BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
A new report launched last week at
Rio de Janeiro emphasises that although a transition to a green economy could
lift millions of people out of poverty and transform the livelihoods of many of
the world’s 1.3 billion people earning just US$1.25 a day, that can only happen
if it is supported by strong policies and public- and private-sector
investments.
The report, Building An Inclusive Green Economy
For All: Opportunities and Challenges for Overcoming Poverty and Inequality,
launched at the Rio+20 summit by the Poverty-Environment Partnership (PEP), a
network of bilateral aid agencies, development banks, UN agencies and
international NGOs, finds that many developing and least developed countries
are already pursuing a transition towards low-carbon, resource efficient
economies.
According to the report, scaling-up
current examples of the green economy in action – particularly in developing
countries - has the potential to deliver a ‘triple bottom line’ of job-creating
economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion.
It however maintains that targeted
investments and governance reforms are needed to overcome current barriers that
are preventing many poor communities from fully benefiting from a green
economy.
The new report further finds that
many Least Developed Countries (LDCs), as well as many poor regions of middle
income countries, are actually richly endowed with the natural resources that
would allow them to build green economies that can sustainably reduce poverty
but have been handicapped by weak policies.
Commenting on the report’s
findings, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of
the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), a PEP member, said, “Many least developed
and developing countries and communities are seizing the opportunity to bring
economy and ecology together in order to generate transformational social
outcomes,” adding, “The challenge for world leaders meeting here at
Rio+20 is to forge and to back the enabling policies, catalytic financing, and
social protection packages in order to fast forward these ambitions and to take
them to scale.”
For his part, Manish Bapna, Acting
President of the Washington D.C. based World Resources Institute, which co-ordinated
the study, said “By embracing an inclusive green economy, leaders in Rio have a
rare opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people and usher in a new
era of sustainability”.
“Shifting to an inclusive green economy will
not happen on its own. It requires smart government policies and strong
leadership. This report presents a bold vision for a green economy that can
tackle poverty and inequality, and, importantly, it offers concrete and
practical building blocks to make this transition,” he added.
Developing countries and green economy:
The report cites many strong
examples of developing countries that are already successfully shifting to a
green economy, such as Ethiopia’s development of six wind energy projects and a
geothermal project, which will increase the country’s capacity by over 1,000
megawatts as well as Mongolia’s first 50 megawatt wind farm currently under
construction and set to generate an estimated five percent of the county’s
electricity needs, while reducing air pollution linked with coal-fired
generation.
Mongolia has the potential to act
as a “supergrid” in the region, supplying neighbouring countries with clean
energy, the report maintains.
It also mentions that in Uganda,
the promotion of organic agriculture is helping tens of thousands of farmers to
earn up to 300 percent more from certified pineapple, ginger, vanilla and other
exports, citing that globally, the market for organic food products has
increased three-fold since 2000.
On the international level, the
development of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD or REDD+) also offers potential for poverty eradication if accompanied by
rigorous social safeguards, especially for local and indigenous people.
To buttress this, the report cites
that in Indonesia, a US $1 billion REDD+ investment by Norway has led to a one
year moratorium on logging in Kalimantan, which has the potential to safeguard
45 percent of the province’s forests, while providing new livelihood and income
opportunities for local people.
Furthermore, it states that many
low and middle-income countries are rich in resources for ecotourism; a sector
that is projected to generate revenues of US $240 billion in 2012, adding that much
of this growth is in developing countries as diverse as Botswana, Belize,
Brazil, Costa Rica, Gabon, Kenya and Nepal.
The report views that least
developed countries with less developed infrastructure, particularly in urban
areas, can benefit from an inclusive green economy with the right enabling policies
and targeted international investments in areas from energy efficiency and
clean technologies to modern public transportation systems.
Such efforts can also serve to
boost the creation of decent, green jobs as demonstrated in Lagos, Nigeria, where
public-private partnerships to improve the city’s infrastructure, reduce
congestion and upgrade slums have helped create around 4,000
environment-related jobs among unemployed youth, the report cites.
Regarding health, it says that
though environmental risk factors are the cause of around one-fifth of the
total disease burden in developing countries, and a large proportion of
childhood deaths, many green economy investments have the potential to deliver
significant benefits for human health, such as supporting clean fuels and
vehicles will lower greenhouse gas emissions, while also reducing respiratory
diseases.
Similarly, investing in cleaner
energy for households in developing countries, such as through more efficient
cookstoves, can reduce dependency on wood fuel and tackle deforestation, while
limiting exposure to indoor air pollution, says the new report.
Private Sector:
Underlining that the private
sector, including large multinationals and small- and medium-sized enterprises,
along with non-governmental organisations have a key enabling role, too,
The report cites that Unilever is
working in West Africa with 10,500 small-scale farmers to promote allanblackia
trees, which produce seeds rich in oil for use in spreads under the brand names
Flora and Bercel.
Other examples listed are that in
Brazil, the cosmetics company Natura has forged partnerships with 26
communities to source new cosmetics, fragrances, and other products under a
benefit sharing project that supports the principles of the UNEP-linked Convention
on Biological Diversity, while the Indian-based Jain Irrigation System makes
drip and sprinkler irrigation systems while providing markets for farmers’
produce.
The report discloses that farmers
in parts of India have seen net incomes rise by US $100 to $1,000 a hectare, as
a result of adopting such systems, while also reducing water use and
environmental impacts.
Benefits of Green Economy:
Meanwhile, according to Johan
Kuylenstierna, executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, a PEP
member and co-author of the report, “There is strong evidence that a transition
to a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy could hugely benefit the poor
while helping preserve vital ecosystem services”.
“The challenge at Rio+20 is to make
strong international commitments that will ensure the green economy can grow
and flourish, with both public- and private-sector support. We also need to
adopt policies to protect the vulnerable as their economies make this
transition, and to ensure that the benefits of the green economy are fairly and
equitably distributed,” he said.
Also sharing his thoughts, Bindu N.
Lohani, Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development,
Asian Development Bank, said “In the Asia-Pacific region, the twin tracks of
investing in sustainable inclusive infrastructure and the sustainable
management of critical ecosystems to support future economic development can
make a huge impact on the welfare of the poor – in both urban and rural
settings”.
He thus recommended that “Regional
institutions must galvanise efforts by governments to create the right enabling
policies and channel financial resources into inclusive green growth - the kind
of growth that benefits the developing countries and the poorer members of
their populations.”
Call to Rio+20 delegates:
The report calls on delegates
meeting for the Rio+20 Summit to consider “five critical building blocks”
towards an inclusive green economy which can maximise the benefits for the poor
of a green economy, and foster a shared policy agenda between developing
country governments, developed country partners and other stakeholders. These
are that:
1.
National Economic
and Social Policies: Fiscal policies, tax
regimes, and ‘green’ social protection policies and programmes can strengthen a
pro-poor transition;
2.
Local Rights and
Capacities: Ensuring poor people have
rights and tenure over their natural resources backed by the means and the
incentives to sustainably manage and benefit from them;
3.
Inclusive Green
Markets: New business models are needed to
build and expand the poor’s access to inclusive markets and supply chains for
green products and services, together with access to micro-credit and business
development services for small and medium-scale enterprises;
4.
Harmonised International
Policies and Support: Higher-income
countries need to provide coherent aid, trade and other policies to enable
low-income countries to succeed in a green economy transition; and
5.
New Metrics for
Measuring Progress: Going beyond the
narrowness of GDP to a broader indicator of economic, social and environmental
progress and human well-being: this is a key issue on the table at Rio+20.
