Towards a Resource Efficient and Pollution Free Asia-Pacific

Shamshad Akhtar, is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Erik Solheim, is Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)By Shamshad Akhtar and Erik Solheim BANGKOK, Thailand, Sep 4 2017 (IPS)Senior government officials from across Asia and the Pacific will meet in Bangkok this week for the first-ever Asia-Pacific Ministerial Summit on the Environment. The high-level meeting is co-convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and UN Environment and is a unique opportunity for the region’s environment leaders to discuss how they can work together towards a resource efficient and pollution-free Asia-Pacific. Shamshad AkhtarAt the core of the meeting is the question: how can we use our resources more efficiently to continue to grow our economies in a manner that does not tax our natural environment or generate pollution affecting public health and ecosystem health. There is certainly much room for improvement to make in this area.Resources such as fossil fuels, biomass, metals and minerals are essential to build economies. However, the region’s resource efficiency has regressed in recent years. Asia is unfortunately the least resource efficient region in the world. In 2015, we used one third more materials to produce each unit of GDP than in 1990. Developing countries use five times as many resources per dollar of GDP in comparison to...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Asia-Pacific Conferences Development & Aid Economy & Trade Energy Environment Featured Green Economy Headlines Health Human Rights Natural Resources Sustainability TerraViva United Nations Trade & Investment Water & Sanitatio Source Type: news