Together we Stand

 To achieve a sustainable future, we need to merge economic and environmental agendas.

In the middle of the last decade, when political concern about climate change was at its peak, politicians liked to boast that they had severed the link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. They did not, as the impact of the global financial crisis and tentative recovery showed: emissions temporarily slowed in some places, but have now resumed their alarming growth rate. Although countries such as the UK have managed to reduce carbon pollution, this has been a product of specific policies such as switching from coal to gas for electricity generation, rather than a more fundamental sign of a shift in the economic sands. Environmental protection is another cost that many politicians and business leaders would rather avoid. Not bothering makes things cheaper. And despite the rhetoric of environmental activists, this remains an inconvenient truth, at least when it comes to the climate issue. Carbon emissions are a hallmark of energy consumption – and it is cheap and available energy that created the modern world. The antagonism between the protection of profit and the protection of the environment will continue as long as the two activities are understood as separate goals. And while there are signs that people in China are beginning to question their nation's pursuit of the former rather than the latter (see Q. Wang Nature 497, 159; 2013), the rapid economic development of countries like China, India, and Brazil raises the stakes and risks for sustainable future even further. Development is of course a right. Poorer nations have a right to pursue a path to prosperity, especially when their economic growth is measured by reduced infant mortality and better access to clean water, as well as industrial production. But it is in everyone's interest to find a more sustainable way for them to achieve this. 

Global goals, international goals and multilateral commitments can ring hollow in this arena. For example, there is little evidence that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals have achieved what they set out to achieve. When these targets expire at the end of 2015, should they be renewed? And if so, with what? The answer to the first is an unequivocal "yes". A goal is something to strive for, as is an outcome. Objectives set programs and guide policy. A possible answer to the second question has just been published on the website of the United Nations Organization for Sustainable Development (unsdsn.org).