European Report on Development 2012: The EU’s role in promoting development-friendly natural resource management – A sneak preview
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Water, energy and land belong to the most under-pressure resources today. This year’s European Report on Development, to be launched in mid-May 2012, focuses on these 3 key natural resources and analyses how the ways they are managed affect development objectives. The Report examines the constraints on each, the interrelationships between them and considers how water, energy and land can be managed together to promote economic growth in the poorest developing countries – growth that is both socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. While the Report’s layout and formal launch are being prepared, this blog post, part of a series of articles by the Reports’ research team, provides a “sneak preview” or an appetiser for what the full report will have on offer. The European Report on Development 2012, entitled “Confronting Scarcity” points to the urgent need to radically transform approaches to managing water, energy and land. Current methods often deal with these resources in splendid isolation from one another. Such a radical change is needed to satisfy the growing demand for water, food and energy without transgressing environmental limits or tipping points. It involves institutional change and joint implementation by the public and private sectors, both in the North and in the South. The Report looks particularly at the roles of 3 different actors and what need to do in order to meet this transformational challenge:
- The national public sector sets the regulatory and legal framework, uses public expenditure, coordinates and facilitates.
- The private sector can respond by making its business models more inclusive and sustainable and by investing in sustainable outcomes.
- The European Union (EU) can support poorer countries through internal policies on production and consumption, as a major trade and investment partner, as a major donor, and through contributions to global governance, as well as by promoting better policy coherence for development.
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