By a staff reporter

The key to ending world poverty and averting the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation is a technological overhaul of production processes worldwide, according to the results of a new survey.

Launched Wednesday at the Australian National University, the World Economic and Social Survey – an annual flagship report of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), this year called "The Great Green Technological Transformation" – has revealed that major investments would be needed worldwide in areas such as the development and scaling up of clean energy technologies, sustainable farming and forestry technique and climate-proofing of infrastructure.

“This report shows how important technological progress will be for ensuring a future that benefits everyone while protecting our planet,” said Sha Zukang, UN-DESA Under-Secretary General and Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, also know as Rio+20, to take place in June 2012 in Brazil.

“(It) is required reading as we gear up for  Rio+20, which is an opportunity to define pathways to a safer, cleaner and more prosperous world for all,” Zukang said.

“It details the measures needed to undertake a fundamental technological transformation, not only to promote growth, but also to help reach the goal of full decarbonisation of the global energy system by 2050," said ANU PhD scholar Imran Habib Ahmad, who will launch the report in Australia.

The 2011 survey follows the broad themes of the 2010 survey, "Retooling Global Development," and those of the 2009 survey, "Promoting Development, Saving the Planet."

It was led by UN Development Policy and Analysis Division Director Rob Vos, under the overall guidance of UN-DESA Under-Secretary General Sha Zukang and Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development Jomo Kwamme Sundaram.