UN ENVIRONMENT CHIEF CALLS ON GOVERNMENTS TO INVEST IN ‘NEW GREEN DEAL’

The head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called on governments to invest a significant amount of their $3 trillion-worth of stimulus packages in a new "green economy" to defeat the crises facing the world.

Governments must play their part in shaping and focusing markets to deliver long-term environmental benefits if the world is to surmount the current food, fuel, financial and economic crises it faces, said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in a speech at Tel Aviv University yesterday.

Mr. Steiner told the audience that time and again resource-efficient, low-carbon and environmentally friendly products and processes have failed to make their way out of research laboratories. "The market failed to read the writing on the wall or see the climate and energy security street signs coming up fast on the international highway."

He noted that the oil crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s saw around $1 billion of investment into research and development in solar powered energy halving the cost per unit of electricity, not enough for commercialization.

"The oil price dropped and so did widespread enthusiasm for solar power. Only now are generation prices beginning to fall towards competitiveness [but] we have wasted nearly three precious decades," he added.

He noted, however, a UNEP Policy Brief for a Global Green New Deal, which highlights the benefits of investing a significant amount of proposed government economic stimulus money on five key sectors from renewable energy to sustainable transport.

"The question now is how will the around $3 trillion-worth of stimulus packages be spent-on the old brown economy or a new green one that might set the stage for a truly sustainable century?" asked Mr. Steiner.

The Brief – developed with economists, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) among others – spotlights how some economies, including China, Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom, have already committed part of their stimulus packages to green investments.

Mr. Steiner stressed that investing 1 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) into five key sectors could be key to a "Global Green New Deal."

These areas include raising the energy efficiency of old and new buildings, as well as investing in renewable energies including wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.
The three other areas are sustainable transport including hybrid vehicles; high-speed rail and bus rapid transit systems; the planet's ecological infrastructure including freshwaters, forests, soils and coral reefs; and sustainable agriculture including organic production.

"The Policy Brief also calls for a range of specific measures aimed at assisting poorer countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and green their economies," noted Mr. Steiner.

The measures include an expansion of microcredit schemes for clean energy, reform of subsidies from fossil fuels to fisheries and the greening of overseas development aid, he said.

"Japan, which has already launched a multi-billion yen green stimulus package for its economy, has just announced a $5 billion loan fund for developing economies seeking to boost their renewable energy sector," he pointed out.
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UN ENVOY FOR HAITI URGES SPEEDY DISBURSAL OF DONOR PLEDGES

Hailing pledges worth nearly $325 million for Haiti's reconstruction and development made at a donor conference in Washington last week, the top United Nations envoy to the impoverished country today expressed hope the funds will be quickly disbursed.

"I hope that commitments made at the meeting will materialize very rapidly to begin implementation of plans presented by the Haitian Government," Hédi Annabi, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative, said.

He added that the goal was "not only to respond to the needs for immediate reconstruction after the storms of 2008, but also to attract indispensable investments that would help put the country on a trajectory of sustainable development."

The Special Representative, who also heads the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), stressed that improving the economic and social situation was essential to consolidating stability in the country.

He said that he was impressed not only by the results of the conference, but also by the strong attendance there, including high officials of 28 bilateral and multilateral partners, as well as the Secretary-General.

"The engagement of donors is a good beginning, particularly in the current international economic context," Mr. Annabi said.

"This involvements illustrates the political will of the international community in Haiti to work together to encourage investment and the creation of employment in the country," he said.

Secretary-General Ban, who visited the country with former United States President Bill Clinton last month, said at the conference that the country stands a better chance than almost any emerging economy, not only to recover from instability and natural disasters but to prosper, because of new, favourable US trade legislation.

To lock in the gains, however, he said that the Government requires additional short-term technical and financial assistance.

"I firmly believe that Haiti is poised to make more progress over the next two years than it has made in the past two decades," Mr. Ban told a major donor conference hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington.

Reasserting that the country is now at a turning point, a message he has been stressing since his visit there last month, he added that "for all of us, this is the moment, a break-out moment, to help one of the poorest nations lift itself toward a future of real economic prospects and genuine hope."

Following many years of unrest and high crime, last summer's storms have left $1 billion – equivalent to 15 per cent of Haiti's gross domestic product (GDP) – of damage in their wake.

The global recession has further eroded the country's socio-economic situation, with remittances, which bring three times the amount of funds to Haiti as international aid, plummeting 14 per cent.
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BAN CALLS FUNDING GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST AIDS, TB, MALARIA ‘SMART INVESTMENT’

In this time of economic turmoil, putting money behind the fight against the AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics is a "smart investment," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he urged donors to fund United Nations-backed efforts to stop the spread of the deadly diseases.

"Across Africa, AIDS threatens to reduce GDP [gross domestic product] by up to 2.6 per cent," warned Mr. Ban in a video message to the mid-term review meeting of the second voluntary replenishment process of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Mr. Ban noted that since 2001 the Global Fund has committed over $10 billion to health programmes in 140 countries, "helping to keep parents, workers and teachers alive and productive."

Programmes supported by the Fund have helped delay the onset of AIDS in 2 million HIV-positive people, detected and treated 4.6 million cases of TB, delivered 70 million insecticide-treated bed nets and administered 74 million malaria drug treatments.

"It has been a success. The Global Fund has saved millions of lives. It is important that we replenish it," Mr. Ban told the meeting in Cacares, Spain.

Pointing to the $4 billion the Global Fund needs to meet its 2010 targets, Mr. Ban said, "I say to you that spending on AIDS, TB and malaria is a smart investment. It is a true recovery package."

According to the Secretary-General, TB costs the world's poorest communities $16 billion a year, whereas containing it will only cost $4.2 billion a year. Similarly, malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year when just $3.4 billion dollars will pay for prevention and treatment.

Mr. Ban called on the international community to honour their commitments made at the Group of Eight (G-8) Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to fully fund all credible plans.
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