World 'on collision course with nature', OECD green growth report warns

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/dec/04/world-collision-nature-oecd-green-growth


A Masaai herdsman looks after his cattle near turbines in Kenya. The OECD is calling for 'radical change' in the global economy. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters


Green growth is the only way forward for rich and poor countries alike to achieve sustainable development because of tremendous economic and livelihood losses from severe climate change and the depletion of natural resources, a thinktank said on Tuesday.

The Development Co-operation report 2012 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) calls for radical changes to an economic model in which rapid growth has come at a price for the environment and many of the world's poorest people.

"We are on a collision course with nature," Angel Gurría, the OECD secretary general, said at the launch of the report on Tuesday in the ornate surroundings of Marlborough House in London, as he urged developing countries not to adopt the "develop first, clean up later" approach.