🌎 United Nations Environment: A Global Green New Deal 2009

Barbier, Edward. A Global Green New Deal, Report prepared for the Green Economy Initiative of UNEP., 2009
by: United Nations Environment

This report was commissioned by UNEP in response to the multiple global crises of 2008 – fuel, food and financial. The report proposes a mix of policy actions that would stimulate economic recovery and at the same time improve the sustainability of the world economy. The Global Green New Deal (GGND) calls on governments to allocate a significant share of stimulus funding to green sectors and sets out three objectives: (i) economic recovery; (ii) poverty eradication; and (iii) reduced carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation; and proposed a framework for green stimulus programs as well as supportive domestic and international policies.

➡️ National actions proposed for the GGND include:

• US, the EU and other high income OECD economies, as well as middle and high income economies of the G20, should spend over 2 years at least 1% of their GDP on reducing carbon dependency;

• Developing economies should also implement national actions proposed for reducing carbon dependencies, should spend at least 1% of GDP on improving clean water and sanitation for the poor, should develop safety net programs and health and educational services, and should adopt other national actions for improving sustainability of their primary production activities.

• All economies should consider removing water subsidies and other distortions, adopting market‐based instruments or similar measures to enhance water management.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php


🌎 GREEN ECONOMY INITIATIVE


The financial and global crisis has pushed millions of people into poverty, especially the most vulnerable in the developing world. This is happening amidst the ongoing food, water, energy, ecosystem and climate crisis. Together, these crises are undermining the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and setting back development progress of the past few decades.

Policy responses to the crisis need to address imbalances that characterized earlier growth strategies with their focus on investing in output expansion to the neglect of building up natural, human and social capital. In the search for new investment programmes to both kick-start growth in the short term and support inclusive sustainable development in the long term, climate-and environment friendly economic policies and approaches can be a major tool in their recovery toolkit.

The Green Economy Initiative (GEI) responds to the development challenges and imbalances in growth strategies that underlie the global financial and economic crisis by motivating policymakers in all countries to give green investments sufficient space in their counter-cyclical policies and thus reduce the threat of further food, water, energy, ecosystem and climate crises, which have disproportionate impacts on the poor.

➡️The Initiative aims to demonstrate that investing in green sectors – such as energy efficient technologies, renewable energy, public transport, sustainable agriculture, environment friendly tourism, and sustainable management of natural resources including ecosystems and biodiversity – has a better chance to bring about recovery and sustainable growth, increase competitiveness, save and create jobs, improve the quality and decency of jobs, and reduce poverty, while tackling acute environmental problems.

➡️It also aims to identify the policy and institutional framework that is needed to support rather than undermine such investments and the greening of economic growth in all countries, taking into account national and regional conditions, special characteristics, capacities and needs.

https://www.unsystem.org/content/green-economy-initiative-gei