Global Offset Experts: “Green Economy” needs $1.3 trillion annual Investment says UN.

Feb. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Global Offset Experts has been informed that the United Nations Environment Program has released a report which says that countries would be able to launch a “green economy” by redirecting $1.3 trillion a year from resource-heavy industries into 10 areas ranging from forestry to buildings.

The cost, around 2% of economic output, would assist with the lessening of greenhouse gases and help to avoid price shocks associated with the planets dependence on fossil fuels and other commodities.

“Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible,” Pavan Sukhdev, a Deutsche Bank AG banker currently serving as temporary  head of UNEP’s green economy initiative told Global Offset Experts. “By doing so, they can also unleash the trillions of dollars of private capital in favor of a green economy.”

The new report examines options to make buildings and vehicles more energy efficient, boost renewable energy and promote more sustainable agriculture and fishing. The proposed policies could be implemented without diminishing growth prospects, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions responsible for global warming to “safer” levels and helping the UN towards development goals like halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water, it states.

Nations are already spending vast amounts trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable energy. Low-carbon energy investment leapt to a record high of $243 billion in 2010, Global Offset Experts research revealed.

The International Energy Agency in 2010 announced that global subsidies for clean and low carbon energy amounted to $57 billion the previous year, and HSBC Holdings Plc estimated that in 2009 global governments had allocated around $521 billion over 5 years in so-called green stimulus spending as they attempted to promote more efficient industries after the global economic crisis.

The move to a “green economy” would result in job losses in such industries as fisheries, and additional funding would be required to re-train the labour force, the study said. At present levels of global domestic product, the following levels of investment were recommended by the UN’S paper:
1)   Energy Supply: more than $360 billion on renewable energy and for cutting emissions from existing fossil fuel burning power plants.
2)   Buildings: around $134 billion for emissions-cutting technologies like insulation and double-glazing.
3)   Agriculture: $108 billion annually on measures such as increasing soil fertility and lowering wasted irrigation water levels.
4)   Fisheries: $110 billion in order to set up systems such as marine protected areas and cutting back on the current fleet capacity.
5)   Forestry: $15 billion for the protection of trees and tropical forests.
6)   Industry: over $75 billion to ensure better efficiency.
7)   Tourism: More than $135 billion to increase environmentally-friendly tourism.
8)   Transport: over $190 billion to promote public transport systems, cleaner vehicles and non motorised methods of transport such as cycling.
9)   Waste: about $110 billion for the promotion of recycling and to cut methane emissions from landfill sites.
10)   Water: around $11o to improve water sanitation and access to clean water for poorer people.

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