World needs green economy for sustainable development: UNEP

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on Wednesday released a report that calls for a greener global economy so as to achieve sustainable development. The report, titled "Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication", articulates that an investment of 2 percent of global GDP into 10 major industries is needed to kick start a shift from the current brown, polluting and inefficient economy to a green one. The 10 industries include agriculture, energy resources, building, water, forestry, fishery, manufacturing, recycling waste, tourism and transportation, according to the report. The report evaluated the challenges and developments that the world presently faces. Developing the green economy can cope with many challenges without trade-offs between environmental sustainability and economic progress, furthermore it will offer job opportunities to reduce poverty, said Achim Steiner, UN deputy secretary general and executive director of UNEP. The report also showed that China, the world's second largest economy, is the world's leading investor in renewable energy, overtaking Spain in 2009 and spending 49 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. China is committed to spending 468 billion U.S. dollars in the next five years, more than double the previous five years, on key industries such as renewable energy, clean technologies and waste management, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). He Bingguang, an official from the Environment and Resource Department of NDRC, said at the ceremony that besides market forces, the Chinese government will use favorable policies to promote the green economy. "China has included the green economy in its development plan," said He. The report came just two weeks before the upcoming 2011 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 in South Africa's Durban, the world's major event for discussions of environmental issues. The report also noted the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where one of the main themes is green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.