Stimulus plans short-change environment: Greenpeace

Yahoo News 31 Mar 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – Economic stimulus packages launched by crisis-hit countries are not investing enough in "green" sectors, the environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday.

Executive director Gerd Liepold said stimulating consumption for its own sake was the wrong response to the economic crisis, and urged governments to pay more attention to the "climate crisis."

"At this moment, because of this economic crisis, we'll have a lot of stimulus packages, a lot of state-sponsored economic activities," Liepold told journalists in Beijing.

But he added: "The wrong responses are to stimulate consumption for the purpose of stimulating consumption."

Governments should end subsidies to industries that pollute or emit the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, he added.

"While the headlines are dominated by the economic crisis, we should simply not forget that we are in the middle of a climate crisis," Liepold said.

The Greenpeace leader singled out Germany for its subsidies aimed at boosting the car industry.

"In my own country, Germany, you are now paid a premium if you destroy your old car just to buy a new one, and it's been sold as a green stimulus package," he said.

Investment in clean energy or more efficient energy technologies would create more jobs, more rapidly, than investment in polluting industries, he said.

Guruswamy Ananthapadmanabhan, Greenpeace's international programme director, said that less than 0.8 percent of Britain's stimulus package would go into "any kind of green investment."

Liepold said China's stimulus package included some environmentally friendly provisions, but it was too early to tell how effective they would be.

"We believe that (China's) stimulus package has some positive signals in terms of green investment. However, it's not specific enough to make a clear statement of how green is it," Liepold said.