Conference hosts:

Deadlines:

Registration:
16 June 2008
(extended deadline!)

News:

Photo gallery available[14/08/2008]
Session reports can be visited at the conference blog.[24/06/2008]
The Working Groups' Programme can be downloaded now.[06/06/2008]
The Conference Programme can be downloaded now.[23/04/2008]
Registration for the Book Exhibition is possible now. [16/04/2008]
Registration and accommodation information is available now. [28/01/2008]
Background Information on Global Governance and Sustainability [21/8/2007]

Conference
e-newsletter:

Subscribe!

Plenary session II: Can economic growth be reconciled with sustainable development? On a knife-edge between climate change and Millennium Development Goals

The principle of sustainable development, combining environment protection and efficient management of natural resources with poverty alleviation and decent living conditions for all people in developing countries, was approved by all nations present at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992. But it seems hard to translate this aspiration into effective economic policies. The combination of a growing population and worldwide increasing standards of living threatens to exceed the capacity of the Earth both in terms of use of non-renewable natural resources and of absorbing pollution derived from human activities. It raises crucial questions. What constraints do finite resources and induced climate change put on the efforts to alleviate poverty? Do the Millennium Development Goals have to be put aside if reaching them would require growth rates in developing countries that would overstretch the global environmental space? Would developed economies agree to lower their standards of living if that were necessary for low income countries to increase theirs? Mainstream economists put their faith in market forces and price mechanisms to adjust to the scarcity of (natural) resources and stimulate the search for energy efficient technologies and renewable energy sources. Ecologically concerned economists advocate an active role of governments in order to shift the world economy towards a low carbon growth path that would make it possible to reach the MDGs without further accelerating global warming. Pessimists recommend more drastic measures to restrain growth especially in the developed countries which are responsible for the increased level of carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere through their carbon-based industrialization of the past centuries. This plenary will reflect on the current state of the debate on economic growth and sustainable development:

Are there any limits to growth? If not, which growth options will ensure an environmentally and socially sustainable development path?
Is growth a condition for poverty reduction? Can the poor improve their standard of living without undermining the sustainability of global economic development?
What type of agreement between rich and poor, developed and developing countries, would be needed for a fairer distribution of the costs of mitigation and adaptation to the consequences of global warming?