Can society still afford to focus on sustainable development?

My view is that now is precisely the time it should be. Right now it should be clear to everyone that we cannot go on as we have been.

What we have now is a rare chance to re-shape our world. I believe that we are living in a moment of history, that all around us a new industrial revolution is beginning.

This will be the “lean, mean, clean” revolution. It will be clean because we know we cannot go on polluting as we have been and maintain functioning ecosystems; it will be lean because a growing population and the need to alleviate poverty will leave us with a resource-constrained world with higher prices for food, oil and gas; and it will be mean because the transformation this revolution will bring will create winners and losers.

It is true that for some countries and some businesses there will be difficulties ahead as economic recession bites. The same is true for individuals, some of whom will struggle after they lose their jobs. We should not lose sight of this.

But even in the face of these challenges there will be opportunities. We need to seize the moment and make the most of these. Our new industrial revolution depends on it.

The stimulus packages that are being discussed and put in place in different parts of the world have triggered a debate about what all this money should be used for.

Just how do we build a more sustainable society with lower energy and resource use? How do we create the green jobs that will be needed to deliver these solutions? And how do we create a societal infrastructure that will be more resilient to the challenges of climate change and its impacts on our food and water supplies?

The amount of investment needed for energy, urban infrastructure, water, transport and food supply, to mention a few, will be tremendous. We cannot allow these investments to lock us into an unsustainable future.

The infrastructure we invest in today will be with us a long time, often 50 years or more. It is vital that governments remember this when designing their stimulus packages. They need to look forward to the low-carbon economy of the future and focus on investments in new energy systems, transport solutions, energy-efficient buildings and water and urban infrastructure. Making the right decisions now will spur new industries, create green jobs, change our lives and secure our future.

We need to be thinking across the board, and outside of the usual constraints. With vision, foresight and planning we will re-shape our world. Imagine, for instance, a life in the future, where our homes and industries are powered by low-carbon energy, where transport runs on clean fuels, where even the poorest people have easy access to clean water, where our buildings and household appliances consume less energy, and where workers equipped with new, “green” skills are employed in the abundant jobs these new industries create.

We can design this better world, but we will not do it by thinking in silos and within narrow national borders. We need a global view, not business as usual. And we need to understand that the economic recession has given us a small window of opportunity for transformation. We must take advantage of it. Future generations will not thank us if we fail.

Comments

[Paulo Silva Curto]

Congratulations for this "Lean, mean and clean" article!

Lean because it is focused on the essencial: the urge to make the right social/political decisions which can make business deliver long-term results;

Mean because it doesn't hide the fact that some will become loosers;

Clean because it states "green revolution" as a global need, using economy and business as its developers and the states as its drivers.

Great article!I will certainly refer to it.

Regards

[World After 2012]

Indeed a great post, but i find that information isn`t entirely true or accurate, but that's just my humble opinion. Money still makes the world go round

[Michael O'Hare]

Great article, thanks.

I believe we can still focus on sustainable growth. For example, have you seen how Newcastle in England has an improving economy and is now Britain's most Sustainable City:

http://www.citiesforpeople.net/newcastle-britains-most-sustainable-city