Earth Today | Building back better a must for 2021
Published:Thursday | December 31, 2020 | 12:07 AM
AS THE New Year beckons, a reminder of the need to work to build back better, given the devastation of COVID-19, has come from one project manager tasked to help realise climate resilience and sustainable development for the Caribbean.
“We have developed an economic system allowing for ‘endless growth’ resulting in ever-growing industrialisation and production, new cities and faster transport facilities for the increasing human population,” observed Jan Betlem, regional coordinator for the ‘Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island States’ (IWEco) project.
He was writing in the quarterly newsletter of the Global Environment Facility-funded project, which was published in mid-December.
“We want more of ‘everything’, forgetting that the source of this ‘everything’ is being altered and increasingly threatening our own existence. It has taken a global pandemic to make us realise that ‘endless growth’ does not exist. Some of us still do not realise,” Betlem added.
IWEco is a regional project that builds upon the work of previous initiatives to address water, land and biodiversity resource management as well as climate change. Its objective is to contribute to the preservation of Caribbean ecosystems that are of global significance and to the sustainability of livelihoods.
According to the IWEco coordinator, there exists a clear need to pursue the call of the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to ‘build back better’, one that has been amplified by the challenges of the pandemic which has infected in excess of 79 million people and killed more than 1.7 million.
At the same time, Betlem signalled support for recent utterances of the UN secretary general, which lends urgency to the pursuit of building back better: ‘Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top priority for everyone, everywhere’.
“Building back better should include global systems in which the raw materials, components and products we use lose little or no value. Renewable energy use and ‘systems-thinking’ above ‘short-term-benefit thinking’ should be central in future societies. Not ‘material wealth’ but ‘system richness’ should become the new norm. ‘Back to normal’ is no option!” he wrote.
For his part, the secretary general has advanced six actions that countries need to take to build back better. They include that “the huge amounts of money to be spent on recovery” from the COVID-19 deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition; and that where taxpayers’ money is used to rescue businesses, that they be tied to “achieving green jobs and sustainable growth”.
Additional actions include that fiscal firepower drive a shift from the grey to green economy, empowering societies and people to be more resilient; and that public funds be used to invest in the future, not the past, and flow to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and the climate.
Guterres has also recommended that climate risks and opportunities be incorporated into the financial system, as well as all aspects of public policymaking and infrastructure; and that all work together as an international community.
In looking specifically at the Caribbean and Latin America, the UN chief said it requires ‘transforming the development model’ for the region.
“In a region where inequality has become untenable, it means developing comprehensive welfare systems that are accessible to all. It means creating a fair taxation system, promoting decent jobs, strengthening environmental sustainability, and reinforcing social protection mechanisms,” Guterres said.
He was addressing the launch of a policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on the region in July.
“It means regional economic integration. And it means women participating fully and safely in public and economic life,” he added.
At the same time, he noted that building back better also “demands strengthening democratic governance, human rights protection and the rule of law, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
The root causes of inequality, political instability and displacement must also be addressed, in addition to greater accountability and transparency which are crucial.