Prof Munasinghe creates impact at Baku COP29 Climate Summit 2024

Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, recipient of the 2021 Blue Planet Prize, and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as Vice Chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), delivered three keynote speeches and gave several major media interviews on sustainability, balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG), digital technology, green power and low-C city development in a multi-polar world.  

Prof. Munasinghe said that by 2030, humanity would require the resources of two planets to sustain itself, while the richest 20% consume about 70 times more resources than the poorest 20%. Nations must harmonise the ‘sustainable development triangle’ (including economy, society and environment), which leads to balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG).

He noted China’s remarkable achievements in the social, economic and environmental areas, towards the balanced inclusive green growth (BIGG) transformation, and emphasised the potential of China and Hong Kong in leading sustainable and low-carbon development. 

National sustainable development strategy 

Prof. Munasinghe recommends integrating climate change into national sustainable development strategy. The sustainability implementing triangle requires companies and civil society to work with the government to achieve the UN 17 sustainable development goals (SDG). 

He said, “Ethical managers are essential for business sustainability, while methods like value-chain, life cycle analysis can help firms achieve win-win outcomes that reduce both costs and natural resource use.” 

Digital technology will facilitate both sustainable production and consumption. He stressed that cities are the starting point for a digital technology-led sustainability transformation, focusing on infrastructure and governance. 

He noted that world leadership is weak and incapable of tackling the many sustainable development issues, including climate change, which only makes other threats worse. 

He explained how the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have overtaken the G7 countries in terms of global gross domestic product in PPP terms.

The Global Majority led by BRICS+ are increasingly assertive, since they have 85% of the global population, while the West has only 15% he said. The new priorities for countries in the Global South are sustainable development, poverty eradication, peaceful trade, and cultural links. They dislike western military interventions, economic sanctions, and other confrontational approaches, including over 500 years of colonial exploitation. The BRICS+ led Global Majority have shifted away from the Western-led unipolar world order to a more balanced, multi-polar world. Now, with digital technologies and other new methods, there are more opportunities for these countries to level the playing field and restore their dignity and self-respect. 

He also called for scientists to bridge the gap between BRICS+ and the west, to build a more prosperous world, and especially to avoid a nuclear World War 3. 

 Prof. Munasinghe is Chairman of the MIND Group in Colombo, which includes the non-profit Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), a UN recognised centre of excellence on sustainable development, and MIND AM focusing on data analytics and management. 

He is Chairman of the Board of Climate & Conservation Consortium (CCC). He is also Board Director of Eureka Group, Distinguished Guest Professor at Peking Univ., China, and Chairman of the Presidential Expert Committee on Sustainable Sri Lanka 2030 Vision.