WWF yesterday welcomed a call from the UN High-Level Panel for Global Sustainability, recommending a radical redesign of the global economy, in order to create a healthy environment and improve people’s well-being.

Released in advance of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, which will be held in June 2012, 'Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future worth Choosing', was produced by a panel co-chaired by South African president Jacob Zuma and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

“The Global Sustainability report gives the highest level political signal yet of greater readiness to take the bold steps needed to build a prosperous future,” said Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International. “This report makes the alarming point that while we are already exceeding the Earth’s capacity to support us, by 2030 we will need 50 per cent more food, 45 per cent more energy and 30 per cent more water than we do today.

“The High-Level Panel report offers a vision for meeting those challenges. As negotiators develop the text for the Rio Summit in June, we look to them to embrace the urgency and commitments needed to turn this vision into reality.”

Convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2010, the panel was charged with providing a vision for sustainability, growth and prosperity in the years to come, along with a framework for moving past political and economic hurdles that could put progress at risk.

The report could prove a useful successor to 'Our Common Future', the 1987 Brundtland Report, which championed the concept of sustainable development and became the basis of the original 1992 Rio Earth Summit. WWF therefore urges political leaders to create the enabling conditions that will allow for the “21st century Green Revolution” that the paper is calling for.

However, much like the Rio+20 first negotiating draft issued earlier this month, the report is still weak on binding commitments. While the recommendations for economic and institutional reform are positive, the report fails to suggest any concrete, time-bound commitments for progress, leaving policies open to governments to implement as they see fit. WWF also believes that the Rio negotiations need to further consider social issues, and making a clear link between people’s welfare and environmental health.

"This report provides a vision for the Rio Conference matching the scale of the global challenges we face,” said David Norman, campaigns director at WWF-UK. “We now urge the UK Government to lead international efforts to get firm commitments to as many of these recommendations as possible signed during the summit in Rio."

Key points within the report

The Global Sustainability report focuses on a number of essential measures to create a “green economy”. WWF welcomes the wide-ranging recommendations which include:

• incorporating social and environmental costs in the regulation and pricing of goods
• the phasing out of counter-productive subsidies (particularly fossil fuel subsidies)
• a requirement for business groups to work with governments and international agencies to report annually on environmental practices
• the establishment of a “beyond GDP” Sustainable Development Index or set of indicators to be developed by 2014

The second important area covered by the report relates to the strengthening of institutional governance at all levels. Recommendations include:

• the establishment of universal Sustainable Development Goals to compliment and succeed the Millennium Development Goals post-2015
• the establishment of a new UN Global Sustainable Development Council
• a peer review mechanism to enable states to share experiences and lessons learned

• the recognition of the links between food, water and energy and the fact that they should not be treated as separate issues
• the need to give priority to challenges facing marine and coastal ecosystems
• funds for transition to sustainable development to developing countries
• increased resources for disaster risk reduction
• Measures to mobilise finance for investment in the natural world

Download the full report 'Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future worth Choosing' from the UN website