NEW DELHI: The Covid-19 pandemic took little time to expose inequalities and weaknesses in social and economic systems, which have threatened human development, requiring a greater need to work with and not against nature, said the UNDP in a report released Wednesday.
The pandemic is the last crisis facing the world, but unless humans let go of their grip on nature, it will not be the last, said the 2020 report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The report has included a new experimental index on human progress that takes into account the carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint of countries.
“Covid-19 took very little time to expose and exploit overlapping inequalities, as well as weaknesses in social, economic and political systems, and to threaten setbacks in human development.
“The next frontier for human development will require working with and not against nature, while transforming social norms, values, and government and financial incentives,” the report says.
The UNDP report has suggested to world leaders a stark choice to take bold steps to reduce the immense pressure on the environment and the natural world in order to prevent human progress.
“Agency and the empowerment of people can generate the action we need if we want to live in balance with the planet in a more just world. We are at an unprecedented moment in history, in which human activity has become a dominant force that shapes the planet. ” the report said.
He added that these impacts interact with existing inequalities, threatening significant setbacks in development. “It takes nothing less than a major transformation, in the way we live, work and cooperate, to change the way we are on.”
Citing events such as the climate crisis, the collapse of biodiversity, the acidification of the oceans, the UNDP said the list is long and growing.
“So much so that many scientists believe that for the first time, instead of the planet shaping humans, humans are consciously shaping the planet. This is the Anthropocene, the Age of Humans, a new geological epoch.
“Although humanity has made incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the systems we depend on to survive,” the report says.
He added that Covid-19, which almost certainly arose to humans from animals, offers a glimpse into our future, in which the stress on our planet reflects the stress societies face.
Thirty years ago, UNDP created a new way of thinking about and measuring progress.
Rather than using GDP growth as the sole measure of development, he ranked the world’s countries by their human development – on whether the people of each country have the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they value.
As people and the planet enter an entirely new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, it is time for all countries to redesign their paths to progress taking fully into account the dangerous pressures that humans place on the planet and dismantle the grave imbalances of power and opportunity that impede change, argues the report.
“Humans wield more power over the planet than ever. In the wake of Covid-19, record temperatures, and spiraling inequality, it’s time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon footprints are and where our carbon footprints are. Consumption is no longer hidden, ”said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.
He added that, as this report shows, no country in the world has achieved high human development without putting immense stress on the planet.
In the 30th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report, entitled ‘The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene’, UNDP has introduced a new experimental lens in its annual Human Development Index (HDI).
It has adjusted the HDI, which measures a nation’s health, education and standard of living, and included two more elements: a country’s carbon dioxide emissions and its material footprint.
The index shows how the global development landscape would change if both the well-being of people and that of the planet were central to defining human progress.
Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand, who was present at the launch of the virtual report in India, said that adjusting the HDI to planetary pressures, which have created environmental consequences for development activities, is quite innovative and revealing.
“I feel that in order to take care of the interest of the present, as well as the interest of the present and future generation, it took a long time and it was not easy to internalize. Therefore, I am really happy that UNDP has introduced this new innovation,” Chand said.
He added that it sheds light on how much the current generation is taking from future generations.
He stressed that there is a greater need to pay more attention in the future to emissions from the agricultural sector and not just from industries.
“We see emissions from the factories, but we do not see emissions from the fields because the emissions that occur in the fields are generally invisible, but the emissions from the factories are visible,” he added.
TERI CEO Ajay Mathur said that with the pandemic, years of development efforts have suddenly collapsed.
“And I think the recovery will tell us how quickly we can get back to at least the same point and then improve. And that’s why planning for tomorrow becomes important. Planning for tomorrow in the case of India, where a great amount of infrastructure has yet to be built, “said Mathur.
The report said that inequalities within and between countries, with deep roots in colonialism and racism, mean that the people who have the most capture the benefits of nature and export the costs.
This stifles opportunities for people who have less and minimizes their ability to do something about it.
Pedro Conceicao, director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office and lead author of the report, said how people experience planetary pressures is tied to how societies function.
