This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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International outlook can foster change
02/09/2002
In a major speech in Johannesburg during the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, First Minister Jack
McConnell has said that bad habits can be changed if people
become more environmentally aware.
Conceding that Scotland had to do more to improve its
performance towards sustainable development, he condemned
the injustice of the gap between developed and developing
worlds as something which was totally unacceptable.
He said:
"We in Scotland will not be all that we can be unless we
lift our eyes to the horizon and look beyond our own set of
circumstances.
"There has been a perception that environmental issues
are about things that don't really matter when you are
faced with the daily reality of poverty. Being concerned
about the environment was considered a luxury for the
middle classes.
But, in fact, environmental concerns are about the
serious issues people are living with all around the world.
And in Scotland today - people are still living next to
polluting factories, landfills and opencast mines.
"But the greatest environmental injustices are between
the developed and the developing world.
"There is injustice internationally which those of us
who believe in a fairer distribution of power, wealth and
opportunity cannot and will not accept.
"Ultimately we are all interdependent, we share the same
planet and the actions of one will matter to others."
The First Minister was speaking at a seminar organised
by Friends of the Earth International.
Read the
full text of his speech.
Mr McConnell is on a three-day visit to South Africa. He
has visited the Mountain of Hope project at Soweto, where a
rubbish dump is being converted into vegetable gardens, and
held a reception for residents of Scottish origin.
After delivering his environmental justice speech, he is
due to visit Banareng Primary School in the township of
Mamelodi, near Pretoria. Pupils at the school have links
with their counterparts at Dunkeld, where the Scottish
eco-schools programme is being launched today.