Investing in 'green economy' can boost growth, reduce poverty -- UN report
Investing around $1.3 trillion - or two per centof global gross domestic product (GDP) - into ten key sectors can
kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient
‘green economy’ that can also help reduce poverty, says a new
United Nations report launched today.
The UN Environment Programme (
href=”http://www.unep.org/” target=”_blank”>UNEP) presented the
report, “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable
Development and Poverty Eradication,” to environment ministers from
over 100 countries at the opening of the UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in
Nairobi.
The
href=”http://www.unep.org/GreenEconomy/Portals/93/documents/Full_GER_screen.pdf”
target=”_blank”>report
following sectors as key to greening the global economy:
agriculture, buildings, energy supply, fisheries, forestry,
industry including energy efficiency, tourism, transport, waste
management and water.
It 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. “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.”
UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner.
“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.”
According to UNEP, the world currently 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.
The report does acknowledge that in the short-term, job losses
in some sectors, such as fisheries, 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.”
The green economy, in the context of sustainable development and
poverty eradication, and international environment governance are
the two themes for UNEP’s Governing Council session, which is also
looking ahead to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development
scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.
“We live in some of the most challenging times that perhaps any
generation has faced, but also one of the most exciting moments
where the possibilities of re-shaping and re-focusing towards a
sustainable 21st century have never been more tangible,” Mr.
Steiner noted in his
target=”_blank”>opening address
