By John Parnell
RTCC in Hyderabad
A healthy environment is crucial to poverty eradication and economic growth, the World Bank’s sustainable development chief has said.
Sustainable development does not pit environment protection against poverty eradication Kyte said. (Source: UN/Ba Trang)
Speaking yesterday at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) summit in Hyderabad, Rachel Kyte, World Bank vice president for the Sustainable Development Network said that environmental protection could not be separated from the type of growth the world aspires to.
“Sustainable development is not a choice between poverty eradication and environmental protection,” said Kyte. “Shared prosperity will depend on nature and the services it provides.”
Quoting a World Bank report she said that environmental degradation was costing some countries as much as 8% of their GDP.
“Protecting, maintaining and investing in the natural resource space is essential for sustained economic success. Without clean air, land, food, water, without healthy oceans, the basis of life and economic prosperity is, and will be gone,” she added.
Kyte was speaking during the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Video: The World Bank’s Rachel Kyte on the ties between economic growth and environmental protection