Lo Scrittoio

Originally published by "Europe’s World*, Spring Issue 2012”, http://www.europesworld.org

As head of the UN’s environmental arm UNEP, Achim Steiner believes that multi-lateral governance structures are overdue for a radical overhaul

Twenty years after the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, the world is once again taking the Road to Rio, but in a world that geopolitically, socially and environmentally is markedly different from that of the late 20^th century.

From women and trade unions to environmental NGOs and indigenous peoples, there is a deep-seated sense that we are living in an increasingly unequal world, and that the environmental services on which we all depend – especially the poor – are also rapidly hitting their limits as a result of decades of pollution, damage and degradation. Enlightened sections of the private sector can also see the writing on the wall, for we live on a planet where climate change and the loss of productive ecosystems can, and increasingly will, disrupt global supply chains.

Extraordinary achievements have nevertheless occurred in some areas – economically, many millions have been lifted out of poverty in places like China and India, and environmentally the world's network of protected areas has grown substantially. But for all that, the development path of these years has by-passed far too many areas; it has brought prosperity to the few rather than the majority, and is running up an ecological bill that is paid by the poor and the vulnerable every day and will ultimately have to be paid by generations to come.