Spotlight

While deploring climate change
as a ‘social injustice’ Dr Khoday
sees great hope in the next
generation of consumers.

February 13
Climate change brings 'social injustice'
UNDP/China environment head tells Time magazine

UNDP’s head of Environment and Energy in China, Dr Kishan Khoday has been featured in the ‘Principal Voices’ feature in TIME magazine in which he spoke about climate change and its effects in rapidly-growing economies, such as India and China.

Noting that climate change had already been described as the ‘defining issue of our era’ and ‘the greatest market failure in human history’ Dr Khoday added that, in his view, it was also ‘the greatest social injustice’ as the worst effects of climate change are felt by communities who rely heavily on the natural environment for their livelihoods, while lacking the capacity to respond the dramatic changes that climate change will bring.

However Dr Khoday also said that he saw great hope in the next generation of consumers – among whom there is an increasing spirit of global environmental citizenship – and in the increasing social responsibility of industry, where business leaders in both developed and developing countries were showing new leadership.

“The success stories we are beginning to see in the private sector in places like China and India will become a driver of global growth and a new Green Revolution,” he says.

Read the full text of Dr Khoday’s remarks (pdf)