This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
International outlook can foster change
02/09/2002
In a major speech in Johannesburg during the World Summit on Sustainable Development, First Minister Jack McConnell has said that bad habits can be changed if people become more environmentally aware.
Conceding that Scotland had to do more to improve its performance towards sustainable development, he condemned the injustice of the gap between developed and developing worlds as something which was totally unacceptable.
He said:
"We in Scotland will not be all that we can be unless we lift our eyes to the horizon and look beyond our own set of circumstances.
"There has been a perception that environmental issues are about things that don't really matter when you are faced with the daily reality of poverty. Being concerned about the environment was considered a luxury for the middle classes.
But, in fact, environmental concerns are about the serious issues people are living with all around the world. And in Scotland today - people are still living next to polluting factories, landfills and opencast mines.
"But the greatest environmental injustices are between the developed and the developing world.
"There is injustice internationally which those of us who believe in a fairer distribution of power, wealth and opportunity cannot and will not accept.
"Ultimately we are all interdependent, we share the same planet and the actions of one will matter to others."
The First Minister was speaking at a seminar organised by Friends of the Earth International.
Read the full text of his speech.
Mr McConnell is on a three-day visit to South Africa. He has visited the Mountain of Hope project at Soweto, where a rubbish dump is being converted into vegetable gardens, and held a reception for residents of Scottish origin.
After delivering his environmental justice speech, he is due to visit Banareng Primary School in the township of Mamelodi, near Pretoria. Pupils at the school have links with their counterparts at Dunkeld, where the Scottish eco-schools programme is being launched today.