ConFlating: At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the prospect of weakening economic growth and how to overcome it took center-stage. State-funded investment programs, such as the 300-billion-euro ($337-billion) infrastructure development plan announced by the EU Commission recently, were hotly debated. But as more and more governments around the world seem to be resorting to the traditional tactic of spending their way out of sluggish growth, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon noted that investing in climate protection could make a significant impact. Infrastructure and sustainability are treated as separate issues. We see this at the meetings of the G20, at other international gatherings, and even here at the World Economic Forum. We need to address this troubling disconnect. Massive investment According to Paul Polman, Chief Executive of Anglo-Dutch food company Unilever, the size of global infrastructure investment would reach $90 trillion over the next 15 years. That needs to be done anyway. Do it in the right way, and you can solve your climate change issues and stimulate economic growth, he said. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim shared this view at the WEF meeting, saying that climate protection and economic growth shouldnt be mutually exclusive. We lose so much from inefficient buildings, inefficient factories. If we just do those fairly straighforward things that are good for everybody, we could add $1.8 to $2.6 trillion to gross domestic product over the next decades. These are no-brainers. And if you get the maths right, it seems less like a contradiction. Call for price on emmissions The World Bank President urged governments around the world to agree on a pricing system for climate-changing CO² emissions, reiterating calls for the introduction of a global emissions trade made at the 2014 Climate UN Climate Summit in Lima, Peru. Nobel Economics Prize laureate Michael Spence believes poorer countries could take steps to curb climate change, too: Energy subsidies were pervasive in the developing countries. Fortunately, they are in the process of disappearing. Energy subsidies are a catastrophic policy. They produce a distorted development of the economy and all kinds of bad things. dw.de/leaders-conflate-growth-climate-protection/a-18212116
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 10:57:35 +0000
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