Copenhagen, 18 December
2009 - "If we don't reach a climate
deal, one of the failed victims should not
be the economy."
Those were the opening words of Mr. Achim
Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and
Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme at an event entitled Green Economy:
Implementing a New Climate Deal at the UN
Climate talks in Copenhagen.
Four countries, Brazil,
the Republic of Korea, the Federal Democratic
Republic of Nepal and the Democratic Republic
of Congo took to the floor explaining how
green jobs, growth and sustainability are
essential for their very survival and future
economic growth.
The green economy has
been defined as one which will accelerate
the transition to a low-carbon resource-efficient
economy able to meet the multiple challenges
and deliver the multiple opportunities of
the 21st century.
A green economy adopts
a sustainable path by increasing the share
of GDP devoted to renewable energies, clean
transportation, clean technologies, green
buildings and sustainable agriculture and
forestry.
Citing a recent example
of "green growth" Brazil's Environment
Minister, Carlos Minc explained that Brazil
has just approved bids for the construction
and operation of 71 wind farms with a combined
capacity of 1,805 MW in the first auction
of rights to this alternative energy source
in the country.
The 71 facilities, which
will use 773 wind turbines, could start
operating on July 1, 2012.
The vast majority of
the facilities will be located in northeastern
Brazil, a poor region that has conditions
suitable for generating electricity using
wind turbines.
Mr. Deepak Bohara, Minister
of Forest and Soil Conservation from Nepal
explained that his cabinet had recently
held a meeting at Everest Base Camp to raise
awareness that Himalayan mountain glaciers
are melting and causing lakes.
According to the Minister,
if these lakes burst, people downstream
are likely to be swept away.
"1.3 million people
live across the border and the future catastrophe
cannot be imagined," he added. "We
want to create an atmosphere of green jobs.
We can produce 100,000 megawatts of power
through clean energy and hydropower which
can then in turn be used in neighbouring
India," Bohara concluded. "The
future is in our hands."
DRC's representative,
Jose Endundo Bononge, the Minister of Environment,
Conservation and Tourism, said his country
was on the cusp of development and had the
opportunity to go "green" rather
than invest in so-called older "brown"
technologies.
"We need to be ambitious and we need
resources to do it well. We have everything
yet to do," said Bononge. "We
don't want to have to correct everything
in the future, we have the opportunity to
start now," he added.
The last speaker, Mr
Kim Chan woo from the Republic of Korea
explained that their green economy strategy
cuts across a wide swathe of sustainability
challenges from renewable energy and waste,
to transport, freshwater and forestry to
foster recovery after the global recession.
The Republic of Korea
launched its more than US$38 billion economic
stimulus package in January this year with
over 80 percent allocated to green investment
and further expanded this "Green New
Deal" into a full five-year US$83.6
billion Green Growth Plan.
