www.environmental-finance.com
London, 2 April:
The World Economic Forum has set up a task force to identify how to create millions of green jobs and put long-term economic growth on a sustainable, low-carbon path. Launched in London this week, 52 companies and 32 'thought leaders' have joined the forum's Task Force on Low-Carbon Economic Prosperity, which will develop ideas to feed into global policy.
The task force will, by the third quarter, produce 10-20 recommendations of "game-changing" policy activities or public-private collaborations that stand the best chance of catalysing investment in low-carbon solutions within the following 18 months. Its ideas will target both industrialised and developing countries.
"The international community faces the twin challenges of dealing with the most serious global economic crisis since the 1930s and negotiating an ambitious agreement on climate change. We suggest that the two agendas can and should be designed to be mutually reinforcing," said Richard Samans, managing director of the World Economic Forum.
Peter Mandelson, UK secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, said a low-carbon future was an "environmental imperative and an economic opportunity". "Climate change and the mitigation effort will be a major [economic] driver. There's clear evidence that jobs can be created," said Caio Koch-Weser, vice-chairman of Deutsche Bank Group.
However, a recent study of Spanish support for renewable energy suggests there is no net job creation from renewable incentives. According to University of Rey Juan Carlos research director Gabriel Calzada, for every 'green' job created, 2.2 jobs are lost in other industries, mainly in the metallurgy, non-metallic mining, food processing, beverage and tobacco industries.
"Such 'green jobs' policy clearly hinders Spain's way out of the current economic crisis, even while US politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil," the study says.
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