Iran: Environment Challenges, Anachronistic Concerns

Sustainable development has hardly been a priority in Iran as it is almost always sacrificed at the altar of concerns like creating jobs and boosting industries at any price, not to mention anachronistic concerns, says head of the Department of Environment.
"If we talk about environmental issues, it is largely because it has emerged as a global problem and our policymakers want to demonstrate that we are not lagging behind. In reality it is simply a showoff," Isa Kalantari told the Persian-language economic newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad, the sister publication of Financial Tribune. 
Elaborating the point, he added that carmakers are manufacturing engines that fail to comply with environmental standards and their justification is that they are fighting unemployment.