The Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Supachai Panitchpakdi has appealed to the world’s businesses to put more focus on environmental issues and ensure their businesses and production process are cleaner and not hurt the environment.

He says if business people are more vigilant and concerned about the environment in their work, then growth in trade can lead to sustainable development.

UNCTAD boss, Supachai Panitchpakdi

Speaking at a two-day meeting of experts in Geneva on the links between trade and sustainable development, Panitchpakdi said poorer countries need to be assisted to acquire technologies that will ensure development in those countries is environmental friendly.

He argues that inequalities in resources and technology could result in sustainable development for only a few while the costs of environmental damage will be borne by all.

Panitchpakdi hoped that the pledge to provide $100 billion annually by 2020 for developing countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change made last December at a UN conference in Copenhagen will come through to ensure poor countries have enough incentives to pursue cleaner production mechanisms as they strive to develop..

The conclusions reached at the Geneva gathering will feed into the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, also called Rio+20, in reference to the 1992 Earth Summit held in the Brazilian city.

Sustainable development is a “wonderful concept but what it means and how it happens is the issue,” Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Conference Secretary-General for Rio+20, pointed out.

Trade, he said, is a “vital channel of green technology flows between countries,” but a green economy must be shaped to serve the greater goal of sustainable development for all of the world’s countries.