UNITED NATIONS - The "green" economy works

Who said that green economy does not pull?

Environmentalists have supported it for years and now even science confirms it: economic growth and zero emissions are an achievable goal. It is written in black and white in the pages of Pathways Deep Decarbonisation report, a study conducted by the United Nations on 15 countries that, by themselves, account for 70% of CO2 emissions. These include Australia, China, United States and Great Britain.


Economy up, pollutants down. The research was conducted by a team of academics from various countries and concludes that the countries covered by the study may give a clean cut emission of pollutants, while managing to triple the value of manufacturing.


According to the report the reduction of greenhouse gases is not only desirable, but absolutely necessary to avoid climate catastrophe whose limit was set by the international community to +2 ° C above the pre-industrial average temperature.


Even Australia, which has the unenviable record of 69% of electricity generated from fossil fuels, could become a country with zero emissions by 2050 while maintaining an economic growth of 2.4% per year.


The numbers seem to confirm this theory: in the last 20 years, Australia's emissions have remained fairly stable while the economy of the country has almost doubled its value.


The document also outlines the various steps that should accompany the country in the transition to renewable energy and to replace oil and coal with cleaner energy. The impact of this change would be strong enough to compensate for even the failure to transform the agricultural or industrial activities which in any case would not be able to survive the change.


How much is the green? "The decline of each technology opens up new scenarios and new opportunities," told “The Guardian” Frank Jotzo, climate scientist and economist at the Australian National University. The fact that a rapid change of the energy in favor of renewables has an immediate economic impact is not negligible. For this reason, next September, the United Nations will present a new study which will outline the actual monetary cost of a potential transformation.

SOURCE: Focus.it