BBC News 21 Feb 11;
Investing $1.3 trillion (£800bn) each year in green sectors would deliver long-term stability in the global economy, a UN report has suggested.
Spending about 2% of global GDP in 10 key areas would kick-start a "low carbon, resource efficient green economy", the authors observed.
They also recommended following policies that decoupled economic growth from intensive consumption.
The findings have been published at a meeting attended by 100 ministers.
"Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible," said Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Programme's (Unep) Green Economy Initiative.
"Misallocation of capital is at the centre of the world's current dilemmas and there are fast actions that can be taken, starting literally today," he added.
"From phasing down and phasing out the $600bn global fossil fuel subsidies, to re-directing more than $20bn subsidies perversely rewarding those in unsustainable fisheries."
Unep defined a "green economy" as one that resulted in "improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities".
When it came to investing 2% of GDP in greening the global economy, the authors recommended a number of investments, including:
* $108bn greening agriculture, such as encouraging and supporting smallholder farms
* $134bn on the building sector, including improving energy efficiency
* $110bn improving fisheries, including reducing the capacity of the world's fishing fleet
* $15bn on forestry, with "important knock-on benefits for combating climate change"
* Almost of $110bn on both water and waste, including sanitation and recycling
The report, produced by experts from developed and developing nations, suggests that the green economy model would deliver higher annual growth rates within 5-10 years than a business-as-usual scenario.
In order to unlock the level of investment required, it added that it was necessary to reform existing national and international policies.
"The green economy - as documented and illustrated in the report - offers a focused and pragmatic assessment of how countries, communities and corporations have begun to make a transition towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption and production," said Unep executive director Achim Steiner.
"With 2.5bn people living on less than $2-a-day and with more than two billion people being added to the global population by 2050, it is clear that we must continue to develop and grow our economies.
"But this development cannot come at the expense of the very life support systems on land, in the oceans or in the atmosphere that sustain our economies, and thus, the lives of each and everyone of us."
The findings are being published at the 26th session of Unep's Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environmental Forum, which is being held in Nairobi, Kenya, until 24 February.
Investing In Greener Economy Could Spur Growth: U.N.
Helen Nyambura-Mwaura PlanetArk 22 Feb 11;
Channeling 2 percent, or $1.3 trillion, of global gross domestic product into greening sectors such as construction, energy and fishing could start a move toward a low-carbon world, a report launched on Monday said.
The investment would expand the global economy at the same rate, if not higher, as under present economic policies, said the report by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).
"Investing 2 per cent of global GDP into 10 key sectors can kick-start a transition toward a low-carbon world," the Nairobi-based agency said in a statement.
"The sum, currently amounting to an average of around $1.3 trillion a year and backed by forward-looking national and international policies, would grow the global economy at around the same rate if not higher than those forecast, under current economic models."
UNEP's Executive Director Achim Steiner said in the statement: "With 2.5 billion people living on less than two dollars a day and with more than two billion people being added to the global population by 2050, it is clear that we must continue to develop and grow our economies.
"But this development cannot come at the expense of the very life support systems on land, in the oceans or in our atmosphere."
Agriculture, buildings, energy supply, fisheries, forestry, industry, tourism, transport, waste management and water are sectors that could do with more greening, the report said.
Buildings are the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases because of inefficient heating in offices and homes, according to the study entitled "Toward a Green Economy."
THREEFOLD INCREASE IN RECYCLING
The sector's footprint could nearly double by 2030, or 30 percent of total energy-related carbon dioxide.
The report suggests investing $108 million in the waste sector annually could increase recycling threefold by 2050 and reduce landfill contents by more than 85 percent.
In Brazil, recycling already makes $2 billion a year while avoiding 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, UNEP said.
Greener policies would still grow economies while reducing the ecological footprint by nearly 50 percent in the next 40 years, but some jobs would be lost as a result in sectors such as fisheries, the report said.
Investment in more sustainable productive activities would, however, offsets those job losses by developing sectors such as renewable energy.
Government subsidies in the fishing industry amount to about $27 billion a year and have created excess capacity and depleted fish stocks globally.
Greening agricultural with practices such as efficient use of water or organic nutrients would offer a means of feeding a global population of about 9 billion by 2050 without damaging nature.
Farming practices currently use more than 70 percent of freshwater resources and contribute more than 13 percent of greenhouse gases.
"Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible. By doing so, they can also unleash the trillions of dollars of private capital in favor of a green economy," said Pavan Sukhdev, head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative.
Evidence mounts that green growth is better, safer growth
WWF 21 Feb 11;
Gland, Switzerland: More and more evidence is accumulating that a clean and green economy is most likely to deliver a more secure, prosperous and less tumultuous future for humanity, WWF said yesterday.
WWF International Director General Jim Leape was commenting on today’s release of the major United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report Towards a Green Economy which shows that appropriate policies and relatively modest redirections of global investment flows could grow the global economy at equivalent or greater levels than current forecasts.
The more and more sustainable economy that would result would also be less affected by scarcities and disruption than the existing, resource-depleting, high carbon “brown” economy, the report said.
“UNEP’s report demonstrates that a clean and green development path can produce growth and employment while cutting costs and reducing the risks associated with business as usual,” Mr Leape said.
“Conventional economic thinking, GDP measures of growth and conventional corporate accounting will take us crashing headlong into the Earth’s limits.
“We need to move now to recognize the fundamental importance of the natural capital upon which the entire economy depends, and ensure that conservation of that capital is brought into the heart of public and corporate decisionmaking.”
“The way of the future is now being shown by the countries and companies that are now moving strongly to invest in renewable energy sources and better stewardship of forests, fisheries, and other resources.”
Mr Leape noted that the UNEP report identified greening energy supplies as the area needing the largest level of investment. That mirrors findings of WWF’s recent Energy Report which found that it was both possible and imperative to switch to a 100 per cent renewably powered world by 2050.
For further information:
Phil Dickie, Head of News, WWF International pdickie@wwfint.org, +41 79 703 1952
UNEP, Towards a Green Economy Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication - A Synthesis for Policy Makers is available at www.unep.org/greeneconomy
WWF/Ecofys, The Energy Report at http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_carbon_energy/energy_solutions/renewable_energy/sustainable_energy_report/
How Two Per Cent of Global GDP can Trigger Greener, Smarter Growth While Fighting Poverty
New UNEP Report Underlines Sustainable Public Policy and Investment Path on the Road to Rio+20
UNEP 21 Feb 11;
Nairobi/World, 21 February 2011 - Investing two per cent of global GDP into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy a new report launched today says.
The sum, currently amounting to an average of around $1.3 trillion a year and backed by forward-looking national and international policies, would grow the global economy at around the same rate if not higher than those forecast, under current economic models.
But without rising risks, shocks, scarcities and crises increasingly inherent in the existing, resource-depleting, high carbon 'brown' economy, says the study.
As such, it comprehensively challenges the myth of a trade off between environmental investments and economic growth and instead points to a current "gross misallocation of capital".
The report sees a Green Economy as not only relevant to more developed economies but as a key catalyst for growth and poverty eradication in developing ones too, where in some cases close to 90 per cent of the GDP of the poor is linked to nature or natural capital such as forests and freshwaters.
It cites India, where over 80 per cent of the $8 billion National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which underwrites at least 100 days of paid work for rural households, invests in water conservation, irrigation and land development.
* This has generated three billion working days-worth of employment benefiting close to 60 million households.
Two per cent of the combined GDP of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam is currently lost as a result of water-borne diseases due to inadequate sanitation.
* Policies that re-direct over a tenth of a per cent of global GDP per year can assist in not only addressing the sanitation challenge but conserve freshwater by reducing water demand by a fifth by 2050 compared to projected trends.
The report has modeled the outcomes of policies that redirect around $1.3 trillion a year into green investments and across ten key sectors - roughly equivalent to two per cent of global GDP. To place this amount in perspective, it is less than one-tenth of the total annual investment in physical capital.
Currently, the world spends between one and two per cent of global GDP on a range of subsidies that often perpetuate unsustainable resources use in areas such as fossil fuels, agriculture, including pesticide subsidies, water and fisheries.
Many of these are contributing to environmental damage and inefficiencies in the global economy, and phasing them down or phasing them out would generate multiple benefits while freeing up resources to finance a Green Economy transition.
Incomes and Employment
In addition to higher growth, an overall transition to a Green Economy would realize per capita incomes higher than under current economic models, while reducing the ecological footprint by nearly 50 per cent in 2050, as compared to business as usual.
