According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) : ” Investing two per cent of global GDP into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy “
” The sum, currently amounting to an average of around $1.3 trillion a year (…) would grow the global economy at around the same rate if not higher than those forecast, under current economic models. “
” But without rising risks, shocks, scarcities and crises increasingly inherent in the existing, resource-depleting, high carbon ‘brown’ economy, says the study.”
The press release goes one :
As such, it comprehensively challenges the myth of a trade off between environmental investments and economic growth and instead points to a current “gross misallocation of capital”.
The report sees a Green Economy as not only relevant to more developed economies but as a key catalyst for growth and poverty eradication in developing ones too, where in some cases close to 90 per cent of the GDP of the poor is linked to nature or natural capital such as forests and freshwaters.
I previously blogged at how the same UNEP believed one single percent could change our world and enable us to reach a truly sustainable development.
Download the 626-page report for more (20 Mb)