By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Christine Lagarde, Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday at the United Nations in New York said that if environmental degradation is not checked, it can hurt the economy and the world’s poorest nations will be hit soonest and hardest.

Lagarde said this in her speech “The Triple Challenge Facing the Global Economy” an address to the High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development.

According to her, the world faces a triple challenge: from economic instability, from environmental damage, and from insufficient equity.

“Absolutely, we need to get growth going-but on an even better track than in the past. We know that the wrong kind of economic growth can hurt the environment, and that environmental degradation can hurt the economy,” she said.

The IMF Boss said make no mistake, it’s the poorest nations that will be hit soonest and hardest based on recent reports from the World Bank that 40 percent (40%) of the land now used to grow maize in sub-Saharan Africa will no longer be able to support that crop by 2030s, with drastic implications for the economy, food security-and peoples lives.

Similarly, Lagarde said the IMF is not an environmental organization, but can help in this regards.

She affirmed that one example is by trying to shine a light on the murky cobweb of energy subsidies. “These are enormous in scale, and they help the people who need them least. These subsidies, including tax subsidies, ate up almost $2 trillion in 2011—a whopping 2½ percent of global GDP that could have been used more wisely,” the IMF Boss said.

“Taking action on this issue alone—energy subsidies—would be good for the budget, good for the economy, and good for the planet,” she said.

On making growth more equitable, she said based partly on IMF research—that a more balanced distribution of income leads to more sustained growth and greater economic stability.

According to her, as a matter of urgency, the world needs to push for greater gender equity—in the classroom, in the workforce, in the board room. “Too often, women are held back by outdated obstacles and attitudes—and, as a result, our whole society is degraded. By dismissing the contribution of women, we end up with lower income per capita—as much as 27 percent in some regions—and with lower quality lives,” she said.