Angela Merkel: The future we want – and the decisions we need The future we all want requires a fundamental rethink of how we live and work.
Angela Merkel Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
W
hat do we, the human race, see as the future we want? What can and what must we do today to ensure that we really are moving in the right direction? These questions are relevant to all of us, in all regions of the world. We all want peace, security and prosperity – today and tomorrow. That, however, requires a fundamental rethink, because we cannot live and work as if the resources of our environment are inexhaustible. Planetary boundaries exist and we cannot exceed them if we want to avoid diminishing the resources younger and future generations need to live their lives. Only recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reiterated just how vulnerable humans and nature are to the effects of unchecked climate change. Therefore we must finally make the shift to climate-friendly development, something that is in fact very compatible with increasing prosperity. It is not a question of limiting economic development in the poorest regions of the world. On the contrary, many new development prospects need to be opened up to them. This can succeed if around the world we learn how to generate prosperity differently from how we do today.
12
Despite all the encouraging progress of recent years, around 1.3 billion people worldwide still suffer abject poverty. In view of this, it is very tempting to strive solely for quantitative growth whilst disregarding the limits set by nature in terms of water, land, raw materials and biodiversity. Yet an increasing depletion of resources vital for people’s livelihoods would inevitably undermine long-term development prospects, exacerbate hunger and poverty and, as a result of this, increase the risk of conflicts. Security and stability, on the other hand, are vital prerequisites for developing successful economies. The relationship between economic performance and the protection of the natural resource base is symbiotic. Therefore we cannot avoid thinking about them together and indeed bringing them together. The key is sustainable development. The international community reiterated its commitment to this at the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. We agree that our existing economy needs to be developed into a “green economy”. This means above all investing in renewable energy, boosting resource efficiency in production and consumption and establishing effective instruments for the protection and sustainable management of forests and oceans. For this, we need strong and capable international organizations and so it was very important that Rio 2012 succeeded in boosting UNEP’s clout as a voice of international environmental protection, thus enabling it to make itself permanently heard. The establishment of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is a visible sign of this enhanced status. For the first time, all 193 members of