Guyana can play a role in sustaining growing world population – Dr. Ashni Singh
... through food supply, environmental services of forests
Written by Johann Earle
Tuesday, 01 November 2011 03:15
Source - Guyana Chronicle
Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance addressing the gathering at the launch of the UNFPA population report yesterday
MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh said that despite Guyana’s relative smallness in terms of population, the country can position itself to make a contribution to the global response to the challenges of a growing population, which hit the seven billion mark yesterday, more than doubling what it was in 1959.
To this end, the minister spoke of what Guyana has been doing in terms of the Low Carbon Development Strategy that can be directly related to the challenges that a seven billion population places on the environment.
“The world has finally woken up to the fact that we are on a path that is unsustainable on the environmental front,” he said, speaking at the launch of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World Population 2011 held at the Georgetown Club yesterday.
“This is one area where I believe Guyana has a significant role to play and has situated itself with respect to playing that role,” he said.
The minister said Guyana’s policy position on the role of standing forests in the fight against climate change stands out, “and we must spare no effort to continue to articulate that role, in the context of the need for the global community to find a solution to the global environmental challenges that is truly lasting.”
A section of the audience at the launch of the UNFPA State of the World Population Report 2011, at the Georgetown Club
But he said the fact that there are foregone economic opportunities and that the forests provide the global environmental services that they do, Guyana should be remunerated for those services. “It is a position on which we will continue to seek the support of our friends in the international community, and in particular, the UN agencies,” he said.
He said that the population growth also has implications for food supply and food security. “We have argued that [we have] the potential to contribute more significantly to global food output,” he said, adding that regional food demand is still to be realised.
“This report is being launched around the world under the title ‘People and Possibilities in a World of Seven Billion’. The title of the report is apt, as indeed is the scheduling of today’s launching ceremony, given that today has been designated as the day of seven billion, the date on which the world’s population is estimated to have attained the seven billion mark,” he said.
Patrice LaFleur
“We meet on a truly historic occasion today, on a day that provides an opportunity for much reflection and contemplation. There could be no doubt in any of our minds that we live in the era of the most rapid burst of population growth in our planet’s history. Indeed, as the report indicates, over the 37 years from 1974 to now, the world’s population has grown by approximately one billion every 12 years,” he said. The population reached the six billion mark back in 1999.
He said that to put this statistic into context, one has only to contrast it with the fact that it took all of human history until 1804 for the world’s population to get to the one billion mark. “And it took a further 123 years to 1927 for the population to get to two billion. Indeed, it took a further 32 years to get to three billion in 1959. In other words, the world today is two and a half times as populated as it was in 1959, not a year that any one of us would consider distant by any measure,” the minister said.
Singh said that the occasion of the attainment of seven billion is one that provides much to celebrate. “The fact of the matter is that the world has made tremendous progress, particularly in relation to scientific research and technology and in the area of medical science and health care,” the minister said.
“The statistics confirm this...whether it is progress made in reducing child and maternal mortality. The report documents the progress made from 1959, when the world’s population was three billion, to now,” he said.
“The fact that we are able to treat diseases that we were not previously able to treat, the fact that our mothers and expectant mothers receive a level of care that they never previously received, the fact that our newborn children get those critical early medical interventions they need in order to maximise survival ratios, those facts are all things that we, the global community, the national authorities and we, the development community, would be justified in patting our backs and congratulating ourselves on,” the minister said.
But he said that even as the achievement is celebrated, the rapidity with which world population has been growing in recent years is a cause for serious contemplation of its challenges.
Lennox Benjamin
“If one were to contemplate the global context, some of these challenges are well known and stare us in the face,” he said. The minister added that the nexus between population dynamics and economic growth, issues related to bringing the benefits of economic growth to each and every citizen of the world, the challenges of population growth and the environment, and climate change, and how those fit together, relate to each other.
He said that in a world where the population is growing rapidly, there will be challenges to energy demand and food security. He said these issues must be given serious thought as the world celebrates seven billion on the planet.
“How we meet, as a global community, the development needs and aspirations of the seven billion who populate our world today, and indeed the eight billion who will populate our world in 13 or 14 years’ time, is a serious question, especially at a time when just as how population growth is uneven, so is economic growth, and at a time when the world’s economy is going through what has been described as its most challenging episode in living memory,” the minister postulated.
“This is a call that I make to the global community, particularly through our development partners, and for them to speak to their principles,” he said.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Assistant Representative Patrice La Fleur said that people are living better lives, planning families better, but that there still remain gaps between the rich and the poor.
She said that the next two billion people will live in cities, and as such, planning needs to begin now, as consideration is given to urban growth.
Speaking to the gathering, Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin said that just 200 years ago, the world’s population stood at one billion people. He said that the advances in information technology and new goods and services that information has spawned have heightened the potential for quality of life that could be attained.
“That is why, throughout the world, the reduction and ultimate eradication of poverty has to be the foremost of goals if mankind is to achieve the highest quality of life,” he said. He added that the growing size of the world’s population has compelled every country to be ultra-conscious of the changing size and composition of its population.
“The National Census continues to be the predominant tool for the monitoring of a country’s changes in population, and Guyana and Suriname are the two countries of the CARICOM group left to conduct their censuses for the present 2010 round, and both have targeted approximately mid-next year to execute their censuses,” he said.
Benjamin said that contrary to what is believed, a census is fundamentally much more than a count of the population. He noted that it is also an evaluation of the quality of life of the people of a country.
