Geneva,
25 November 2008 - Leading environmental
economists researchers, business leaders
and senior figures from international organizations
are to meet in Geneva to take forward the
United Nations' Green Economy initiative.
Also headlined as a
'Global Green New Deal', the $4 million
initiative was recently announced in London
by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and Executive Director, UN Environment Programme
(UNEP).
The initiative aims
to re-shape and re-focus markets and public
spending towards areas such as clean technologies,
renewable energies and natural assets such
as the planet's ecosystems and their trillion
dollar goods and services.
The initiative is aimed
at assisting governments overcome the current
economic crisis while outlining the strategies
and policies needed sustainably grow economies,
generate employment and accelerate a transition
to a low resource-use, low carbon society.
The Green Economy initiative
will deliver a comprehensive roadmap for
governments within two years, but key elements
of the Global Green New Deal will be outlined
within the next six month.
Mr Steiner explained:
"The financial, fuel and food crises
of 2008 are in part a result of speculation
and a failure of governments to intelligently
manage and focus markets. But they are also
part of a wider market failure triggering
ever deeper and disturbing losses of natural
capital and nature-based assets coupled
with an over-reliance of finite, often subsidized
fossil fuels."
Pavan Sukdhev, a senior
banker from Deutsche Bank who is seconded
to UNEP to lead the research, added: "Investments
will soon be pouring back into the global
economy - the question is whether they go
into the old, extractive, short-term economy
of yesterday or a new green economy that
will deal with multiple challenges while
generating multiple economic opportunities
for the poor and the well-off alike."
The meeting at Geneva's
International Conference Centre is officially
entitled the International Workshop to Launch
The Global Initiative on the Green Economy.
Sylvie Lemmet, Director
of UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry
and Economics (DTIE) will introduce the
Initiative.
Other participants include
Hazel Handerson, a well know American visionary
and thinker, who will deliver a speech via
video on the systemic flaws in yesterday's
markets and point to a future where socially
and environmentally responsible investments
can shape the 21st century economy.
Representatives from
the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), and Paris-based
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) will also share their
ideas for a sustainable global green economy.
Björn Stigson,
President of the Geneva-based World Business
Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD),
will offer business community's perspectives
with a particular focus on the policies
and institutions to enable the shift from
a "brown" to "green"
economy.
The initiative, with
initial backing from the Government of Norway,
will build on joint work already carried
out by UNEP with ILO on green jobs in a
low-carbon economy, which was released in
New York in September 2008. (It will also
build on other similar initiatives, notably
the Green New Deal report published by the
New Economics Foundation in July 2008, which
focused on how the U.K should respond to
the "triple crunch" of financial
crisis, climate change, peak oil.
Following the scene-setting
opening session, participants - from Beijing
to Washington and Venice to Palestine -
will identify and address analytical challenges
in implementing this initiative.
Break-out groups will
focus on six broad areas: environmental
infrastructure, biodiversity-based business,
clean and efficient technologies, renewable
energy, chemicals and waste management,
green cities, buildings and transport. Additionally,
there will be one group addressing data
and modelling issues across all these areas.
These groups will return the second day
morning to present their suggestions on
how the various analytical components of
the Green Economy Initiative should be designed,
analysed, and communicated.
The morning of 1 December
is open to reporters. A news conference
is scheduled for 2 December 2008 at the
Palais des Nations to report on the discussion.
Hussein Abaza, Chief
of UNEP's Economics and Trade Branch, says:
"This initial meeting will provide
an opportunity for policymakers, business
executives, analysts, representatives from
non-governmental and civil society organizations
and media to share their perspectives on
the shape of a global green economy and
provide their inputs into the design of
this initiative from the outset."
Background material can be found at several
websites, particularly http://www.unep.ch/etb/initiatives/GreenEconomy.php
and http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/.
A flyer, information sheet, 22 October 2008
news release, Achim Steiner's speech and
earlier publications are also available.
For More Information Please Contact Hussein
Abaza Chief, UNEP Economics and Trade Branch
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
