UN Adviser Says World Must Focus On Sustainable Development by John Shaw Maurice Strong, a Canadian businessman, environmental activist and special advisor to the United Nations secretary-general, acknowledges that he has sharply conflicting views about how the future will unfold. During pessimistic moments, Strong sees a world that is ravaged by hunger, overpopulation, ecological and environmental disasters, dramatic climate change, the re-emergence of horrible diseases and political turmoil. But during periods of optimism, Strong believes that manís capacity to innovate, create and respond to major challenges will prevail and that essential changes in lifestyle and attitude will pave the way for a peaceful and secure future. In an interview, Strong said people across the world must strive to reconcile care for the environment with aspirations for development, ecological sensitivity with economic growth and the demands of the present with the needs of the future. "We need to shift the whole manner in which we are using the resources we have. Sustainable development will not be achieved by a few measures at the margins. It has to be integrated int o our economic life," he said. "We have obviously made progress. We now know more or less what the problems are. We have now developed a system of techniques and technologies to deal with the environment and even a good number of policies. But we havenít yet begun to do the things we need to do. We have not made the transition to a sustainable future," he added. Buoyant, irrepressible and energetic, Strong, 72, speaks in enthusiastic bursts even when discussing the most alarming trends. His optimism is rooted in the success of his wide-ranging and diverse career. Born during the Depression in Manitoba, Canada, he taught himself the intricacies of the petroleum business while studying international politics and business. He developed a vast network of friends and associates who have supported his career and stimulated his thinking. Strong has served in an impressive array of business, government and non-governmental organizations and has ascended to the top of nearly every group he has been part of. Strong was appointed president of the Power Corp. at the age of 29, became an undersecretary-general of the United Nations at 40 and later served as chairman of Ontario Hydro, the worldís largest generator of nuclear energy. While moving from job to job, he has focused on a singular mission: to integrate environmental awareness and sound economic policies into sustainable development strategies. "You canít deal with environmental issues on their own. They are part of a whole system of how we manage our affairs," he said. "The environment is properly perceived as a systemic issue. We canít have environmental security without the broader security of our civilization. Human security and environmental security are inextricably linked." Strong, well known in Canadian business and political circles, became internationally prominent in 1969 when UN Secretary-General U Thant asked him to become secretary-general of the Stockholm Environmental Conference and undersecretary-general of the UN for environmental affairs. Strong said this assignment perfectly blended his interests in development, the environment and the United Nations. The Stockholm Conference in 1972 was the first major intergovernmental conference on environmental issues and is still viewed as a landmark event that launched a new era of global environmental diplomacy. Strong notes that of the 140 multilateral environmental treaties that have been signed since the 1920s, more than half have been concluded since the Stockholm meeting. After the Stockholm Conference, Strong remained active in UN programs and an assortment of business ventures. He was selected to organize and serve as secretary-general of the Earth Summit that was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. That conference, which brought together the worldís top political and environmental leaders, agreed on a declaration of principles and a plan of action to confront environmental degradation and shift the world to a more sustainable future. Strong believes the Rio conference has led to some progress on the environment but cautions that the world community has not fundamentally confronted such issues as global warming and deforestation. Strong is looking forward to a key environmental meeting next year in Johannesburg, South Africa, that is being dubbed, "Rio+10/Stockholm+30." It will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Rio conference and the 30th anniversary of the Stockholm meeting. "The meeting in Johannesburg in September of next year will be a time to take stock, but the purpose of the meeting is not just to take stock. The real purpose is to get a second wind and look at what weíve learned and what weíve done and how to regain the momentum of Stockholm and Rio," he said. "Thereís been some real progress since Rio, but it doesnít add up to the fundamental changes called for." The UN has intrigued Strong since he was a young boy in rural Canada. His is a classic rags-to-riches tale: His first job at the UN was as a junior officer in the Safety and Security Service while he was in his teens. Through hard work and good fortune, Strong has held senior positions at the UN during his career. He has held eight posts at the level of UN undersecretary-general. He is also a long-time friend of current Secretary-General Kofi Annan and has been special adviser to him since early 1997. He said Annan has pressed forward with many needed reforms. "Kofi Annan has gone as far as a secretary-general can go. But the more fundamental reformsówhich he has endorsed but cannot implementóhave not been tackled," he said. Strong said structural reforms of the UN cannot be implemented administratively but require political agreements from the member nations that comprise the UN. He believes it is crucial to expand the Security Council from its current size of 15 nations so that it better reflects the world of