... through food supply, environmental services of forests
Written by Johann Earle
Tuesday, 01 November 2011 03:15
Source - Guyana Chronicle
Dr. Ashni Singh, Minister of Finance addressing the gathering at the launch of the UNFPA population report yesterdayMINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh said that despite Guyana’s relative smallness in terms of population, the country can position itself to make a contribution to the global response to the challenges of a growing population, which hit the seven billion mark yesterday, more than doubling what it was in 1959.
To this end, the minister spoke of what Guyana has been doing in terms of the Low Carbon Development Strategy that can be directly related to the challenges that a seven billion population places on the environment.
“The world has finally woken up to the fact that we are on a path that is unsustainable on the environmental front,” he said, speaking at the launch of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World Population 2011 held at the Georgetown Club yesterday.
“This is one area where I believe Guyana has a significant role to play and has situated itself with respect to playing that role,” he said.
The minister said Guyana’s policy position on the role of standing forests in the fight against climate change stands out, “and we must spare no effort to continue to articulate that role, in the context of the need for the global community to find a solution to the global environmental challenges that is truly lasting.”
A section of the audience at the launch of the UNFPA State of the World Population Report 2011, at the Georgetown ClubBut he said the fact that there are foregone economic opportunities and that the forests provide the global environmental services that they do, Guyana should be remunerated for those services. “It is a position on which we will continue to seek the support of our friends in the international community, and in particular, the UN agencies,” he said.
He said that the population growth also has implications for food supply and food security. “We have argued that [we have] the potential to contribute more significantly to global food output,” he said, adding that regional food demand is still to be realised.
“This report is being launched around the world under the title ‘People and Possibilities in a World of Seven Billion’. The title of the report is apt, as indeed is the scheduling of today’s launching ceremony, given that today has been designated as the day of seven billion, the date on which the world’s population is estimated to have attained the seven billion mark,” he said.
Patrice LaFleur“We meet on a truly historic occasion today, on a day that provides an opportunity for much reflection and contemplation. There could be no doubt in any of our minds that we live in the era of the most rapid burst of population growth in our planet’s history. Indeed, as the report indicates, over the 37 years from 1974 to now, the world’s population has grown by approximately one billion every 12 years,” he said. The population reached the six billion mark back in 1999.
He said that to put this statistic into context, one has only to contrast it with the fact that it took all of human history until 1804 for the world’s population to get to the one billion mark. “And it took a further 123 years to 1927 for the population to get to two billion. Indeed, it took a further 32 years to get to three billion in 1959. In other words, the world today is two and a half times as populated as it was in 1959, not a year that any one of us would consider distant by any measure,” the minister said.
Singh said that the occasion of the attainment of seven billion is one that provides much to celebrate. “The fact of the matter is that the world has made tremendous progress, particularly in relation to scientific research and technology and in the area of medical science and health care,” the minister said.
“The statistics confirm this...whether it is progress made in reducing child and maternal mortality. The report documents the progress made from 1959, when the world’s population was three billion, to now,” he said.
“The fact that we are able to treat diseases that we were not previously able to treat, the fact that our mothers and expectant mothers receive a level of care that they never previously received, the fact that our newborn children get those critical early medical interventions they need in order to maximise survival ratios, those facts are all things that we, the global community, the national authorities and we, the development community, would be justified in patting our backs and congratulating ourselves on,” the minister said.
But he said that even as the achievement is celebrated, the rapidity with which world population has been growing in recent years is a cause for serious contemplation of its challenges.
Lennox Benjamin“If one were to contemplate the global context, some of these challenges are well known and stare us in the face,” he said. The minister added that the nexus between population dynamics and economic growth, issues related to bringing the benefits of economic growth to each and every citizen of the world, the challenges of population growth and the environment, and climate change, and how those fit together, relate to each other.
He said that in a world where the population is growing rapidly, there will be challenges to energy demand and food security. He said these issues must be given serious thought as the world celebrates seven billion on the planet.
“How we meet, as a global community, the development needs and aspirations of the seven billion who populate our world today, and indeed the eight billion who will populate our world in 13 or 14 years’ time, is a serious question, especially at a time when just as how population growth is uneven, so is economic growth, and at a time when the world’s economy is going through what has been described as its most challenging episode in living memory,” the minister postulated.
“This is a call that I make to the global community, particularly through our development partners, and for them to speak to their principles,” he said.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Assistant Representative Patrice La Fleur said that people are living better lives, planning families better, but that there still remain gaps between the rich and the poor.
She said that the next two billion people will live in cities, and as such, planning needs to begin now, as consideration is given to urban growth.
Speaking to the gathering, Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin said that just 200 years ago, the world’s population stood at one billion people. He said that the advances in information technology and new goods and services that information has spawned have heightened the potential for quality of life that could be attained.
“That is why, throughout the world, the reduction and ultimate eradication of poverty has to be the foremost of goals if mankind is to achieve the highest quality of life,” he said. He added that the growing size of the world’s population has compelled every country to be ultra-conscious of the changing size and composition of its population.
“The National Census continues to be the predominant tool for the monitoring of a country’s changes in population, and Guyana and Suriname are the two countries of the CARICOM group left to conduct their censuses for the present 2010 round, and both have targeted approximately mid-next year to execute their censuses,” he said.
Benjamin said that contrary to what is believed, a census is fundamentally much more than a count of the population. He noted that it is also an evaluation of the quality of life of the people of a country.