UK Environmental news
 | Sunday 24th May 2009 Benn calls for sustainable food investment The UK Environment Minister, Hilary Benn visited both Washington DC and New York this week to meet with his counterparts in the new Obama administration, as well as representatives from the UN and Europe, to discuss sustainable food growth, climate change adaptation and global food allocation. He also met with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon and called for the UN to support sustainable investment in food security. During the visit he congratulated Mr Obama on his stance against climate change and called on the US to lead the world in environmental reform. Later, he spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars on the subject of “Sustainable Economy”. He said: “There is a different way of seeing nature; people are already paying for the services it can provide. In Brazil communities in forested areas are being paid for their ‘eco-services’ in helping to preserve the trees. In China, they are paying farmers to change their crops in order to improve the soil. And closer to home – my home – in the European Union, we already make payments to farmers for what we call environmental stewardship – ensuring that they farm in an environmentally sensitive manner and recognising the public benefits they provide.” “We are today faced with a crisis of sustainability. The most glaring threat is that of dangerous climate change. But it is not the only example of the problems we create when we exploit the world’s resources unsustainably.” “Our goal must be to make every building energy efficient, all our transport sustainable, all our energy clean or renewable, and all our agriculture sustainable and productive.” Mr Benn hopes to sway opinion around the world ahead of the Copenhagen summit in December where he hopes to secure an emissions cutting agreement. |
Comments (1)
| Carmen said, | 27th May 2009 @ 20:04 |
| It will be interesting the see what happens in Copenhagen. here in Australia they have adopted a wait and see policy. History has proved that waiting the the US to do anything is a big waste of time | |
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