"Sustainable development does not make sense until (the living standards) of these people have been brought to a level where they start to worry about the environment," Lomborg said.

The 37-year-old Danish statistician has enraged environmentalists and scientists by saying among other things that forests are hardly declining, few animals have recently become extinct and rivers and oceans are becoming cleaner.

Speaking ahead of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which from August 26-September 4 will gather about 100 world leaders and more than 40,000 delegates, Lomborg's remarks come as central Europe mops up after devastating floods blamed on higher temperatures.

The Johannesburg summit will debate ways to raise living standards in the developing world and secure economic growth without damaging the planet for future generations.

"We cannot achieve sustainability before we have developed," he said. "Sustainability easily ends up prioritising future generations at the expense of current generations. Development has the advantage of both helping people today and creating the foundation for an even better tomorrow."

TOO EXPENSIVE?

Lomborg acknowledged that global warning, said to be caused by greenhouse gas emissions, was a serious problem but questioned whether a costly effort to reduce pollution was the right priority.

"If our goal is to improve the world, reducing carbon emissions is certainly not the most effective way," he said.

"Most of the concern about global warming has been expressed in terms of Western sustainability over Third World development."

Many developed countries have signed the U.N. Kyoto climate protocol, which oblige them to sharply cut emissions by 2010. According to Lomborg, it will cost $150-300 billion every year to meet the target.

"But the benefits to the environment will be marginal", he said. "Climate models show that Kyoto will postpone a temperature rise a mere six years to 2106 from 2100."

For same amount spent one year on meeting the Kyoto target, every person in the world could get access to clean water and sewerage which could save two million lives, Lomborg said.

The U.N. says the international community is failing in its goal to halve global poverty by 2015. Today 1.2 billion people are surviving on less than a dollar per day.

One of the main reasons for this is the heavy subsidising of the Western agricultural sector, Lomborg said.