Annan slams current devp model, says millions lack access to

Inequality is growing both between and within societies as a handful of super rich own as much wealth as billions of poor, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said.
"Hundreds of millions of people lack access to food, water and energy -- the very basic necessities of life. One in eight of our fellow human beings do not have enough food to eat. In the Asia-Pacific region, 1.7 billion people lack access to sanitation and 680 million are without electricity," Annan said in his keynote address at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here.
Citing a recent Oxfam report, he said, "the richest 85 people in the world own as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion... Inequality is growing both between and within societies."

'Attaining Energy, Water and Food Security for All' is the theme of The Energy and Resource Institute's (TERI) this year's DSDS summit, which began here today.
Addressing the delegates from India and abroad, Annan said that existing model of development does not give an economic value to fresh water, energy, biodiversity or environmental resources and asked the governments to priorities policy in this regard.
"As a result, they are not prioritised in policy making. Instead, wasteful production and consumption patterns are encouraged. The challenges are growing," he said. The Nobel Peace Prize winner also noted that each year 10 million people in India alone move to towns and cities as a result of population growth and urbanisation.

An expanding middle class is changing lifestyles and consumption patterns, increasing pressure on natural resources and looming above all these challenges, and exacerbating them, is climate change, he said.
"It is now estimated that by 2030, we will need 30 per cent more water, 40 per cent more energy, and 50 per cent more food," he said.
Referring to a recent report which suggests that a quarter of India's landmass has been affected by rising temperatures and fluctuations in rainfall, he said, "No country or society will escape the impacts of climate change" and suggested a fundamental shift to a more sustainable development pathway" though it is big challenge.