Azernews.Az

By Heikki Holmas, Norwegian Minister of International Development

Parents all over the world want to live in a way that ensures the best possible future for their children and grandchildren. This must also be the goal for the world`s leaders when we meet in Rio.

I am working for a more just world. At the same time, parents all over the world want their children to have a better life than they have had. This is why we must promote economic growth and create jobs and security for millions of people. We must encourage the use of more climate friendly technology and more sustainable development. And those who create most pollution must also do most to cut emissions.

This year it is 20 years since sustainable development first hit the agendas of world leaders, when Gro Harlem Brundtland launched this new approach to development and environment at the World Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In June, world leaders will once again gather in Rio. This next UN summit - Rio+20 - will be a new opportunity to agree on how to achieve growth and welfare and at the same time protect the environment.

Both Norway and Azerbaijan aim at strengthening sustainable development through the use of environmentally friendly resources. Norway will work to ensure that the conference takes specific steps to develop global sustainability goals as well as measures to provide sustainable energy for everyone.

We need to find ways of making growth sustainable. We also need to distribute revenues more equitably as countries become richer. At the moment, every fifth person worldwide lacks access to electricity. Twice as many - three billion people - have to gather fuel to cook their food and heat their homes. The smoke from inefficient stoves is harmful and claims the lives of nearly two million people every year. This is unfair, it is a waste of resources, and is unsustainable. Instead, children should have time to go to school, and adults to take paid work.

In the rich part of the world, we waste electricity and use more than our fair share of the planet`s energy resources. The widespread use of energy from oil, gas and coal is causing dangerous climate change. In Norway, buildings account for 40 % of all energy use. We can halve our electricity consumption use by 2040 by improving the energy efficiency of buildings - and at the same time live more comfortably and reduce our electricity bills. We are already beginning to feel the impacts of interference with the climate system. But the consequences for those who come after us will be far more serious.

Azerbaijan has great potential for the development of sustainable energy sources through wind and solar energy as well as hydropower. For its low cost and environmental friendliness wind energy is an efficient source of alternative energy. The development of solar energy can partially solve the problems with electricity in some regions of the country. Construction of hydropower plays an important role in solving issues of national importance such as flood control, clean production of electricity and the creation of new irrigation systems.

Food is another key area. According to UN figures, about a third of all food is thrown away or destroyed. Every one of us in the rich part of the world throws away an average of 100 kg of food a year. In Norway alone, 500 000 tonnes of food goes into the bin. At the same time, more than a billion people are going hungry. Even in poor countries, a good deal of food is wasted, partly because of poor roads and inadequate storage facilities. If we are to feed all the children in the world properly, we must make some major changes.

These are some of the issues we will be discussing in Rio. Governments, NGOs, researchers and representatives of the business sector from all over the world will work together to identify opportunities. We all agree that the way we are living today is not sustainable. But it is much more difficult to find solutions that everyone can agree to because the key is more equitable distribution. Aid from rich countries to poor countries is one way of improving the situation. But aid is most effective when it stimulates private investment and enables a country to develop its own solutions. Poor countries now have better opportunities to choose environmentally friendly solutions than we had during our industrialisation.