UN exec: Markets still dependent on natural environment

Marking the United Nations' World Environment Day (WED), a UN official on Sunday stressed the importance of nature at a time of high-tech gadgets and growing stock markets, noting that economies are basically dependent on the natural environment.

In a video message on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Youtube account, UNEP executive director Achim Steiner debunked the “fallacy" that “with technology and economic progress, we are perhaps… less and less reliant on nature."

“We have learned through the understanding of the impacts of climate change and loss of ecosystem services… that our dependence on nature, on a healthy and functioning set of ecosystem services, remains critical to human well-being, to the well-being of our economies," Steiner said in his message for the Sunday celebration.

Observed since 1972, the WED this year focuses on the theme “Nature at Your Service," which pushes for a “green economy."

“We can think of a green economy as an economic environment that achieves low carbon emissions, resource efficiency, and at the same time is socially inclusive," the UNEP said on its website.

Indian experience

In a speech also in time for World Environment Day, the environment minister of India – the host country for this year’s WED celebrations – explained that India still heavily depends on the environment despite having made economic advances.

“Is there any country in the world that is more vulnerable to climate change than India?" said Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh in another UNEP video.

“We are still dependent on the monsoon not only for our agricultural prosperity, but also for its multiplier effects in other sectors of the economy. We are still dependent on the health of the Himalayan glaciers as far as water security in the northern part of our country is concerned," he said.

Last week, Filipino traders got a first-hand experience of economic losses when a massive fish kill hit a number of towns in Batangas and Pangasinan provinces. Batangas fish pen operators have lost P136 million as of Saturday, said the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Batangas governor Mark Leviste on Friday said the fish kill may have resulted from the “mismanagement" of fish cages. — LBG, GMA News