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U.N. report author highlights key hurdles to growth of green jobs market (video, transcript to come)
Monica Trauzzi, OnPoint, E&E TV
Green jobs have become the new buzz phrase on the campaign trail and across the country in industries that are trying to boost efficiency.
According to a recent report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), there is a lot of work to be done in terms of policies, incentives and funding to expand the green jobs market.
During today’s OnPoint, Michael Renner, a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and author of the UNEP report “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World,” explains what governments should be doing to expand the green work force. Renner also discusses the benefits green jobs can provide to developing nations.
(23 October 2008)
Stern: Green routes to growth
Nicholas Stern, Guardian
Recession is the time to build a low-carbon future with the investment vital for economy and planet
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There are two crucial lessons we must learn from the financial turbulence the world has been facing. First, this crisis has been 20 years in the making and shows very clearly that the longer risk is ignored the bigger will be the consequences; second, we shall face an extended period of recession in the rich countries and low growth for the world as a whole. Let us learn the lessons and take the opportunity of the coincidence of the crisis and the deepening awareness of the great danger of unmanaged climate change: now is the time to lay the foundations for a world of low-carbon growth.
High-carbon growth – business as usual – will by mid-century have taken greenhouse gas concentrations to a point where a major climate disaster is very likely. We risk a transformation of the planet so radical that it would involve huge population movements and widespread conflict. Put simply, high-carbon growth will choke off growth. To manage the climate, we must cut world emissions by at least 50% by 2050, as recognised by the G8 earlier this year. Given that rich countries’ emissions are far above the world average, their cuts should be at least 80%, acknowledged in Europe and the UK, with the adoption of that target last week.
(23 October 2008)
IPCC vice-chairman: ‘Media Must Find a Way for the Message’
Sabina Zaccaro, IPS
While there is clear evidence of growing global warming, “the political will to address it is still lacking,” says Mohan Munasinghe, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as vice-chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Munasinghe, also chairman of the Sri Lanka-based Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), which has contributed to the work of the IPCC, is among the keynote speakers at the Oct. 23 high-level seminar at The Hague organised by the Inter Press Service (IPS), the rights and development organisation Oxfam Novib, and the Netherlands’ National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO).
The meeting focuses on the support base for sustainable development and international cooperation, and seek ways to deepen the roles and responsibilities of both mainstream and alternative media in this.
Media will be urged to look at the connections between issues. Development, poverty and climate change are all related problems, Munasinghe said. “In order to make development more sustainable in the next 10-15 years, these problems must be addressed all together.”
Excerpts from the interview:
IPS: What is the danger in isolating these issues?
Mohan Munasinghe: There are several risks related to isolation. The most important is conflict. When you look for a solution to one problem, it may make the other problem worse.
The second problem is that you may have duplications, and this happens when people who work for solving one problem are sometimes doing the same thing that other people are doing already. In that case, they are wasting resources; economic resources but also political will.
The third and most important issue is lack of cooperation. In order to face all these multiple crises, we have to get everybody together, we have to create that sense of consensus, a spirit of global consciousness. If everybody is working on their own problem, it is like going back to the old selfish solutions.
(23 October 2008)
