Towards a Global Green New Deal?

The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Climate Change

and Prospects for a Green Economy

Presentation by Hilary French, Worldwatch Institute

UNESCO Future Forum, Paris

March 2, 2009

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Climate Challenges Posed by the Economic Crisis

• Alternative energy companies are having difficulties financing investments

• Energy intensive industries may oppose climate regulation due to concerns about competitiveness and potential job losses

• Foreign aid spending could be threatened, complicating efforts to forge North-South deal on climate change

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Climate Opportunities Linked with the Economic Crisis

• Declining carbon emissions due to recession may buy time for technological advances and policy innovations

• Economic stimulus packages may generate substantial funding for promoting low-carbon energy paths (e.g. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, United States)

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Green Provisions of US Stimulus Package

• The recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ($787.2 billion total) includes more than $71 billion for clean energy programs—more than tripling current spending on these programs. For example:

– $4.5 billion for upgrading energy efficiency in government owned buildings

– $5 billion for home weatherization programs to help low income families reduce energy costs

– $2.5 billion for research on energy efficiency and renewable energy– $9.3 billion for investments in rail transportation– $500 million for job training in the energy efficiency and renewable

energy fields

• The stimulus package also includes $20 billion in clean energy tax incentives (e.g. extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind and other renewable energy programs).

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The Promise of Green Jobs

• Each $1 million invested in energy efficiency creates 21.5 new jobs versus 11.5 for gas power generation.

• The building and construction sector employs more than 111 million people worldwide. Retrofitting the European Union's residential building sector to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 75 percent would lead to some 2.6 million new jobs by 2030.

• Solar PVs create 7 -11 times more jobs per megawatt hour than coal or gas.

• In China, renewable energy technologies employ an estimated 1 million people in the wind, solar PV, solar thermal, and biomass industries.

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SOURCE: UNEP/ILO Green Jobs Report

Green Jobs in Renewable Energy, Present and Future

• 2.3 million people are currently employed in the renewable energy sector globally.

• Projected investments of $630 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs.

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From Crisis to Opportunity:Towards a Global Green New Deal

• UNEP has recently called for an ambitious Global Green New Deal that would link international efforts to respond to the economic crisis with efforts to address climate change and other pressing global environmental problems. (For more information, see http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/.)

• In particular, UNEP advocates that one-third of the $2.5 trillion worth of planned stimulus packages to be invested in efforts to “green” the world economy. This adds up to $750 billion of investment, equal to about 1 percent of the current global GDP.

• Next month’s G20 Summit in London is an important opportunity to move towards a low carbon global economy and a Global Green New Deal, paving the way for a successful outcome at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

• Given the urgency of both the economic crisis and the climate crisis, time is of the essence.

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