Myth that Green Protection Hits Economy, UNEP Says

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Myth that Green Protection Hits Economy, UNEP Says

 

June 16, 2006 — By Alister Doyle, Reuters

OSLO — The world must lay to rest a " myth " that protecting the environment

harms economic growth, the new head of the U.N. Environment Programme said on

Thursday.

 

Achim Steiner, a 45-year-old German, said he would seek to involve consumers,

governments, businesses and activists in developing new economic mechanisms to

protect the planet from threats ranging from climate change to pollution.

 

" Care for the environment is often portrayed as detrimental to economic growth, "

he told Reuters on his first day as head of the United Nations' top environment

body.

 

" We hope to lay that myth to rest in the 21st century, " he said by telephone

from UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, setting out priorities for a four-year term.

 

Most conventional economic theory places no value on natural phenomena such as

the coastline protection given by coral reefs or forests' role in absorbing

heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

 

Steiner said a shift was needed to recognise the " enormous wealth of nature's

services " underpinning all life on earth. In turn, that would show that

environmental protection is a condition for economies to survive and thrive in

the long term.

 

" We have to get environmental concerns into the mainstream of economics ... to

include what we are consuming and destroying, " he said.

 

By conventional yardsticks nations can -- at least briefly -- boost growth by

axing all their forests for timber or dynamiting reefs for fish. A shift in

accounting would place a higher value on intact natural systems.

 

" Environmental sustainability in the 21st century is not only the preserve of

environmentalists, but of everybody who uses resources on this planet, " Steiner

said. He succeeds Klaus Toepfer, also German, who has retired after eight years

at UNEP.

 

CARBON TRADING

 

Steiner, former head of the World Conservation Union, hailed a European Union

market in industrial emissions of carbon dioxide as an example of a project

placing value on nature.

 

The market was set up in 2005 as part of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol to combat

global warming, blamed by almost all scientists on emissions by power plants,

factories and vehicles. Carbon prices are now around $15 a tonne.

 

" One of the great breakthroughs on an environmental issue is carbon trading, "

Steiner said, expressing hope that such markets would grow. " We are far from

trading at a level or a scale that is yet meaningful for the actual climate

challenge, " he said.

 

U.N. studies say that costs of inaction over climate change could be far greater

than higher electricity bills because of carbon trading. Many scientists say

global warming could spur heatwaves, droughts, floods and a rise in global sea

levels.

 

Steiner said public pressure could spur other mechanisms to protect the

environment. Supermarkets or travel agents, for instance, find that consumers

are willing to pay more for foods or holidays if they do not damage the

environment.

 

U.S. President George W. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, arguing it was too

costly and wrongly omitted developing nations from caps on emissions of

greenhouse gases by 2012.

 

Still, Steiner said there was widening concern about climate change in the

United States. " I think that ultimately no nation is going to be able to stand

aside from global action on climate change, " he said.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

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