UN encourages Green Economies for Future Growth
Image courtesy of Bill Frymire Visuals: billfrymire.com
What is a “Green Economy”?
“[An Ecomonmy which resulted in] improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” (Definition according to recent UN report)
The Report
A UN report entitled “Towards a Green Economy” launched on Monday (Feb 21st) has suggested that investing 2%, or $1.3 trillion (£800bn) of global GDP in green sectors on an annual basis would deliver long-term stability to the global economy. The current “brown” economy is not sustainable the report determines. The authors of the U. N. Environmental Programme (UNEP) report suggested that breaking the bond between ecnomic growth and unhindered consumption, and by dedicating a mere “2% of global GDP into 10 key areas can kick-start a transition toward a low-carbon world.” The Report’s findings are being published at the 6th session (held in Nairobi, Kenya) of UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environmental Forum, until February 24th. UNEP Exec Director Achim Steiner said of the green economy that:
“as documented and illustrated in the report – [it] 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… 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.”
How to invest the 2%
The reports’ authors suggest that the a number of investments should take precedent out of the 2% of GDP required to turn our brown economies green. Distribution aims are centred on 10 Key sectors, which require “greening”: Agriculture, buildings, energy supply, fisheries, forestry, industry, tourism, transport, waste management and water. The Built Environment – buildings- are the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases due to inefficient offices and homes.
Buildings are the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases because of inefficient heating in offices and homes. The report suggests a $134bn on the building sector to improve energy efficiency. Additional suggestions include $108bn greening agriculture; e.g. encouraging and supporting smallholder farms. $110bn improving fisheries; e.g. reducing the capacity of the world’s fishing fleet. $15bn on forestry driven by the “important knock-on benefits for combating climate change”. Almost $110bn on both water and waste, including sanitation and recycling. Investing in the waste sector annually could increase recycling threefold by 2050 and reduce landfill contents by more than 85 percent. Brazil is an inspiration here. Recycling already makes $2 billion annually, while avoiding 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.
A Longer Term View
UNEP Growth Rate. Courtesy of BBC
As the predictive graph or GDP growth shows, the first few years might mark a slightly lower growth rate in the first couple of years, but this would accelerate and the green economy model would deliver at the same rate of annual growth, or likely an even better-than-the-present rate, within 5-10 years. The differences over the decades following is remarkable. Some jobs would be lost as a result of greener policies – particularly in sectors such as fisheries, the report said. However investment in more sustainable productive activities, such as the renewable energies sector, would offsets such losses.
Unleashing Investment
According to Pavan Sukhdev (Head of UNEP’s Green Economy initiative), it is necessary to reform current policy at both a national and international level. The responsibility lies with Governments:
“Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible. 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 $600bn global fossil fuel subsidies, to re-directing more than $20bn subsidies perversely rewarding those in unsustainable fisheries”
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