TLTP
NEW YORK
Unless humans take bold steps to reduce the immense pressure we’re placing on the planet, human progress will stall, the UN said on Tuesday as it released a major new report on human development.
The Covid-19 pandemic has placed huge strain countries around the world, but without significant action such crises will recur, according to the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report that monitors progress through metrics like environmental impact, well-being and education.
Amid mounting evidence that man-made climate change is ravaging the planet, UN analysts added carbon dioxide emissions and consumption rates to their calculations, shaking up the Human Development Index (HDI) scorecard.
Countries like Norway and Switzerland place high, while Somalia and North Korea trail at the bottom.
Singapore, Luxembourg, Australia, several Arab states and many other wealthy nations, which ordinarily have high HDI scores, saw their rankings fall sharply this year because of overconsumption and for emitting too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
More than 50 countries dropped out of the very high human development group as measured by the new index, reflecting their large impacts on the climate and nature.
Luxembourg, a tiny European country of 628,000 people and a $62 billion economy, originally ranked 23rd on the index, but fell 131 places after its environmental score was added to the mix.
Australia fell 72 places, the US lost 45 and Canada 40 places.
Meanwhile, countries of relatively modest means that strive to cut greenhouse gas emissions, such as Costa Rica, Moldova and Panama, each saw increases in their rankings of at least 30 places on this year’s index.
Poorer nations largely stayed unchanged. While these nations tend to have smaller carbon and material footprints, they also stand behind on education, health and other metrics of well-being.
Achim Steiner, the administrator of the UN Development Programme, told reporters that achieving high rates of literacy and life expectancy was not enough to reach the top of the index nowadays.
“Many countries have achieved a great deal of progress but they also have done so at the expense of great damage to the planet,” he said.
“Singapore and Luxembourg have achieved very high levels of per capita income of development. But what they are confronting right now is … climate change, global warming, loss of biodiversity and ecosystems,” said Mr Steiner. “What is driving that way of measuring development needs to adjust.”
But he said the index was not intended to be a judgement but rather to illustrate that being rich is not the singular way in which to determine whether you’re a successful and future-ready economy”.
Pedro Conceicao, the lead author of the report, which was released on Tuesday, said modern economies with high consumption rates that burn lots of fossil fuels fared poorly on the revised scale.
“Luxembourg and Singapore demonstrate this more sharply, in large part reflecting their exceptional circumstances, given that both are small, highly open economies with high income per capita and a structural dependence on hydrocarbons for energy,” said Mr Conceicao.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and natural destruction, warning lights for the planet and societies are “flashing red”, the report said.
The 369-page report, The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene, marks its 30th anniversary this year amid growing concerns of environmental devastation as mankind continues to overuse the planet’s resources.
