Green growth key to Asia-Pacific food, energy security

ESCAP tells global forum:

Asia-Pacific countries can cushion themselves against food and fuel price shocks and natural disasters by more efficient use of resources and energy, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) told a forum of world leaders here today.

Green growth remains an essential and urgent task for enhancing the energy and food security of each country (in the Asia-Pacific region), UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary of, Dr Noeleen Heyzer told the Global Green Growth Summit organized by the Government of the Republic of Korea and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The one-day summit, marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of OECD, brought together 800 participants from 25 countries.

The current energy, resource and carbon intensive development pattern must give way to green growth to reduce wasteful use of resources and energy, Dr Heyzer said. “This was particularly important at a time when the Asia-Pacific region faces triple threats from recurring climate-related natural disasters and soaring food and fuel prices. Latest ESCAP estimates show that rising food and oil prices can keep an additional 42 million people in the region in poverty in 2011,” he said.

The region is also the world’s most vulnerable to natural disasters, with its people four times more likely to be affected by nature’s wrath tha n those in Africa and 25 times more likely than those in Europe or North America. “For Asia and the Pacific, a region whose efficiency in using energy and resources still remains low, improving the efficiency of our production and consumption will provide us with a new engine of growth,” the ESCAP chief said.