summit agenda. There is a growing campaign by many governments to use a wider measure for economic and human progress for key decisions.
Clark says the UNDP should have a new version ready for next year of its annual human development index, adding environmental sustainability factors to the equality measures already used.
The UNDP will hold an event in Rio on the need for new measures. Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley will discuss his “gross national happiness” index there. Many poorer countries are suspicious of the West’s demands for tighter environmental regulations in international negotiations. — AFP.