New York, 20 September
2010 - Investing in clean energy,
sustainable transport, forests and environmentally-friendly
agriculture is essential, if internationally-agreed
goals to reduce poverty are to be achieved.
This is among the central
conclusions of A Brief for Policymakers
on the Green Economy and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), launched today
as heads of state and ministers meet at
the UN Headquarters to review progress to
date - five years before the MDG deadline
of 2015.
Environmental degradation
is making it more difficult for governments
to achieve Millennium Development Goals
such as improving maternal health, providing
safe drinking water and combating hunger
and disease.
Conversely some countries
and communities are finding that environmental
improvements, catalyzed by deliberate policy
choices; smart investments and often private
sector partnerships can be a big part of
the solution, the new study claims.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP), said: "There
is rapidly growing evidence that accelerating
a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient,
employment-generating Green Economy may
not only be the key to meeting sustainability
challenges of the 21st century, but also
provide a considerable contribution to meeting
other MDGs.
The report - compiled
by UNEP's Green Economy team - cites numerous
cases where green strategies are paying
multiple dividends in respect to the eight
MDGs.
Policies and investments
in Costa Rica have triggered an expansion
of protected areas and national parks, now
covering over 25 per cent of the country's
total land area.
Since this strategy
was adopted there has been a boom in eco-tourism
attracting over one million visitors a year
and generating US$5 million annually in
entrance fees alone. Studies indicate that
communities living in or near national parks
have higher wages, employment rates and
lower rates of poverty.
The report, prepared
for this week's UN Summit on MDGs in New
York, also spotlights China's energy policy
as set out in the country's 11th five year
plan covering 2006-2010. The plan has fuelled
a rapid rise in renewable energy manufacturing
and installation.
China is now the world's
second biggest user of wind power and the
biggest exporter of photovoltaics (devices
that covert solar energy into electricity).
Ten per cent of households have solar water
heaters and 1.5 million people are employed
in China's renewables sector, with 300,000
of those jobs generated in 2009 alone.
Creative and forward-looking
urban planning, allied to sustainable transport
policies, have allowed the Brazilian city
of Curitiba to grow more than six fold while
simultaneously improving mobility and quality
of life.
The average area of
green space per person has risen from one
square metre to around 50 square metres;
45 per cent of journeys are made by public
transport; excessive fuel use due to congestion
is 13 times less per person than in Sao
Paulo and the lower levels of air pollution
result in health benefits for local citizens.
In Nepal, 14,000 Forest
User Groups have reversed the deforestation
rates of the 11000s through community-based
policies which include setting harvesting
rules, product prices and the sharing of
profits.
Between 2000 and 2005,
the annual forested area of Nepal increased
by 1.3 per cent, soil quality and water
supplies are better managed and local employment
has risen.
Uganda, a country where
85 per cent of the working population is
employed in agriculture, has turned to organic
production to boost exports and incomes.
Farm-gate prices for organic vanilla, ginger
and pineapples are higher than for conventional
produce.
Since 2004 the number of certified organic
farmers has grown from 45,000 to over 200,000
and the area of land under organic cultivation
from 185,000 hectares to close to 300,000
hectares.
Mr Steiner said: "The
underlying task of the 21st century is to
provide a secure and sustainable way of
life for a world population that over the
next four decades will increase in size
by a third. It was this challenge that in
September 2000 led world leaders to adopt
the eight MDGs".
"On current trends
it is likely that achieving all the MDGs
by 2015 will be missed. In part because
the responses so far have been embedded
in a 20th century approach to a new century's
challenges," he added.
"The Green Economy
puts a fresh lens on the challenges and
a spotlight on the multiple cost effective
economic and social opportunities from investing
and re-investing in modern clean-tech energy
systems up to natural resource management
of the planet's ecological infrastructure.
In doing so, it addresses the economic,
social and environmental objective of sustainable
development and underscores the wealth of
choices and options for sustained progress
that meets the realities of our time,"
said Mr. Steiner.
Some Key Points from
the Report - Environmental Sustainability
and the MDGs Inextricably Intertwined
The report, A Brief
for Policymakers on the Green Economy and
the Millennium Development Goals, underlines
that the environmental goods and services
that underpin the global economy - and in
particular the GDP of the poor - are shrinking
at a rapid rate.
