Sustainability and Equity: A better future for all

1. Sustainability and Equity:A better future for all Ricarda Rieger UNDP Country Director Kyiv, 3 November 2011

2. Why equity and sustainability? • How can we…. • Maintain progress in ways that are equitable and that do not harm the environment? • Meet the development aspirations of poor people worldwide? • Promote policies that will advance both equity and sustainability?

3. Environmental and inequality trends threaten human development progress

4. Environmental trends threaten human development progress • By 2050, the global HDI would be: • 19% higher than it is today. • Largest increase in developing countries (24%). • 44% for Sub-Saharan Africa and 36% for South Asia. • 8% lower in an environmental challenge scenario. • 12% for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. • 15% lower in an environmental disaster scenario. • Dramatic impact on developing countries • 24% for Sub-Saharan Africa and 22% for South Asia.

5. Environmental trends threaten human development progress HDI

6. … and development gaps will be harder to close • By 2050: • Without new environmental challenges: inequality is expected to decrease. • Environmental challenge scenario: reduction in inequality is predicted to slow down. • Environmental disaster scenario: widening inequality, reversing current trends.

7. Inequalities generate losses on human development and also threaten future progress • Our Inequality-adjusted HDI reveals losses of 23% of HDI globally. • Health and education disparities are narrowing, but income inequality is worsening. • Average country-level income inequality increased around 20 percent over 1990–2005. • Higher levels of gender inequality (GII) is associated with lower levels of sustainability. • Meeting unmet need for family planning could cut carbon emissions by about 17% by 2050. • 1.5 billion people lack electricity, 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation. • If current trends continue, more people will lack access to modern energy in 2030 than today.

8. Environmental challenges are wide spread and their effects are more severe on the poorest, both at the macro level...

9. Environmental challenges are driven by climate change and chronic environmental threats • Global temperatures are rising. • Now average 0.75°C higher. • than at the beginning of the • 20thcentury. • Sea level is rising. • 20 centimeters higher today than in 1870 • Likelihood of natural disasters is increasing. • Average number per year doubled over 25 years • Loss of forest cover threatens livelihoods and biodiversity. • Low HDI countries experience greatest losses (11%).

10. Poorest countries have been worst affected by changes in precipitation • Overall Decline in precipitation of more than 4%. • Increased variability. • Sub-Saharan Africa experienced largest decline, more than 7%.

11. … and at the household level

12. Environmental challenges have a negative impact on poor households • Education: • Environmental challenges constrain both enrolment and progress of enrolled children. • Livelihoods: • Significant risks for 350 million people who rely on forests for subsistence and incomes. • Similarly for 45 million (6 million are women) that fish for a living. • Health: • Indoor air pollution kills 11 times more people in low HDI countries • Each year 3 million children under age 5 die from environment-related diseases.

13. In poor households, environmental deprivations are widespread • The poor suffer multiple environmental deprivations (MPI) • 80% experience two or more, and 29% face all three. • Nearly 90% lack access to modern cooking fuels, 80% lack adequate sanitation, and 35% lack clean water. • In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa • 90% of lack access to modern cooking fuels • 85% lack access to improved sanitation. • In several Arab States more than 60% face water shortages.

14. Development aspirations of poor people must be met in a framework of global and local sustainability

15. Rising to the policy challenges at the local level • Change the development model towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns • Clean and safe environment – a right not a privilege. • Promote more inclusive participation in governance and policy-making by those most vulnerable to environmental hazards. • Meeting development aspirations of poor people while preserving the environment. • Promising examples of win-win policies exist at the national level. • The scale of the challenge demands massive simultaneous investment and innovation.

16. This can be done; an incremental approach is not enough. A macro shift is needed

17. For a macro shift, we need global innovations • Current development finance is insufficient and with unequal access (countries and sectors). • New financing sources: Currency Transactions Tax • Feasibility of implementation and growing high-level support • Reforms for greater equity and access to finance. • State role in catalyzing private resources • “Deal-flow” climate facilities to help local actors with the complex requirements to access climate finance • National climate funds to promote blending of resources

18. For a macro shift, we need global innovations • Swift implementation of UN Universal Energy Access Initiative. • Global campaign • Removing barriers to technology diffusion • Support of National low-emission, climate-resilient development strategies. • Achieving this would increase CO2 emissions by only 0.8% • Estimated annual investment is less than an eighth of annual subsidies for fossil fuel.

19. Promoting human development requires addressing sustainability. • This can and should be done in ways that are equitable and empowering

20. Human Development Index values and rank changes in the 2011 Human Development Report

21. HDI values and rank • The 2011 Human Development Report presents • HDI values and ranks for 187 countries and UN-recognized territories • Inequality-adjusted HDI for 134 countries • Gender Inequality Index for 146 countries and • Multidimensional Poverty Index for 109 countries

22. Ukraine’s HDI value and rank • Ukraine’s HDI value for 2011 is 0.729—in the high human development category—positioning the country at 76 out of 187 countries and territories • Between 1990 and 2011, Ukraine’s HDI value increased from 0.707 to 0.729, an increase of 3.0 per cent or average annual increase of about 0.1 per cent • Ukraine’s 2011 HDI of 0.729 is below the average of 0.741 for countries in the high human development group and below the average of 0.751 for countries in Europe and Central Asia

23. Ukraine’s IHDI, GII and MPI • Ukraine’s HDI for 2011 is 0.729. When the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.662, a loss of 9.2 per cent due to inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices • Ukraine has a GII value of 0.335, ranking it 57 out of 146 countries in the 2011 index • In Ukraine 2.2 per cent of the population suffer multiple deprivations while an additional 1.0 per cent are vulnerable to multiple deprivations

24. Thank you