Today, broken societies are putting people and the planet on a collision course, Conceicao said.
The pandemic is the last crisis facing the world, but unless humans let go of their grip on nature, it will not be the last, said the 2020 report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The report has included a new experimental index on human progress that takes into account the carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint of countries.
“Covid-19 took very little time to expose and exploit overlapping inequalities, as well as weaknesses in social, economic and political systems, and to threaten setbacks in human development.
“The next frontier for human development will require working with and not against nature, while transforming social norms, values, and government and financial incentives,” the report says.
The UNDP report has suggested to world leaders a stark choice to take bold steps to reduce the immense pressure on the environment and the natural world in order to prevent human progress.
“Agency and the empowerment of people can generate the action we need if we want to live in balance with the planet in a more just world. We are at an unprecedented moment in history, in which human activity has become a dominant force that shapes the planet. ” the report said.
He added that these impacts interact with existing inequalities, threatening significant setbacks in development. “It takes nothing less than a major transformation, in the way we live, work and cooperate, to change the way we are on.”
Citing events such as the climate crisis, the collapse of biodiversity, the acidification of the oceans, the UNDP said the list is long and growing.
“So much so that many scientists believe that for the first time, instead of the planet shaping humans, humans are consciously shaping the planet. This is the Anthropocene, the Age of Humans, a new geological epoch.
“Although humanity has made incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the systems we depend on to survive,” the report says.
He added that Covid-19, which almost certainly arose to humans from animals, offers a glimpse into our future, in which the stress on our planet reflects the stress societies face.
Thirty years ago, UNDP created a new way of thinking about and measuring progress.
Rather than using GDP growth as the sole measure of development, he ranked the world’s countries by their human development – on whether the people of each country have the freedom and opportunity to live the lives they value.
As people and the planet enter an entirely new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, it is time for all countries to redesign their paths to progress taking fully into account the dangerous pressures that humans place on the planet and dismantle the grave imbalances of power and opportunity that impede change, argues the report.
“Humans wield more power over the planet than ever. In the wake of Covid-19, record temperatures, and spiraling inequality, it’s time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon footprints are and where our carbon footprints are. Consumption is no longer hidden, ”said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.
He added that, as this report shows, no country in the world has achieved high human development without putting immense stress on the planet.
In the 30th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report, entitled ‘The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene’, UNDP has introduced a new experimental lens in its annual Human Development Index (HDI).
It has adjusted the HDI, which measures a nation’s health, education and standard of living, and included two more elements: a country’s carbon dioxide emissions and its material footprint.
The index shows how the global development landscape would change if both the well-being of people and that of the planet were central to defining human progress.
Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand, who was present at the launch of the virtual report in India, said that adjusting the HDI to planetary pressures, which have created environmental consequences for development activities, is quite innovative and revealing.
“I feel that in order to take care of the interest of the present, as well as the interest of the present and future generation, it took a long time and it was not easy to internalize. Therefore, I am really happy that UNDP has introduced this new innovation,” Chand said.
He added that it sheds light on how much the current generation is taking from future generations.
He stressed that there is a greater need to pay more attention in the future to emissions from the agricultural sector and not just from industries.
“We see emissions from the factories, but we do not see emissions from the fields because the emissions that occur in the fields are generally invisible, but the emissions from the factories are visible,” he added.
TERI CEO Ajay Mathur said that with the pandemic, years of development efforts have suddenly collapsed.
“And I think the recovery will tell us how quickly we can get back to at least the same point and then improve. And that’s why planning for tomorrow becomes important. Planning for tomorrow in the case of India, where a great amount of infrastructure has yet to be built, “said Mathur.
The report said that inequalities within and between countries, with deep roots in colonialism and racism, mean that the people who have the most capture the benefits of nature and export the costs.
This stifles opportunities for people who have less and minimizes their ability to do something about it.
Pedro Conceicao, director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office and lead author of the report, said how people experience planetary pressures is tied to how societies function.
Today, broken societies are putting people and the planet on a collision course, Conceicao said.
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