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REPUBLIC OF THE SUDAN
THE PRESIDENCY
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
Presentation on:
Growth and Environmental Degradation
By: Badr Eddin Sulieman
Africa Partnership Forum
Special Session on Climate Change
Hosted by UN Economic Commission for Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
3rd September 2009
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Growth and Environmental Degradation
“Mahatma Gandi” was once asked ; would
you like free India to be as developed as the
country of its colonial masters Britain ? .. his
reply was a stunning NO: if it took Britain to
rape half of the world to be where it is, how
many worlds would India need ?. Indeed this
question and answer confront humanity today.
Today it is more clear than before how the
western model of growth is intrinsically toxic.
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It squandered the resources of our planet :
materials and energy and it generated enormous
waste. The model could not has been possible had
it not been accompanied by the immorality of
imperialism, colonization and capture of the
weak world's resource and markets.
The toxic emissions from the so called
civilized world have put the entire world's climate
system at risk, externalizing the illicit
consequence of their attained prosperity to the
less fortunate and less able to deal with its
implications.
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This is not the Model of Growth for the
new world to emulate and the culprits must
come to terms with a new world where rape of
resource and markets is no longer feasible.
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Biological Base of the Economic
System
After all we should not loose sight of the
biological under- pinning of our economic
systems.
Today the economic signs of ecological stress
are visible everywhere : soil erosion of the
croplands, grasslands, and deforestation,
declining fisheries , destroyed wetlands and
floods and droughts.
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The stresses would at the next level manifest
themselves in economic terms , social distress
and eventual civil strife and political
unrest.
Darfur is a case in-point of the complex
impact of environmental change manifesting
themselves in economic and social stress and
eventual civil strife.
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Climate change is partly to blame for the
conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, where
droughts have provoked fighting over water
sources, “UN. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon”
said in an editorial published Saturday, June
13th 2009.
For sometime the economic signs of ecological
stress are visible everywhere: soil erosion of the
croplands, grasslands, and droughts.
The stresses typically manifested themselves in
the next level in economic and social distress and
eventual civil strife and political unrest.
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As a result of extended drought from the mid1970s through the early 1980s, there were large
population movements of pastoralists from
Northern Darfur and Chad into the central
farming belt in Darfur.
Demographic changes coincided in the 1970s
with sharp decline in rainfall, localized famines
and a rise in political violence across the
international border with Chad.
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Consequently, conflicts developed between the
immigrants and the settled population reflecting
conflicting interests of sedentary agricultural
groups and other semi-nomadic pastoralists.
We admit that partisan politics and foreign
interference from neighboring countries
sharpened the conflict, as the region became
awash in give-away arms and ammunition. The
outbreak of regional wars during1986-1987 spilled
into the region and the racial salience led to
intensified confrontations.
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The history of strife in Darfur focused on
land, with migrants and pastoralists deprived
of their traditional livelihood, trying to carve
out home territories from land previously
occupied by sedentary communities.
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New Model of Development
Humanity has no choice but to reinvent a new
human development model friendly to the
environment.
The strong and rich must restrain their excessive
demand on our planet resources; Humanity
should wisely seek to harness energy and material
supply from our universe, together with
renewable resources of our planet.
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The New Model of Human Development
entails low-cost engineering and lean
production processes, focusing on material
and energy productivity, and restraining
wasteful consumption and greed. (The
Economist No.
dated
).
The core of the New Model would enhance
"global environment justice"; This notion of
justice demands in the first place outright
enforcement of prohibition of dumping of
toxic waste in the poor world.
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“ Global environment justice” , demands
secondly, adhering forcefully to the principle of
“ Polluters Pay the Price” “PPP ” so as to
support the helpless victims in Africa and
elsewhere by comprehensive remedial and
medicating measures: capacity enhancement to
deal with the adverse consequences of
environmental degradation , revival of crop
lands , grass lands and aforestation, enhancing
rain–fed farming, organic pastures and rural
water harvest.
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Yet in the midst of gloom a ray of hope shine
for the distant future of Africa; USA Energy
Minister while he was at Berkeley Institute
“conceived the idea of a global glucose
economy, to supplant mankind dependence on
oil. Fast-growing crops would be planted in
the tropics, where sunlight is abundant.
They would be converted into glucose (of
which cellulose, which makes up much of the
dry weight of a plant, is a polymer) and the
glucose would be shipped around much as oil
is today, for eventual conversion into biofuels
and bioplastics”.
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“The Economist July 2, 2009”
Africa the continent of the tropics is destined
to save the world by transforming its largest
industry : energy.
In Conclusion, I recall the African Union
2007 commitment to integrate climate
change and climate change adaptation
strategies into national and sub-regional
development policies.
Thank You,,,,
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