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Green economic sectors
A green economy is one that founded on green economic services and industries that provide decent work and stable employment prospects. Our coalition members share their thinking on how to green economic sectors below. To respond to these articles just click on the comment boxes.
April, 2013
What does the Green Economy look like?
Few people - including most of the experts pushing for one - have painted a clear picture of what a green economy would include, which is one reason it has been so hard to build enthusiasm for a shift.
Yet it turns out that many parts of the world - including some surprising locales - are taking important and unexpected steps toward creating economies that use natural resources sustainably, create jobs, reduce inequalities in society and don't lead to runaway climate change.
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January, 2013
New York announces $1 Billion 'green bank'
New York City officials are thinking more about climate resiliency in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. But adaptation — making the city more resilient to intensifying extreme weather — is only one part of an effective strategy.
Mitigating climate change through clean energy and other carbon reduction efforts is just as important. And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems to understand that.
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December, 2012
Green labels? It's time to get real
The idea of life cycle assessment (LCA) has been around since the 1970s, but companies are only just beginning to tap into its real potential. Companies are realising that publishing environmental impacts for all their products across their whole life cycle (full product transparency) has the power to align the stars – to create a consistent approach to sustainability activity in every part of the business and to get everyone telling the same story. What your product designers focus on is the same as what your sales force talks about.... Continue reading
November, 2012
39 years, as never before
The annual rate of reduction of carbon emissions per unit of GDP needed to limit global warming to 2C, has passed a critical threshold according to new analysis from PwC. The rate of reduction now required has never been achieved before.
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November, 2012
Green economy is working
Recent analysis has shown the growing importance of low-carbon and environmental industries to the UK economy: they now contribute 8% to GDP and employ almost a million people – more than the motor trade and telecoms combined.
It’s true that green sectors are doing well while others are struggling – but to accelerate momentum and fully realise the economic and environmental benefits, the government needs to take some crucial decisions over the next couple of months.
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September, 2012
New green shoots in Africa
We are perhaps all too familiar with the mantra of 'development first, environment later' particularly given the scale of economic stagnation that is characterising so many parts of the world. However, a green economy that is geared towards low-carbon, low environmental-impact and resource efficient production and consumption, offers huge potential for economies at all levels of development.
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June, 2012
Women and the green economy
The concept of the 'green economy' is a complex one, and the international community has yet to come to a political consensus on its meaning, use, usefulness, ensuing policy implications, or what actually constitutes a green economy.
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April, 2012
Amazonian state leads the way to a green economy
The foundations have recently been established for a Green Economy program for Amapá state, in the Brazilian Amazon. On March 27th-28th a seminar was held in Macapá, the state capital, to discuss how to reorient some of Amapa’s existing sectors towards greener, more inclusive approaches, and to explore new ‘green business’ opportunities. A very significant range of opportunities and needs soon became apparent, and a draft plan was prepared for prioritizing and tackling them.
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April, 2012
Two pathways to sustainability
There is general agreement among governments of the urgent need to address the current unsustainable patterns of development. However, as the international negotiation process continues towards the Rio+20 Earth Summit, there is little agreement on how to do it.
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April, 2012
Transformation: Achieving the impossible?
Unlocking a green economy requires a transformation in everything we do. The urgency of the challenge we face gets greater and greater with every new piece of evidence. Avoiding so called ‘tipping points’ in the Earth’s climate system or going beyond a point of recovery for parts of the bio-system gets closer scrutiny every day – even though, as pointed out by Jay Leno (below), the problem has been bad enough for decades and we have yet to transform our societies in any way that meets the challenge.... Continue reading
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Editor's pick
Glimpses of a green economy
We're not there yet, but the good news is there's already plenty of innovation underway to provide a glimpse of what's to come… Read more >>
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