Economic Development or Environmental Degradation? RFF Experts On Available For Interview Ahead Of The World Summit In South Africa

8/14/2002

From: Melinda Wittstock of Resources for the Future, 202-328-5019

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 -- Tens of millions still suffer in poverty, their lives blighted by hunger, drought, disease, water contamination, and air pollution. It's been 10 years since the first "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, and meeting these challenges has proven to be elusive for the international community -- as has progress in protecting the planet's biodiversity, its marine fish stocks, and its climate.

Governments, international institutions, industry, policymakers, and environmental advocates will gather once again in Johannesburg on August 26th to discuss climate change, water scarcity, energy, and food supply, crosscutting such issues as technological development, trade, financial markets, and globalization.

Ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, scholars from the independent environmental policy research center Resources for the Future (RFF) are available for interview on a wide cross section of topics -- from air pollution and antibiotic resistance to water scarcity and quality, from climate change, fisheries and forestry, to international energy issues and international trade.

"There is a race between ever-cleaner technologies on the one hand, and population and income growth on the other, which will determine the fate of the global environment," says RFF President Paul Portney. "We at RFF are encouraged that the world community is once more gathering to try to find solutions to the myriad challenges facing us all. RFF has long played a significant role in researching ways to ensure sustainable development."

For insight and background on the many challenging issues facing world leaders at the Summit, RFF has published a full series of Issue Briefs on its website. The papers, at http://www.rff.org/Johannesburg/Johannesburg.htm, summarize current knowledge on progress toward sustainable development, and suggest some solutions.

This year in Johannesburg, RFF Senior Fellow Dick Morgenstern will sponsor a workshop on the use of market mechanisms to combat industrial air pollution in the developing world, and RFF Fellow Ramanan Laxminarayan will talk about the economics of antibiotic resistance.

RFF has long played a role in international discussions about sustainable development. Then-RFF board member Maurice Strong was the secretary-general of the very first such conference -- 1972's UN Conference on Human Environment held in Stockholm, Sweden. His adviser was the late Hans Landsberg, an RFF senior fellow. "Both men helped lay the groundwork for the progress made at the 1992 summit in Rio de Janeiro, and RFF scholars are now playing an important role in informing the debate," says Portney.

RFF scholars are available for background briefings and interviews ahead of and during the Summit. The following is a list of scholars by area of expertise:

-- Joel Darmstadter, renewable energy and international energy issues -- Dick Morgenstern, climate change and market-based trading systems to combat air pollution -- Ramanan Laxminarayan, economics of antibiotic resistance -- Michael Taylor, food safety and security -- Jim Sanchirico, fisheries -- Roger Sedjo, forestry -- H. Spencer Banzhaf, Green GDP -- David Simpson, biodiversity -- Michael Toman, climate change and energy -- Majid Ezzati, indoor air pollution and public health in developing countries -- Ruth Greenspan Bell, institutional challenges to environmental governance -- Urvashi Narain, poverty, population and the environment -- Pierre Crosson, sustainable agriculture -- Allen Blackman, technology -- Michael Margolis, Carolyn Fischer, and Sandy Hoffman, global trade and the environment -- Ken Frederick, water scarcity

For more information, or to set up a briefing, please contact Melinda Wittstock, RFF public affairs manager, at 202-328-5019 or at wittstock@rff.org.