OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2012. Discussion of the Green Bridge Partnership Programme projects took place in Astana. The round table was a part of the global process on preparation to the “RIO +20” Summit on sustainable development. The event was organized by the Government of Kazakhstan, Germany and the UN Development  Programme in Kazakhstan.

On 20-22 June 2012, Brazil will host a Rio+20 UN Conference for Sustainable Development. 20 years after the historical RIO-92 Conference, heads of states and governments will assess the progress, made on the way to sustainable development.

In his speech at the ad hoc event, dedicated to launch of the preparation campaign, Head of UN Ban Ki-moon emphasized that the current way of development is a dead way. The world is already facing lack of food and clean water, environment pollution and urban overpopulation, growing greenhouse emissions and climate change effects.

Report of the World Economic Forum, Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild, makes a conclusion that financial and economic crisis has exhausted the ability of the world economy to fight collisions, “Without large-scale structural corrections, the risk of sovereign defaults will grow”.

Today we can see that all these forecasts are coming true faster than assumed. Even economically stable countries cannot resist economic, social and environmental distress.

Transfer to such development is possible through partnership, since such a transfer cannot be performed by an individual country or a group of countries even with a high level of economic development.

As noted by the Minister of Environment of Kazakhstan, Nurlan Kapparov: “For Kazakhstan, green economy and sustainable development are not just theory but vital issues. The Aral Sea disaster, Semipalatinsk nuclear testing range and many other regional and national environmental issues require new approaches and practical solutions. Such unresolved issues are present in many other countries with no sufficient experience and capacity to resolve them. That’s why Kazakhstan has initiated its Interregional Green Bridge Partnership Programme as a voluntary, regional and practical mechanism to transfer to green economy.

UNDP Resident Representative, Stephen Tull:  “Foremost, sustainable development means that the substantial policy changes will be required. Countries will have to establish indicators and measures to evaluate implementation of their commitments, establish mechanisms for the transfer of technology, sharing of know-how, and enhancement of capacities. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls for “revolutionary” change, a call to action for governments, private sector and the UN system. This is my task to encourage the Government of Kazakhstan to be revolutionary in creation your vision of development”.

Green economy does not replace sustainable development goals but is a mechanism to achieve them. It means environment preservation on economically beneficial grounds.

The main leverage here is the new generation of greentech, environmental innovations and goods and services, based on them.

The market of green products has already exceeded 1.37 trillion dollars and by 2020, according to UN estimates, will double. Investments into sustainable energy since 2005 have been growing on average by 50% a year.

 Attendees of preparatory meetings to Rio+20 Summit are actively involved in discussions on green economy perspectives and opportunities for the mankind to put an end to environmental degradation. This Roundtable  also became a part of official preparatory UN activities for the World Summit.