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UN Resident Coordinator Robert D. Watkins told AMEinfo.com that most Middle East residents are not waking up to the environmental 'destruction', or the economic opportunities that a sustainable green economy would offer:
"In this region I don't think people are waking up [to the issues]. There's a small percentage of the population who are acutely aware and actively involved in advocating for political reforms to address some of the issues, but I don't think that is the vast majority of the population.
"It's a very consumerist society and so long as the wealth is there, there's a contentment to continue with the status quo. There's a train wreck approaching and people don't want to see it."
Middle East lags behind in policy-making and per capita consumption
Watkins uses a broad brush to label the Middle East as 'one of the worst' in terms of effective energy and land use policies, excessive water consumption and faltering agriculture, but acknowledges that no administrations are idle. The deepening issue is based on resource demands outpacing existing solutions.
"The wheels have actually been turning quite quickly," says Watkins. "There has been a lot of progress, but the problem is that the speed of progress is short of the growth of population. The burgeoning population and sustained environmental deterioration has meant that there's a gap between the progress made and the rate of destruction.
"It's not like we've just stayed still and things have gotten worse, there is a lot of forward movement - but the other changes, particularly population growth, have just outstripped that progress and I don't think we've come to terms with how we can adjust the two so that progress is greater than the destruction."
Employment lies at the heart of the problem - and the solution
A responsibility lies with the private sector to provide a long-term vision for the public sector; to provide clarity on the rules of the game and to assume them they will not keep shifting.
"You can't separate these issues from politics. We've seen social revolutions take place in a number of countries in the region and I don't think they're taking place by coincidence - concerns are heightened by unemployment.
"The fact is some parts of the Middle East region are seeing 30% unemployment of youth - this is not totally unrelated to the demonstrations we've seen. The effects of unemployment have contributed greatly to instability in the region."
The concern that a transition to a green economy means sacrificing economic growth may not be unique to the Middle East, but UNDP delegates are advocating ahead of Rio+20 that it is more key to focus on the opportunities presenting from renewable energy, efficiency and other green developments.
"I think there's a fear amongst many countries that this transition towards a more environmentally sensitive economy means economic sacrifice. We're trying to explain how that is not the case. In fact, you can create a whole economy on the basis of this transition."
Gulf oil producers must realise shift to full energy mix, cooperation
"The region seems to be in the middle of a paradigm shift," says Yannick Glemarec, UNDP Executive Coordinator and Director of Environmental Finance, who also sat down with AMEinfo.com to discuss energy challenges:
"[The Middle East] is shifting from seeing itself as supplying oil to the rest of the world, to supplying energy.
Steven Bond, Reporter
