Reconciling poverty eradication and quality of the environment
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June 27-28, 2011
Maison de la Chimie - Paris
Poverty and the environment
Today, preserving the environment is a major component of sustainable development. Humans, because they interact with the natural environment, must evolve in order to face up to new constraints at international level. These include limited and vulnerable natural resources, loss of biodiversity, finite land that is sought for competing uses, need for new energy sources, demographic pressures - particularly in urban areas - and climate change. So, for people and the planet to survive, wouldn’t it be necessary to reflect on such an integrated approach and on the economic resources that would allow an efficient transition towards meeting the dual objective of reconciling poverty eradication and quality of the environment?
More than 600 participants attended the international Conference to discuss innovative solutions to reconcile poverty eradication and quality of the environment.
2 days of interventions
600 participants
70 international experts
A number of priority issues stand out:
Making the poor less vulnerable to climate-related risks;
Improving the living conditions of the poor through the preservation of biodiversity and sustainable development of natural assets;
Controlling human impact on the environment, thus contributing to improving quality of life for the poorest, and, particularly, health;
The role of economic development in global and local policies that are directed to combating poverty and preserving the environment.
Main expectations
To raise awareness regarding the new constraints and opportunities resulting from a combined analysis of poverty and the environment;
To share concrete experiences in various geographical, economic and political contexts that have made reconciling poverty eradication and quality of the environment possible;
To provide a platform for an in-depth dialogue between governments, decision-makers, scientific experts, NGOs, businesses, multilateral institutions, and representatives of civil society;
To mobilize on, and raise awareness of, forms of cooperation between actors or geographical areas;
To promote more extensively quality scientific research and field experience so that those who are interested in dialogue and are in search of clear guidelines can be provided with sounder factual foundations.
With the exceptional participation of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize and Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize in Economics and many other high-level experts.
Find more about our international Conference videos
Wangari MAATHAI, Nobel Peace Prize, Founder Green Belt Movement
Amartya SEN, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Economist and professor, Harvard
University
(From left to right): Brice LALONDE, Executive Coordinator, UN Conference Rio 2012 and
Antoine FRÉROT, Chairman and CEO, Veolia Environnement
Joan CLOS, Executive Director, UN-Habitat
(From left to right): SERAGELDIN (Biblioteca Alexandria), MARTHON-LEFÈVRE (IUCN), DJOGHLAF
(Convention on Biological Diversity), and BILLÉ (IDDRI)
Sheela PATEL, Founding Director, SPARC and Chair, Shack/Slum Dwellers International
Publications
Find more about the booklet combining the presentation of the conference, the detailed program, speakers' biographies and all the conference organizers and partners.
You can also find the background documents to a better understanding of the interactions between poverty eradication and the environment. The environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev and the British economist Lord Nicholas Stern have contributed to the document.
In addition, find a literature review gathering studies, reports and recent works that deal with the challenge of protecting the environment in connection with poverty eradication.
Finally, find the issue " Pauvreté et environnement : conjuguer les trajectoires " of the collection Savoir Commun, developed by the Veolia Institute and the Agence Française de Développement.
