Peter Argues for Inclusive Development to Tackle ‘Perfect Storm’

Peter spoke at the InnovaBRICS conference at BAFTA on Wednesday, arguing that only inclusive and sustainable development can help humankind steer its way through a ‘perfect storm’ of climate change and food and water insecurity.

Peter argued for radical changes in the way we approach economic development and globalisation, insisting that it must be based upon renewable energy. But Peter also suggested that long-term sustainable development is only possible when it is inclusive, serving and involving the whole of society, rather than an elite few.

A central component of Peter’s vision of inclusive development, laid out at the conference, was the empowerment of women. The exclusion of women from economic development is a key reason for the endurance of world poverty. Peter gave the shocking statistics that sixty per cent of the poorest people in the world are women, owning only 1% of the worlds wealth, despite constituting 40% of the world’s workforce. Women play very important roles in resource distribution at a family level, so whilst women remain excluded from decision-making processes, as they are in many parts of the world, there cannot be an effective resistance to climate change.

Peter concluded that only with a radical change towards a more inclusive and sustainable model of development, can we give ourselves a chance of navigating our way through the ‘perfect storm’.

See the Speeches section of the website for the full text: http://peterhain.org/neath/speeches/inclusive-development-for-a-sustainable-future-a-key-role-for-the-brics-nations/