Asiatiske lande som Kina og Sydkorea satser i højere grad end de vestlige lande på grønne investeringer, når de forsøger at bryde den økonomiske lavkonjunktur med krisepakker. Det fremgår af en ny bog skrevet af en ledende konsulent fra FNs Miljøprogram UNEP.

Forfatteren Edward Barbier mener, at de resterende lande i G20-gruppen nu må forene sig om en bæredygtig økonomisk genopretning, udtaler han i en artikel på UN News.

3 May 2010 – Asian nations, particularly China and South Korea, are surging ahead of other major world economies with ‘green’ investments as a major part of their economic and employment recovery packages, according to a new book co-published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

- The financial and economic crisis triggered a fundamental awareness that investments in the environment may be the key to tackling multiple challenges from climate change and food shortages to natural resource scarcity and unemployment, says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

He adds that the book by Edward Barbier, entitled A Global Green New Deal: Rethinking the Economic Recovery, underlines that while some economies have seized this opportunity, others have not. “With the exception of several Asian economies, there remains a gap between ambition and action,” he notes.

According to the book by Mr. Barbier, a leading economist and consultant to UNEP’s Global Green New Deal/Green Economy Initiative, China spends more than a third of its stimulus package – equal to three per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) – on areas such as high-speed rail and boosting growth in wind and solar power and energy-efficient lighting.

The country is already the leading global producer of solar cells, wind turbines and solar water heaters, with its renewable energy sector valued at 17 billion US dollar and which employs close to 1 million people or 0,1 per cent of the working population.

South Korea, for its part, is allocating 95 per cent of its fiscal stimulus – three per cent of GDP – into environmental sectors including low-emission vehicles, the publication points out.

As part of its five-year green-growth investment plan, the country plans to spend $60 billion to cut carbon dependency with the aim of boosting economic growth to 2020 and generating up to 1.8 million jobs.

This is in contrast to the United States green stimulus, which represents only 0,7 per cent of GDP, and that of the European Union, which stands at 0,2 per cent of GDP.

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