5 June 2001                                                            Press Release No. G/20/2001

Trillions needed to clean up region, ESCAP'S report states

GLOBALIZATION, POVERTY TO BRING ON
AN  ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services) -- The overall environment in the region has actually deteriorated since the Rio Conference, said ESCAP's Executive Secretary Mr. Kim Hak-Su on launching the State of the Environment Report in Asia and the Pacific 200.

"Environmental challenges that were identified in the 1990s continue to haunt the region and are in fact exacerbated by the emergence of new challenges linked to enhanced poverty and rapid globalization," said Mr Kim.

With the disappearance and disturbance of  ecosystems,  the rural population mainly the poor, are migrating in large numbers to cities.  Consequently, the urban population of the Asian and Pacific region which stood at 1.4 billion in 2000 has doubled in the last 20 years, the report stated.

“ESCAP’s message is a call for immediate action – action that must involve all stakeholders otherwise the environment will to continue to deteriorate further at a catastrophic rate,” said Mr. Kim.

"It is projected to increase by 800 million in the next 20 years. This amounts to the establishment of a new city of 150,000 people every day for the next one and a half-decade.   The magnitude of the challenge is indeed daunting," said Mr Kim unveiling ESCAP’s report at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) on World Environment Day, June 5th.

Like poverty, globalization also had serious impacts on the natural resources and environment over the last decades.  It has contributed to the loss of forest and biodiversity in the pursuit of maximizing export earnings, the report stated.

Additionally, the Asian financial crisis resulting in economic and social turmoil also had adverse effects on the environment.  In many countries, environmental budgets have been reduced leading to fewer investments in conservation of resources, mitigation of environmental degradation and  the development of clean technologies.

Land degradation and desertification are also on the increase. The annual losses due to land degradation and desertification have been estimated at US$ 10 billion in South Asia, and US$ 700 million in North-East Asia. In Central Asian countries the losses amount to 3 per cent of GDP. Almost 500 million Asians have been affected by desertification directly or indirectly.

Water quality has deteriorated steadily by a combination of factors such as uncontrolled discharge of sewage and industrial effluents, chemicals added by the agricultural run-off and undisposed human excreta.

"Is Asia heading for another crisis – an environmental crisis?  The alarm bells are already sounding, calling for urgent attention of the international community.  This is the major challenge confronting us in the new millennium, which must be squarely addressed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development next year," said Mr Kim.

ESCAP, Mr Kim said, has already undertaken some significant initiatives towards evolving a consensus on how to ameliorate the environment.  It convened a Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in September 2000 at Kitakyushu, Japan which adopted the Regional Action Programme on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, 2001-2005.

The Regional Action Programme translates the shared commitments of the Conference into a focussed and concrete framework for action in eight priority areas. One initiative, the Kitakyushu Initiative for Clean Environment adopted by the Ministers is intended to improve the urban environment primarily through local initiatives.
 
Funding is the key to confronting these enormous environmental challenges. The report estimates that provision of environmental infrastructure and utilities such as water supply, sanitation, energy and transport in urban areas alone will cost around 10 trillion dollars in the next 25 to 30 years in the 'business as usual' scenario.

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