the 21st century. "Unless the Security Council becomes more representative of the geopolitics of today rather than the geopolitics of 1945, it will be bypassed and become less effective and important," he said. Strong also supports limiting the use of the veto by the so-called Permanent Five nations in the Security Councilóthe United States, France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia. He said that a strong UN is needed for more effective global governance and that as a first step, it should delegate to other organizations those tasks that are not central to its mission. "Itís almost impossible to get any issue off the UN agenda because some small groups of nations or bureaucrats will insist on keeping it on. The UN should be dealing with issues that require global-level cooperation or require a global framework or context," he said. "The UN agenda should be pruned down to the point that it is dealing with those issues for which it is able to deal with. It should leave other issues to regional organizations or levels of government in which they can best be handled," he said. Strong added that while the UN should jettison less essential issues, it should be the lead actor in the most pressing issues that affect the safety and security of the world. For example, the UN should be charged with the codification, administration and enforcement of international law, he said. "The single greatest weakness of the existing international legal regime is the almost total lack of capacity for enforcement," Strong said. According to Strong, the UN should also take the lead in what he calls boundary issues. These include limiting the manufacture and use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; limiting greenhouse gases; preserving biological resources; limiting hazardous substances; ensuring the security of all nations; preserving human rights; and protecting what he calls the global commonsóthe oceans, atmosphere, space and Antarctica. He believes the UNís Trusteeship Council should be upgraded to deal with this global commons, adding that two-thirds of the worldís surface is outside national jurisdictions and requires communal care and supervision. Strong also has a long friendship with World Bank President James Wolfensohn and said the World Bank has made important progress in shifting from a lender to a development leader that is aware of the social, ethical and human rights implications of its programs. He said the Bretton Woods institutions are important, but also badly in need of fine-tuning. "There is no question that the [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank are important but they need very, very strong revamping and reorientation. These institutions have evolved, but they are in need of very serious reforms. But there is huge resistance to these reforms," he said. Strong has a busy life, packed with international meetings and conferences. He continues to juggle more projects and ventures than seems possible. He has recently written a book, "Where on Earth are We Going?" that is both a memoir and a plea for global action to build a safer, cleaner and more prosperous world. He has developed a management style to handle his long list of involvements. When he takes on a new project he writes a memo for himself that describes the issues and the parameters of the problem he is tackling. While busy with many projects, he tries to focus on only one at a time and gives it his undivided attention. And when dealing with people in international negotiations, he believes it is essential to be calm, non-confrontational, respectful, relentless and open to reasonable compromises. He is currently very active in two related ventures: He is president of the council for the United Nations University of Peace and is chairman of the Earth Council, both of which are based in Costa Rica. The Earth Council is an environmental non-governmental organization that was created after the Rio conference. The University of Peace is a UN institution that was set up in 1980 to promote cooperation and tolerance and train a new generation of leaders about the challenges of the future. "Peace is the prerequisite for the achievement of all the other goals that the human community aspires to in the 21st century. There is an inextricable link between peace, security and sustainable development," he said. Strong believes the ethos of sustainable development must be adopted in the developing world that represents nearly three-quarters of the worldís population. "The battle to achieve a sustainable future for all of us will be won or lost in the developing world. But they will be influenced by us in the developed world, not by our rhetoric and our exhortations, but by what we actually do and what help we provide to them to make this transition. We canít do it without them and they canít do it without us," he said. Strong is working with officials in China and is trying to impart his views on sustainable development. He emphasized that environmental protection and sustainability must be fully absorbed into the ethos of industrial civilization and every aspect of economic life. He sees a global agenda that is packed with daunting challenges and with a limited time to address these problems. Profound changes must be implemented in the next two decades, he said. "We can do it. But weíre not doing it yet. Hopefully we wonít need environmental destruction equivalent to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack but we may get it. And it may be we wonít move until we get this kind of destruction," he said. But Strong rarely stays pessimistic for very long. And he is determined to do everything he can to make the best-case future scenario prevail. "The theme of my life is unfinished business. There is so much that needs to be done. Iím going to keep working on these issues. Iím just a wee cog in a big wheel. Iím still not satisfied Iíve done everything I can do. So Iíll just keep working on it," he said. John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.