The United Nations has issued a challenge to prosperous countries saying they have not fulfilled promises to aid the poor.
In its annual report on global quality of life, the United Nations Development Program pointed out that the poor often suffer because of polluted water, drought and other environmental factors. The report also asserted that more should be done to address environmental concerns and that sustainability needs to become a part of daily life as the world population continues to increase.
"Sustainability is not exclusively or even primarily an environmental issue," UNDP Administrator Helen Clark wrote in the report's introduction. "It is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the seven billions of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow."
The report added that while aid to poorer countries has grown to 23 percent from 2005 to 2009, this still was not enough.
"Rich countries have consistently failed to meet their stated pledges," including promises made by the G-8, the European Union and the United Nations to donate $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the impact of climate change in developing countries.
"The pledges fall well short of estimated needs, and disbursements fall well short of pledges. Most of the 'new and additional' funds pledged at the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen have not been delivered, and less than 8 percent of pledges for climate change were disbursed in 2010," the report added.
In the survey of 187 nations, Norway, Australia and the Netherlands topped the annual Human Development Index while Congo, Niger and Burundi were at the bottom.