President at Rio+ 20 Summit:

Green economy should not act as brake on development

‘Developed countries should help protect environment’:

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday said addressing the environmental crisis should not be a burden for developing countries alone.

He said developed countries, which largely contribute to the environmental crisis, cannot and should not leave the responsibility of saving the environment to developing countries, at the cost of their economic development.

President Rajapaksa was speaking at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), Rio+20 in Rio de Janeiro. “Transition to a green economy is one among many tools that could minimize unsustainable consumption and production practices. On the other hand, transition to a green economy must not generate negative externalities to slow down the growth of the social and economic development of a country.

The solution for sustainable development, therefore, should derive from a concept that encapsulates poverty eradication, resource and energy efficiency, equity and better living standards for all the people,” he said. On the need to protect the sea bed and ocean floor from environment unfriendly methods of fishing, President Rajapaksa said: “A cardinal principle governing the behaviour of nations in the modern world should be recognition of the principle that the resources of a country, whether on land or in the oceans, belong to the people of that country.

“Their enjoyment of these resources for the improvement of their economic and social condition should

in no way be hampered by encroachment on these resources by external interests. Protection of the sea bed and ocean floor against damage by the use of environment unfriendly methods of fishing, such as, bottom trawling should be guaranteed by international law and practice, by means of effective remedies,” he said.

World leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, have come together at the Rio+20 Conference to take forward methods to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet. The UNCSD is being organized to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg.