Ensure Environmental Sustainability

A continuous environmental policy is of vital importance for developing countries. Greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and depletion of farmable land are direct threats to the living circumstances and health of people. Plentiful and clean drinking water are the basis of good health. Globally, nearly a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. This causes serious health problems such as dehydration and infections.
Also, millions of people have to go without sanitary supplies.

Current situation:

Water
The percentage of people with access to drinking water rose from 71 in 1990 to 84 in 2006. If the current rise continuous, this millennium goal will be achieved. Additionally, the access to sanitary supplies rose in the same period from 41 to 53 percent. The largest increase was achieved in East and South-East Asia. However in Sub-Sahara Africa en South-Asia the improvement is limited.

Deforestation
Deforestation continuous to take place on a large scale, approximately 13 million hectares per year. However, the nett loss of woodland surface is decreasing due to the increase of new cultivation. On the other side, these new forests do not have to ecological value of the old, biological diverse forests.

CO2 emission
Despite more efficient use of energy in many countries, the CO2 emissions have risen more than 30 percent between 1990 and 2005. This is mainly caused by the increase in the global population and the economical growth in Asia. Even though per head of the population, most CO2 is still emitted by the First World Countries, the most emission in absolute figures is takes place outside the Western countries.

Slums
In 1990, nearly have of the city population in developing countries lived in slums. In 2005, this percentage has decreased until about a third. In nearly all regions, the living circumstances of the population living in slums as improved. However, the number of people living in slums has risen from 715 million in 1990 to 1 billion in 2005.