The days of consumption without thought are over

Davos, Switzerland, 28 January 2011 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the participants in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 that a “revolution” is urgently needed in thinking and policy to bring about sustainable economic growth that can both protect the environment and raise living standards.

“We need a revolution. We need revolutionary change, revolutionary action. We need a free market revolution for global sustainability,” he said in an address to the 41st Annual Meeting.

For this to happen, change must come across the board, including to the way people live, the way they organize socially and the way politics are conducted. But most of all, it needs fast and decisive action on climate change to slow global warming, he said.

“The days of consumption without thought are over,” Ban warned. “Climate change is rendering the old model obsolete.” The old economic model now amounts to a “global suicide pact”.

Ways must be devised to manage scarce resources. However, the problem is that the scarcest resource of all is time. “We are running out of time on climate change, on clean energy,” declared the Secretary-General.

Developing a sustainable growth agenda has become “the agenda for the 21st century,” he said. “Together we need to tear down the walls between a green agenda and a growth agenda. There is no time to waste.”


http://www.weforum.org/s?s=global+suicide+pact