Samuel Dalzell
Thursday, March 19, 2009
9:18 PM
Energy/Alternative Energy
Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Program, announced today ambitious plans to create what has been dubbed a "Global Green New Deal" aimed at simultaneously addressing several monumental problems afflicting the world today. Inspired by Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" social programs that helped stabilize and revive the collapsed American economy during the Great Depression, this new plan is largely aimed at helping to revive the global economy, which is currently entrenched in the most significant recession it has experienced in several generations. At the same time, the plan is aimed at protecting the environment, combating global warming, and modernizing global energy production and consumption. The plan specifically calls for investments of up to $750 billion in new, "green" measures, which Steiner said should be focused on five environmental sectors, including energy effecient buildings, renewable energies, better transport, improved agriculture, and measures to safeguard natural reserves. The total suggested investments are equivalent to one percent of global gross domestic product. Steiner also suggested the possibility of taxing oil in rich nations to help a new pact become a cornerstone a new, greener economy. This December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to terminate in 2012. The U.N. hopes to have this plan in place by that time in order to provide urgently needed funds to help combat global warming and to aid developing nations in getting on the path toward green energy.
If this plan is implemented, it will energize the world economy and help get everyone on the fast track to a cleaner and more efficient planet. This plan is brilliant in that it kills severals birds with one stone--first, it addresses the immediate issue of creating new jobs and pumping more money into the global economy. It will mobilize an army of green energy workers who will help solve the energy crisis and will shift world energy away from dirty fossil fuels and toward something cleaner and more renewable. I think it's a brilliant plan, and more ideas like this need to start coming forward! The world is in a dire state at the moment, and unless we create more room for innovation and fresh ideas, we are certainly doomed to collapse. Hopefully, this December, world leaders will agree upon a bold, unprecedented plan to multilaterally combat global warming. If this can happen, I believe we will soon be entering an era of unforeseen cooperation and equitablity worldwide.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52I09T20090319?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
1 comment:
I think this is fantstic, considering i used the same article haha, but this is a great idea man, i think it can really make a difference, and its kind of what we talked about the other day, About businesses created to create green energy, this will create lots of jobs.
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