March 12, 2008—The latest United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Year Book shows an emerging “green economy” as growing numbers of companies embrace environmental policies and investors pump hundreds of billions of dollars into cleaner and renewable energies.
Increasingly, combating climate change is being perceived as an opportunity rather than a burden, and a path to a new kind of prosperity as opposed to a brake on profits and employment, shows the report. The new economy is also driving innovation on a scale perhaps not witnessed since the industrial revolution of more than two centuries ago.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting energy efficiency ranked as the number one CSR strategy of 54% of 150 companies questioned in the US, France, Germany, and the UK. This was followed by recycling at 52% and waste reduction at 27%. At the bottom of the list were: making shipping and transport more efficient and eco-friendly (8%); environmental education and research (7%); and supporting employees’ use of alternative transportation (6%).
Despite “a great deal of activity and action,” the Year Book concludes that “for new developments to reach the scale and scope that is needed, governments must play a stronger stimulation and facilitation role.” UNEP advises such measures as: removing fossil fuel subsidies; boosting research and development; increasing energy efficiency measures; and increasing the generation and use of renewable electricity.
The UNEP Year Book 2008 is available in all six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish)
