Janos Ader, the main sponsor of the event, said that the three inseparable factors of development, namely society, environment and economy, must remain in harmony.
The path to sustainable development is to meet the needs of the present in a way that does not jeopardize the needs of the future generation – he emphasized and then highlighted:
Let us be the generation that ends this self-destruction. Let us be the generation that finds balance between development and coexistence with nature, so that this century is not a permanent decline, but a period of relatively high-quality human well-being for the majority of society.
The former president noted that in recent years, new issues such as the water crisis, biodiversity or the circular economy have come to the fore. At the same time, fulfillment of common sustainability commitments accepted at the United Nations is not progressing well. As he said
Of the 15-year goals formulated in 2015, “we have now achieved just over 10%, while half the time has passed.”
He added: Regarding carbon dioxide emissions, we are in a worse situation than when the Paris Agreement was concluded in 2015. “Let us forget that we can stop certain processes with a sudden and decisive brake. Let us face it, we do not have to fight just one enemy, at least For example, climate change.
János Ader drew attention to the fact that the mass consultations of climate summits that “excellent in sounding the alarm and writing agreements” are not able to achieve change on their own. He stressed, “Let us consider that at the current pace, the degree of warming cannot be kept below one and a half degrees, and even two degrees is doubtful.”
The problems are complex
The former President of the Republic continued, saying: We must also forget that sustainability is the slogan of “some hesitant green people.” He added: “But the reference point should not be the empty protest of progressive – I prefer to call them aggressive – demonstrators who are destroying our cultural values.”
The problems are complex, so the solutions must be multifaceted as well.
He also pointed out that prevention is no longer possible in most cases, so it is necessary to adapt in many cases to the condition caused by others. He added, recalling the findings of stress researcher Janos Selye: Living organisms respond to stressful situations by fleeing or fighting, but both responses require a lot of energy from them. If the subject is unable to adapt, the reserve of strength runs out, the organism is exhausted and dies – he noted, then citing the authors of the book “Limits to Growth”, János Ader also spoke about:
If we identify major changes in current policies, we can create a scenario in which growth ends in orderly conditions, followed later by a relatively high level of human well-being that lasts for a long time.
He pointed out that the sustainability revolution “at first glance is like trying to thread a working sewing machine. But the fact that the situation is not hopeless is thanks to the people, companies, inventors, small and large entrepreneurs, investors, educational centers and developers who will appear at Planet Budapest,” he added.
Index also recently conducted an interview with János Adair, which is available at the link below.
