The ABC of Green Economy: Part 1

So, recently, there has been much talk on the Green Economy as the pathway to a sustainable future. This is the core ideology on which the entire sustainable development revolution is hinged on, and is the rallying call for the forthcoming epic conference in June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro – Rio+20 (Earth Summit). But the Green Economy report which has been prepared by UNEP is quite extensive, over 600 pages long, and this has been quite a challenge to many people.

However, I intend to present a simplified overview of the Green Economy concept of development in this blog post series. Part 1 will focus on the outline of the Green Economy, and it is heavily excerpted from UNEP’s Green Economy Report (http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/documents/ger/ger_final_dec_2011/Green%20EconomyReport_Final_Dec2011.pdf).

Definition of the Green Economy

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) describes the Green Economy as “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.”

The Green Economy report is divided into three main sections:

Part 1: Investing in natural capital:

Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Forests

Part 2: Investing in energy and resource efficiency:

            Renewable energy, Manufacturing, Waste, Buildings, Transport, Tourism, Cities

Part 3: Supporting the Transition to a global Green Economy:

           Modeling, Enabling conditions, Finance

That sums up end of Part 1; Part 2 will delve into Investing in natural capital in detail.

Prepared by: Kennedy Liti Mbeva (http://kenliti.blogspot.com)