Achim Steiner - new head at UN Environment Programme
16 Jun '06
3 min read
“Until recently the goods and services provided by nature have been paid only lip service by traditional economic accounting. Thus the land, the air, the biodiversity and the world's waters have been frequently treated as free and limitless,” he added.
UNEP's mission statement mandates it to “provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”
Noting that far too many of the “enormous wealth of nature's services” are becoming limited as a result of abuse, poor management and over-exploitation, Mr. Steiner said one of his main challenges was to end this “antagonism between economic and environmental policy.”
He stressed that he would be focusing on how markets and economic incentives and international treaties and agreements can be made to work in a way which is “pro environment, pro poor and thus pro sustainable development.”
“Economic issues that touch on the environment are all too often pushed out of environmental conventions,” he declared. “Meanwhile, environmental issues are generally left standing on the touch line, little more than spectators and rarely asked to play a real role in the great economic game. Everyone, not just those in the developing but also those in the developed world, stand to lose out if this continues.”
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