Amid worsening climate crises, former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations Kim Won-soo has called for changing the world's consumption pattern from abundance to sustainability on Sunday, on visit to south China's Hainan Province for the sixth China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE).
Scheduled to take place in Hainan's provincial capital city of Haikou from Monday to Saturday, the expo is seeing the participation of more than 3,400 brands from over 60 countries and regions.
"We are standing at a very critical inflection point for the whole humanity and also planet Earth, because we are facing climate and very serious and worsening eco-system crises. So we have to change our consumption pattern from quantity to quality, from abundance to sustainability. So I think this Expo comes at a very critical moment," Kim said in an interview with China Global Television Network on the sidelines of the expo.
Kim said that China plays significant roles in strengthening global business confidence and economic linkages.
"China has a lot to play, because China is already the largest factory of the world. And I think the share of Chinese manufacturing in the coming years will grow, not go down. I think China has capacity to show the world how we should change paradigms of our production and consumption," he said.
The former UN Under Secretary-General said that effective multilateral cooperation is urgently needed in improving global governance for common economic growth and long-term stability.
"Multilateral cooperation is the way to go. But unfortunately, global governance, represented by the United Nations as a symbol, is under severe stress. Global problems we are facing: Are all getting worse -- climate change, threats of weapons of mass destruction and uncontrolled disruptive technologies? And these global challenges cannot be dealt with by any single country or a single organization. It takes all countries and all international organizations to work together to find a solution," he said.
Former UN official stresses consumption shift from quantity to quality
