Up Close&Personal

SBW6 STARBIZWEEK, SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER 2009 Mohan Munasinghe Up close&personal Sustainable development expert gets ... By ERROL OH more sustainable path. It’s not rocket science,” [email protected] he adds. OW to profoundly change your life, Hurdles of the mind HTip #37: Randomly attend a talk. It Not surprisingly, the third principle of worked for Professor Mohan sustainomics originates from Munasinghe’s Munasinghe. academic history. His moves from one field to His decision to go for a public lecture on another have taught him that most people are development led him down a path that set in their ways and are very resistant to included a job at the World Bank, internation- change and new ideas. al recognition as a pundit on sustainable “Ultimately, you have to change people’s development, government advisory roles, minds. You have to transcend the barriers of leadership positions in two institutes, and a discipline, for example. Sustainable develop- stake in a Nobel Prize. What a difference an ment has to be multi-disciplinary and cannot hour makes. be narrowly focused on one aspect,” he argues. This was in Canada in the early 1970s, when “You also have to transcend the barriers of Munasinghe was working towards his PhD in stakeholder thinking. You’re only looking at it solid state physics, having studied engineering (sustainable development) as a businessman, earlier at Cambridge University and the or from a government’s point of view, or as an Massachusetts Institute of Technology. environmentalist.” He can’t remember the name, but the However, the most important challenge, he lecturer made a lasting impression neverthe- says, is to overcome barriers represented by less when he made a point about brain drain – values. For example, he points out that over that poor countries were tragically disadvan- the last few decades, the notion that greed is taged because their brightest young people good has been a dominant theme. The global were going to the West and were not coming financial crisis has shown that this only back to contribute to the nation-building. launched a race to the bottom. “That struck home. I realised that I was part “So the whole point of more co-operation of the phenomenon,” recalls Munasinghe, who and enlightened self-interest is to change some left Sri Lanka at 18 to further his studies. “My of the false and unsustainable values we have friends and I talked about how we could been teaching the young people,” he adds. change this. I suddenly realised that I had to A highlight of his career was when the UN- make a change.” backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate And so he did. Realising that couldn’t do Change IPCC) was awarded the 2007 Nobel much for development with a doctorate in Peace Prize, jointly with former US vice-presi- physics, he signed up for a master’s degree dent Al Gore. course in development economics at another Munasinghe was then a vice-chairman of Canadian university the panel. He no longer holds the post – and was running a although he remains associated with IPCC – dual paper chase. “It preferring instead to concentrate on his two was tough, but it BORN: Colombo, Sri Lanka, in July 1945 main jobs. He is chairman of Colombo-based was a commitment,” PERSONAL: Married, with a daughter and a son, and two grandchildren Munasinghe Institute of Development (MIND) he says. and director-general of the Sustainable It’s the same HIGHEST Consumption Institute (SCI) at the University commitment that QUALIFICATIONS: PostgraduateCambridge degreesUniversity in physics,(UK), the engineering Massachusetts and economics Institute from of Technology see that while many of the of Machester. sees the 64-year-old (USA), McGill University (Canada), and Concordia University (Canada) world’s developmental prob- The two roles are like bookends in sustaina- professor splitting his lems appear unrelated, they ble development. The former focuses on adap- time between CAREER: • Senior energy advisor to the Sri Lankan President (1982-87) are in fact connected at a tation (reducing vulnerability against climate Colombo and • Advisor to the US President’s Council on Environmental Quality deeper level because they change effects) while the other on mitigation Manchester two (1990-92) share root causes such as (reducing the emissions that cause climate thirds of the year, • In the World Bank until 2002 as senior manager and senior advisor on technology, population, change). while the remaining sustainable development consumption and govern- MIND celebrates its 10th anniversary next four months are spent • Former vice-chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ance. year. “It’s my primary motivator,” says travelling. He tries to He says: “The Rio Earth Munasinghe. He set it up after leaving the minimise the globe- Change Summit was