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Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), has expressed happiness about the remarkable economic development in Africa and emphasized that the development has to be sustainable.

"Economic growth that is narrowly focused and fails to also factor in social and environmental concerns--in other words sustainable development-- will ultimately fail because it undercuts the natural resources base which is the foundation of wealth in the first place," he told Xinhua in a written interview conducted before the UN Climate Change Conference is held in Nairobi from Nov. 6 to 17.

It would be the first time for the conference to be held in Africa and is expected to be able to better address Africa's concerns about its environment.

A warning issued earlier this month by Kenya's non-government organization Green Belt Movement, founded by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, highlighted Steiner's argument, saying that warming climate brought by deforestation and industrial pollution may cause the ice cover of Africa's two highest mountains, Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, to disappear in the coming 25 to 50 years and this would result in a water crisis for millions.

Steiner said Africa is rich and abundant in natural resources from minerals through to timber and from fisheries through to wildlife and landscapes that attract international tourists.

"It is essential that these natural or nature-based resources are harvested sustainably so that they can continue to generate income into the future," he said, "The challenge is to ensure that they are not simply extracted for short-term profit and then lost as a resource base for current and future generations."

The economy of sub-Saharan Africa is currently growing at some five percent annually, part of the growth being fueled by high commodity and natural resource prices.

This is well exemplified in Nigeria, Africa's No.1 oil exporter, whose gross domestic product (GDP) growth is highly reliant on oil prices in the world market.

Oil export contributes more than 95 percent of the country's export earnings and 80 percent of all government revenues, yet most inhabitants in Nigeria' oil-rich Niger Delta have seen few benefits from five decades of oil extraction that has damaged their environment.

Steiner suggested that Africa develop tourism, a multi-billion- dollar industry, of which Africa captures only four percent annually.

"So there is clearly huge potential here if it can be managed sustainably," he said.

Steiner said there are other ways to ensure development is sustainable in Africa which contributes only about three percent of the world's climate change emissions yet is arguably the most vulnerable to climate change.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries can offset some of their emissions through forestry and renewable energy projects in developing countries via the Clean Development Mechanism, which is, over the long term, likely to generate up to US$100 billion of funds flowing to developing countries.

"Currently Africa has only a tiny share of the current projects. We need to urgently assist countries here in accessing this new flow of funds and sustainable energy projects," he said, appealing to developed countries to pay communities in the tropics of Africa for maintaining forests and ecosystem services they provide in terms of carbon removal, benefit of global magnitude.

China's role

Steiner said that China, as a rapidly developing country that has and is still grappling with the consequences of sharp economic growth, has a hugely important role to play in helping Africa improve the environment.

"China can share its development experiences with Africa in order to help countries here 'leap frog' and avert environmentally- damaging development," he said.

China is pioneering the Circular Economy, a concept aimed at reducing waste by making waste in its broadest sense useful as raw material for manufacturing rather than something that is discharged or thrown away.

"It would be good for China and Chinese companies to transfer these principles to their activities in Africa to assist nations here in more sustainable production and consumption patterns," he said.

The UNEP chief urged China to factor in sustainability when engaging with the economies of Africa and to carry out thorough environmental impact assessments in line with international good practice.

"I would also urge China, as I would any country, to look closely at the implications of development in terms of climate change and the need for adaptive investments," he said.

"For example there is no point, indeed it is a waste of money, investing in infrastructure that may, in a short time, be overwhelmed by sea level rise or other impacts of global warming," said Steiner.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2006)