KENYA / GREEN ECONOMY

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The UN Environment Programme's latest report says that investing around (USD)1.3 million or two percent of the global GDP into ten key sectors such as agriculture and energy supply can kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy that can also help reduce poverty. UNEP
Description

STORY: KENYA / GREEN ECONOMY
TRT: 1:59
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 21 FEBRUARY 2011, NAIROBI, KENYA

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Shotlist

1. Wide shot, press conference
2. Med shot, panellists
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme:
“This report when it talks about the Green Economy, talks about the three dimensions of sustainable development: how to economically develop and grow, achieving greater equity, jobs and livelihoods, while at the same time not depleting the natural capital of this planet and killing hundreds of thousands of people with this pollution footprint that we become so accustomed to following the industrial revolution.”
4. Cutaway, cameramen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Pavan Sukhdev, Head, Green Economy Initiative, United Nations Environment Programme:
“That is one of the distinguishing features of the Green Economy, which is to recognize the significance of natural capital and to recognise natural production as part of production, not just man-made production and indeed to look to rebuild natural capital and invest in natural capital as a means of providing livelihoods and as a means of securing our future.”
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, United States:
“President Obama fully believes that the choice between good jobs and healthy communities in a clean environment is a false choice. In my two decades of work in the environment, I’ve seen example after example that the smart environment decision is also the smart economic decision.”

FILE – WORLD BANK - JUNE 2010, SIDI DAOUD, TUNISIA

8. Various shots, wind farm turbines

FILE – WORLD BANK - OCTOBER 2010, KIMPARANA, MALI

9. Wide shot, sign of Kimparana Solar Plant
10. Tilt down, wide of solar panels
11. Close up, panels

FILE – WORLD BANK - JUNE 2010, AIN BENI MATHAR, MOROCCO

12. Various shots, solar plant

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Storyline

According to the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest report, investing around (USD)1.3 million or two percent of the global GDP into ten key sectors can kick-start a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy that can also help reduce poverty.

UNEP presented the report, “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication,” to environment ministers from over 100 countries at the opening of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi yesterday (21 Feb).

UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner said that the report talks about “how to economically develop and grow, achieving greater equity, jobs and livelihoods, while at the same time not depleting the natural capital of this planet and killing hundreds of thousands of people with this pollution footprint.”

The report also identifies the following sectors as key to greening the global economy: agriculture, buildings, energy supply, fisheries, forestry, industry including energy efficiency, tourism, transport, waste management and water.

It sees a green economy as not only relevant to more developed economies but as a key catalyst for growth and poverty eradication in developing ones too, where in some cases close to 90 per cent of the GDP of the poor is linked to nature or natural capital such as forests and freshwaters.

Pavan Sukhdev, who heads the Green Economy Initiative at UNEP, said that the green economy recognises natural production as part of production, not just man-made production.”

He talked about rebuilding natural capital and investing in natural capital “as a means of providing livelihoods and as a means of securing our future.”

Lisa Jackson from the United States Environmental Protection Agency added that “the smart environment decision is also the smart economic decision.”

UNEP reports that the world currently spends between one and two per cent of global GDP on a range of subsidies that often perpetuate unsustainable resources use in areas such as fossil fuels, agriculture, including pesticide subsidies, water and fisheries.

Many of these are contributing to environmental damage and inefficiencies in the global economy, and phasing them down or phasing them out would generate multiple benefits while freeing up resources to finance a green economy transition.

The report does acknowledge that in the short-term, job losses in some sectors, such as fisheries, are inevitable if they are to transition towards sustainability. Investment, in some cases funded from cuts in harmful subsidies, will be required to re-skill and re-train some sections of the global workforce to ensure a fair and socially acceptable transition.

The green economy, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and international environment governance are the two themes for UNEP's Governing Council session, which is also looking ahead to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

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Creator
UNEP
Geographic Subject
MAMS Id
U110222e