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External sources (not reviewed)

Delegates agreed that the need to take effective action was essential, as “business as usual” could not continue.

Many delegations highlighted that for the next decade the approach should not be in a business-as-usual manner.

Business as usual” was not an option and there was cause for optimism that future challenges could be tackled through development-oriented, coherent national policies, coupled with strong and predictable international development cooperation targeted to meet specific country needs.

Old threats have not disappeared, but new threats are upon us, and they demand more of us than business as usual.

Secondly, it was agreed that IGAD, the AU and the international community, including the United Nations, should shift gears from business-as-usual engagement on Somalia and take a more proactive and better defined trajectory towards seeing how to help this unfortunate neighbouring country.

In that endeavour, we believe that the agreement should include a bold and voluntary mitigation proposal by developed countries, geared towards achieving, as a whole, reductions of 30 per cent compared with the so-called business-as-usual model, and of 40 per cent by 2050, by implementing a low greenhouse gas emission model.

Several Parties emphasized the importance of sharing information on assumptions and approaches, including with regard to targets linked to BAU and “intensity”.

In order to attain effective agreements in SMR, the necessity for the Secretary-General and senior management representatives “to ensure the effective participation of the staff in identifying, examining and resolving issues relating to staff welfare, including conditions of work, general conditions of life and other human resources policies” may represent a difficult deviation from business as usual procedures for stakeholders whose mindsets are strictly tried to that of a hierarchic organizational culture.

This provides for: (a) long-term stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at well below 350ppm CO2-equivalent levels; (b) global average surface temperature increases to be limited to well below 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels; (c) global greenhouse gas emissions to peak by 2015 and decline thereafter; (d) reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions by more than 85 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 (e); annex I parties to the UNFCCC to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by more than 45 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and more than 95 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, given their historical responsibility; and (f) a significant deviation from business as usual by developing countries through measurable, reportable and verifiable nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.

Information was also shared on the gross domestic product growth rates used to arrive at the BAU emission levels.

The main problem is that, despite the enormous crises we face today, world leaders still preach business-as-usual policies that largely disregard the complexity and interlinkages between the environmental, social and economic spheres.

(c) Forest characteristics, including age-class structure, increments, rotation length and other relevant information, including information on forest management activities under ‘business as usual

We have heard loud and clear the message from Afghan authorities about their sovereignty and the fact that we cannot — none of us, not even the Afghan authorities — work as if it were business as usual any more.

Ten years after the adoption of NEPAD, the option of “business as usual” should not be an alternative as it would lead to broken promises and further delay the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the implementation of NEPAD.

As preparations for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development intensified, CARICOM called on all Member States to reject business as usual and incremental improvements and prepare to confront the complex challenges of global sustainability collectively and with a sense of urgency and heightened ambition.

One is towards a bright future, the other towards more of the same.

In identifying the key challenges, ministers and high-level delegates said that there was a need for a paradigm shift, arguing that business as usual could not continue and that the way in which people related to nature must change.

The Government of Lebanon provided the business-as-usual scenario below indicating the demand for HCFCs as shown in Table 3.

On the environmental side of the equation, there is considerable experience with regard to how to measure the state of the environment, the degree of ecosystem integrity and the dimension of risk as a result of business-as-usual trends, which can be built into the sustainable development index or set of sustainability indicators.

We are mindful that the implementation of previous programmes of action has not been able to bring about much desired socio-economic transformation in the LDCs and underline that this should serve a lesson for the international community that “business as usual” cannot be an option to deal with a multitude of problems the LDCs face.

It cannot be “business as usual”. The conference must live up to the challenge of its theme of “Development-centred globalization: towards inclusive and sustainable growth and development.

Option for paras 21-22: [Developing country Parties, especially the major developing economies should undertake nationally appropriate mitigation actions, which include quantified elements, such as the greenhouse gas emission intensity target to deviate from the business as usual.