An interesting report by the UNEP with the ambitious title ‘Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication‘ was published today.
These where some of the main findings:
- Investing just 2% of global GDP into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy.
- Greening the economy not only generates growth, and in particular gains in natural capital, but it also produces a higher growth in GDP and GDP per capita.
- A green economy values and invests in natural capital.
- A green economy can contribute to poverty alleviation.
- In a transition to a green economy, new jobs will be created, which over time exceed the losses in “brown economy” jobs.
- Prioritizing government investment and spending in areas that stimulate the greening of economic sectors is on the critical path.
- The scale of financing required for a green economy transition is substantial, but an order of magnitude smaller than annual global investment.
- The move towards a green economy is happening on a scale and at a speed never seen before.
- It is expected to generate as much growth and employment – or more – compared to the current business as usual scenario, and it outperforms economic projections in the medium and long term, while yielding significantly more environmental and social benefits.
My view
This is a good report but when I finished reading it I was yet again reminded of the oh so crucial and all important success factor of sustainable development generally (the important sentence is highlighted in bold):
“The new UNEP report demonstrates that a transition to a green economy is possible by investing 2% of global GDP per year (currently about US 1.3 trillion) between now and 2050 in a green transformation of key sectors, including agriculture, buildings, energy, fisheries, forests, manufacturing, tourism, transport, water and waste management. However, such investments must be spurred by national and international policy reforms. “(This is the link to the PDF document)
This sentence in my view expresses the biggest problem sustainable development is facing today: Investments are still the responsibility of national governments and because this is the case national interests will always come first and NOT global sustainable development goals no matter how promising they look and how much of a ‘no-brainer’ they are.
It seems to be a pretty deadlocked situation in the sustainable development world. At least this is my impression. Is yours different?