The Green Economy report acknowledges that in the short-term, job losses in some sectors - fisheries for example - are inevitable if they are to transition towards sustainability.
Investment, in some cases funded from cuts in harmful subsidies, will be required to re-skill and re-train some sections of the global workforce to ensure a fair and socially acceptable transition.
The report makes the case that over time the number of "new and decent jobs created" in sectors - ranging from renewable energies to more sustainable agriculture - will however offset those lost from the former "brown economy".
For example, investing about one and a quarter per cent of global GDP each year in energy efficiency and renewable energies could cut global primary energy demand by nine per cent in 2020 and close to 40 per cent by 2050, it says.
* Employment levels in the energy sector would be one-fifth higher than under a business as usual scenario as renewable energies take close to 30 per cent of the share of primary global energy demand by mid century.
* Savings on capital and fuel costs in power generation would under a Green Economy scenario, be on average $760 billion a year between 2010 and 2050.
The report, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, also highlights enormous opportunities for decoupling waste generation from GDP growth, including in recovery and recycling.
* The Republic of Korea has, through a policy of Extended Producer Responsibility, enforced regulations on products such as batteries and tyres to packaging like glass and paper, triggering a 14 per cent increase in recycling rates and an economic benefit of $1.6 billion
* Brazil's recycling already generates returns of $2 billion a year, while avoiding 10 million tones of greenhouse gas emissions; a fully recycling economy there would be worth 0.3 per cent of GDP.
The report, compiled by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with economists and experts worldwide, takes meeting and sustaining the UN's Millennium Development Goals - ranging from halving the proportion of people in hunger to halving the proportion without access to safe drinking water - as one aim.
Bringing down emissions of greenhouse gases to the much safer levels of 450 parts per million by 2050 is another overarching target.
The findings were presented today to environment ministers from over 100 countries at the opening of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.
The report, part of a bigger macro-economic study published online, is aimed at accelerating sustainable development and forms part of UNEP's contribution to the preparation of the Rio+20 conference scheduled in Brazil next year.
The full report is available online from today and countries are encouraged to submit further Green Economy examples. Over the coming months UNEP's Green Economy team plans to present the report in capitals around the world.
Here they also want to learn firsthand how best to assist countries and communities commence a transition to a Green Economy within their national circumstances.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The world is again on the Road to Rio, but in a world very different to the one of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992."
"Rio 2012 comes against a backdrop of rapidly diminishing natural resources and accelerating environmental change - from the loss of coral reefs and forests to the rising scarcity of productive land; from the urgent need to feed and fuel economies and the likely impacts of unchecked climate change," he added.
"The Green Economy as documented and illustrated in UNEP's report offers a focused and pragmatic assessment of how countries, communities and corporations have begun to make a transition towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption and production. It is rooted in the sustainability principles agreed at Rio in 1992, while recognizing that the fundamental signals driving our economies must evolve in terms of public policy and market responses," he said.
"We must move beyond the polarities of the past, such as development versus environment, state versus market, and North versus South," said Mr. Steiner.
"With 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day and with more than two billion people being added to the global population by 2050, it is clear that we must continue to develop and grow our economies. But this development cannot come at the expense of the very life support systems on land, in the oceans or in our atmosphere that sustain our economies, and thus, the lives of each and everyone of us," he added.
"The Green Economy provides a vital part of the answer of how to keep humanity's ecological footprint within planetary boundaries. It aims to link the environmental imperatives for changing course to economic and social outcomes - in particular economic development, jobs and equity," said Mr. Steiner.
Pavan Sukhdev, on secondment from Deutsche Bank and head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative, said: "Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible. By doing so, they can also unleash the trillions of dollars of private capital in favour of a Green Economy."
"Misallocation of capital is at the centre of the world's current dilemmas and there are fast actions that can be taken starting literally today - from phasing down and phasing out the over $600 billion in global fossil fuel subsidizes to re-directing the more than $20 billion subsidies perversely rewarding those involved in unsustainable fisheries," he said.
"A Green Economy is not about stifling growth and prosperity, it is about reconnecting with what is real wealth; re-investing in rather than just mining natural capital; and, favouring the many over the few. It is also about a global economy that recognizes the intergenerational responsibility of nations to hand over a healthy, functioning and productive planet to the young people of today and those yet to be born," added Mr. Sukhdev.
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