Economic realities of world development also weigh most heavily on the poor countries, which borrow money in order to advance or sustain their level of development and quality of life. There is agreement from many parties that debt repayments should be scaled down or scraped, trade conditions improved, and international financial assistance increased in order to facilitate an improvement in the quality of life for most people.
2. Once each generation could expect to be financially better off and have a higher standard of living than their parents and grandparents. A reversal of fortunes is now more likely. Improvements in the quality of life for many people in the world since the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 have exacted an "unacceptable price" from the global ecosystem. By continuing to abuse the biosphere, and through the inequitable sharing of the Earth's resources, we undermine the chances of eradicating poverty and put the whole of humanity under the threat of global climate change.