4. Shifting the policy focus

There are compelling reasons to consider policies and programmes that focus on the underlying drivers that contribute to increased pressure on environmental conditions, rather than concentrating only on reducing environmental pressures or symptoms. Drivers include, inter alia, the negative aspects of population growth, consumption and production, urbanization and globalization (Figure 7).

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Figure 7: Growth in population, GDP, trade and CO2 emissions, 1990–2008

OPEN PDF: http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/geo5/SPM-07-relative-growth.pdf