20131029_BW

Source: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooTucoWRp9E

Date: 28/11/2013

Event: Bob Watson: "We are getting rid of hunger, at one level, poverty at another, but it's not sustainable"

Attribution: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN

People:

• Professor Bob Watson: Director, IAASTD, also Vice Chair, IPBES

Bob Watson: What we need to understand is to what degree is the world sustainable? What are the implications of human activities on the big issues of climate change, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystems? And what are the implications of these changes in climate, these losses of biodiversity, on food, water, energy, human security?

We need to have a global perspective to understand what's happening. We also need a national and regional assessment. We need to get the policymakers and decision-makers, both in government and the private sector, as well as civil society - need to understand that we're not on a sustainable path. We are getting rid of hunger, at one level, poverty at another, but it's not sustainable. We, therefore, have to assess: how do we meet our basic needs of poverty eradication, food, water, energy security, but in a way that will be sustainable for many, many generations, and that is equitable, economically efficient and environmentally sound.

[Heading: "Importance of Biodiversity Assessments".]

In some parts of the world, we have a fairly good understanding of biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem services, and therefore, by implication, the provisioning service of food, water which is essential, et cetera. In other parts of the world, we've got almost no real information at all, so I think it's highly variable.

I've just chaired an assessment in the United Kingdom, where we've got really good data going back 40, 50 years. And we can talk about what systems are improving, what systems are worse and what are the implications for food, water, energy security. But there's many countries in the world where basic information's just not there.

So I think if we have an international assessment that looks at these issues, it can not only tell us what is known, it can highlight what is unknown, and it can help stimulate some new research, so we can get the information we need.

[Heading: "Sustainable Development Goals".]

I think the world made a really good decision, a number of years ago, to develop the Millennium Development Goals, such as poverty alleviation, hunger alleviation. We've now been asked by our Rio+20 Conference and the General Assembly to develop Sustainable Development Goals, and I think this is a crucial issue, because these goals should apply to both developed and developing countries.

I can imagine issues such as gender, jobs, employment, being part of it, but also food, water, energy security - and poverty alleviation will be central to the debate. The key challenge we've got is not to look at agricultural productivity separate from water security, separate from energy security - we've got to recognise all of these issues are interlinked. So we need policies, technologies and practices that recognise the interlinkages between poverty, hunger, water and energy, that are measures that are actionable by all countries in the world, not just the developing countries but developed countries as well.