• Submitted by: manso
• International
• 06 / 05 / 2011

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Cuba stressed the need for a different, more just and equitable world economic order as one of the key elements for the Ecological Economy concept, on Thursday in the United Nations.

The Cuban Permanent Representative to the UN Pedro Núñez Mosquera presented this and other ideas during a debate about ecological economics presided over by the UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.

The topic will be discussed in the upcoming Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as the Rio + 20, which will be held within a year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Cuban diplomat called for work on the concept of Ecological Economics on the basis of sustainable development and eradication of poverty and to prevent it from becoming shallow and void of content.

In this regard, he stressed that it is essential to respect common, albeit differentiated, responsibilities and to modify the current, prevailing patterns of income distribution worldwide which are the main causes of poverty.

The financial means of the developing countries must be guaranteed in order to achieve a sustainable development, including the use of the technologies they need, he added.

He also called for the eradication of the unequal exchange in the international markets, to increase official collaboration and assistance for development and to change the current production and consumption patterns.

Núñez Mosquera remarked on the need for flexibility in the intellectual property rules to allow a more favourable transfer of technology. He added that these principles have to be respected and observed otherwise underdevelopment and the negative effects of climatic change will continue.

The diplomat also warned that ecological economics must be affordable and present no obstacles to Third World countries. In this regard, he referred to the introduction of environmental parameters that may present new obstacles and barriers for trade leading them in time to become passive importers. In this regard, he spoke of the possible conditions these obstacles may present for providing assistance and credit to these countries in the future.

The Cuban ambassador also spoke of the risk of creating a strong technological dependence between developed and developing countries because the most advanced technologies are in the hands of the private sector of those countries.

Finally, he called for the environment not to be seen as part of the economic infrastructure because this concept could lead to attempts at privatizing nature, which will have dreadful consequences on the economic and social development.

Source: Granma