Viet Nam News HÀ NỘI – Humankind had “mortgaged” its future with uncontrolled growth at the expense of the environment for far too long, experts agreed, and urged for the simultaneous pursuit of development and sustainability. The message was reiterated yesterday at the Hà Nội Forum on sustainable development held for the first time in the capital of Việt Nam. Since the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set in 1992 and their successors, the UN Sustainable Development Goals towards 2030, were approved by 193 countries in 2015, the world had seen tremendous growth in many countries, accompanied by steadily rising quality of life for billions of people. “However, despite great leaps made in science and technology, unprecedented challenges – namely climate change and widespread extreme weather events – had emerged and threatened the security and long-term development of the entire human race,” said Nguyễn Kim Sơn, president of the Việt Nam National University, Hà Nội, one of the leading education institutes in the country. The science community had arrived at the “clear and unequivocal” conclusion that while climate change was a naturally occurring process, human-based activities – especially booming industrial operations since the first industrial revolution in the late 18th century, accompanied by a huge amount of the heat-trapping CO2 and other greenhouse gases – had accelerated and complicated it to the point of being detrimental to the entire planet’s livability. While states had made various pledges, with the most recent pact being the Paris Agreement signed two years ago,… [Read full story]
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