a big change World Bank about nine years before he had trotting but concedes • Chairman, Munasinghe Institute for Development for me. I made a presenta- been due to retire. that it is still too much. • Director-general, Sustainable Consumption Institute, The University of tion on sustainomics, The institute gives out scholarships, It is hard to say no to Manchester which basically puts it all conducts research and training and works at some invitations. “I • Honorary senior advisor to the Sri Lankan Government together. I realised that if influencing government policy. “Its main wouldn’t turn down an you try to deal with each contribution is the whole sustainomics philos- offer to come to NOTEWORTHY: “Because I was working with the World Bank, my children were born and problem separately, it ophy and approach. It is a body of people Malaysia. It’s a lovely raised in the US. But they are completely fluent in my language, Sinhala, just won’t work.” educating others on that viewpoint. It’s basi- place,” he says. and they are completely at home in Sri Lanka. As an expatriate, it is That is the first princi- cally a capacity-building exercise,” he He was in Kuala diﬃcult to give your children a sense of roots. That is my most important ple of the sustainomics explains. Lumpur recently to deliv- personal achievement.” framework. “You have to er the fifth instalment of solve problems in an For richer or poorer the Sime Darby lecture FAVOURITE FOOD: “I cannot go a day without rice.” integrated way because Munasinghe’s decision to join SCI in series, titled Sustainable the world is integrated. September 2008 was yet another example of Development – Walking The FAVOURITE PLACE: “Sri Lanka. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come back.” It’s not divided into his willingness to delve into new things. Talk. Perhaps, his lecture HOBBY: Tennis, tai chi, meditation energy problems here “MIND works a lot with civil society at the touched somebody’s life VALUES: Self-discipline and humility and food problems grassroots level and is working on the prob- the same way his had been there. We do every- lem of poverty and on sustainable develop- back in Canada over three INSPIRATION: “My parents taught me about being useful to society” Mohan Munasinghe thing altogether, ment from that aspect. I felt that sustainomics decades ago. right? That’s develop- has something to say as well about the one If that indeed happened, it ment,” he explains. billion people who are rich,” he says. would have been a rare The second principal is that sustainable Munasinghe is convinced that the youth are bonus. More importantly, explains. development must be practical and empower- our best hope for avoiding a global warming Munasinghe’s work in various capacities may That refers to the twists and turns in the ing. He refers to the widely used definition of catastrophe. have had an indirect impact on lots of people quest for knowledge to help him master sustainable development formulated by the He was amazed when his grand-daughter who do not even know he exists. development issues, beginning with his World Commission on Environment and hugged a few trees when they were on walk. switch from physics to development econom- Development. She told him that her teacher had said trees Introducing sustainomics ics during his post-graduate days in Canada. The commission describes sustainable were good and that the children should hug The cornerstone of what he does is sustain- The next transition was triggered by the development as development that “meets the the trees. “She couldn’t quite understand omics, a concept that he first promoted in a 1973 oil crisis, which linked development needs of the present without compromising about nature, but it was intuitive. Maybe presentation at the 1992 United Nations (UN) with resources. Munasinghe decided to focus the ability of future generations to meet their when she grows up, she will have a much Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. on resource analysis. The green movement of own needs”. It’s nice but very abstract, says better sense of that. He doesn’t claim sole authorship – in the the early 1980s prompted him to look at other Munasinghe. “I have faith in the young. Let us not under- preface of a book that came out this year, he resources such as water and food, and at envi- “Making development more sustainable is estimate their capacity to think, innovate and wrote, “Clearly, sustainomics is not the crea- ronmental damage. very practical. It’s climbing the mountain. You develop new ideas. What we have to do in our tion of one person.” – but he has invested a lot Later that decade, his attention turned to look at something that’s obviously unsustaina- generation is to pass the torch. We have to of time, thought and effort in sustainomics.

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