May 2012 editorial

Responding to this rollback in conservation and sustainability policies, WWF addressed the European leaders and the European Commission through an open letter calling for sustainable solutions to the economic crisis. As stated in the open letter “As the tide of public opinion in Europe turns steadily against austerity, the prospect of a knee jerk return back again to the unsustainable growth models as before must be avoided. A return to the current economic model will merely fuel the root causes of the next economic collapse, such as the bidding up of commodity prices and externalizing the costs of climate change and ecosystem loss. It would therefore be a historical mistake for European leaders to deal with the economic crisis in a manner that undermines the very future of Europe. Several analyses indicate that a low carbon economy favouring investments in natural capital and careful resource use creates larger numbers of jobs compared to resource intensive economies.” WWF’s open letter and press release are available here.

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Theodota Nantsou (WWF Greece) and Isabella Pratesi (WWF Italy)