It underscores how this loss of ecological
infrastructure is undermining not only MDG7
on environmental sustainability but most
if not all of the other MDGs and their associated
targets.
Coral reefs in the Caribbean
for example have declined by 80 per cent
and globally 30 per cent of mangroves have
been lost in the past two decades.
Both these ecosystems
provide coastal defenses, tourism revenues
and other services and income for local
communities.
In addition they are
nurseries for fish upon which a billion
people rely directly for protein. The fate
of coral reefs and mangroves are thus closely
linked to the achievement of several MDGs,
including MDG1 on hunger.
Forests are key sources
of drinking water and nutrients for agriculture
while providing essential goods such as
wild foods and medicines.
Thus the fate of forests
links to MDG1 on hunger, MDGs 4 and 5 on
health and several targets of MDG7 such
as halving the proportion of people without
access to safe drinking water.
The rate of deforestation
is slowing. In the past decade the annual
loss of forest has averaged 13 million hectares,
compared with 16 million hectares a year
during the 11000s.
But this rate is still
causing lasting environmental damage and
currently close to 30 countries have lost
90 per cent of their original forest cover.
Investing and re-investing
in forests would not only assist in meeting
the aforementioned MDGs, but also in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions linked with deforestation.
While there is no specific
MDG for energy, the report points out that
providing clean energy will underpin the
success of many of the goals, both directly
in terms of sustainable development and
indirectly if climate change, linked to
the burning of fossil fuels, is left unaddressed.
For example 14 per cent
of the population of developing countries
and around a fifth of their urban dwellers
live in low-lying coastal regions and are
particularly vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change, such as rising sea levels,
coastal flooding and soil erosion.
Subsidies - A Possible
Source of Additional MDG Funding
One way of financing
the achievement of the MDGs is through re-directing
subsidies.
Fossil fuels for example
still attract over US$500 billion a year
in government subsidies - and there is abundant
evidence that these subsidies rarely reach
the poor, despite the best intentions of
governments.
In Indonesia in 2005,
60 per cent of fuel subsidies went to the
richest 40 per cent of the population
In 2003 Argentina's
gas subsidies went to the far south of the
country - home to just three per cent of
Argentina's poor.
In Mongolia, some 85
per cent of a recent 'life-line' heating
tariff went to the 'non-poor'.
Investing all or part
of these subsidies in renewable energy technologies,
such as solar and wind, could trigger new
kinds of employment, faster access to electricity
and greater social equity - a better overall
standard of living.
There would be benefits
for the environment including improvements
in air pollution alongside an estimated
six per cent cut in annual greenhouse gas
emissions.
There are other green
economy approaches: In Bangladesh a subsidiary
of the Grameen Bank - Grameen Shakti - has
pioneered microfinance to assist local people
in buying solar heating systems.
Some 20,000 'green'
jobs, many of which have been for women,
have been generated, with an aim of creating
100,000 new jobs by 2015. The project thus
meets many of the MDGs including MDG3 relating
to gender equality.
Similar arguments are
made in respect to fisheries where subsidies
total some US$27 billion a year and are
part of the reason why fish stocks in many
parts of the world are in decline.
Re-directing around
US$8 billion of these subsidies into improved
management measures such as marine protected
areas, tradable quotas, the retiring of
vessels and the retraining of fisher-folk,
could boost catches and conserve stocks.
The report also points
to the multiple benefits from other policies,
for example those that promote the certification
of biodiversity-friendly agricultural products.
With the right backing,
the market for such products could be worth
US$210 billion by 2020 up from US$40 billion
in 2008, generating new income flows while
conserving the planet's natural capital.
Notes to Editors:
Launched in 2008 at
the height of the global financial and economic
crisis, UNEP's Green Economy Initiative
provides macroeconomic analysis on policy
reforms and investments in key sectors that
can contribute to economic growth, creation
of jobs, social equity and poverty reduction,
while addressing climate risks and other
ecological challenges. The Initiative undertakes
a wide-range of research and provides advisory
services to more then 20 countries interested
in moving towards a green economy.
This report is one of
in a suite of special briefs that draws
on the preliminary findings of its flagship
publication, the Green Economy Report, which
is scheduled to be released in early 2011.
To download a copy of
the report, visit: http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy
