British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a national effort to create a low carbon economy, stressing that green a recovery is the very option for the economy to beat the current recession.
"As I look round at the challenges and opportunities of our economy today, and the tasks we face ahead, I don't think we will have the strength of recovery we need unless it is a low carbon recovery," Brown said at Friday's Low Carbon Industrial Strategy Summit in London.
Brown urged his people, scientists, business leaders, urban planners and educators, to rally behind the national task, which he said will push forward sustainable development, at both national and international levels.
To achieve the green recovery, Britain needs to win a very big share of a fast expanding global market for low carbon goods and services, Brown said.
It has been estimated that the global market for low carbon goods and services is worth around 3 trillion U.S. dollars, and it is expected to double over the next decade.
Big ambitions
As a leading developer in offshore wind power, Britain expects to become the first country to finish the transition to a low-carbon economy by increasing use of clean energy and technologies, such as carbon capture and storage.
It set ambitious goals in its Climate Change Act, which came into being in late 2008 and was the first legislation of its kind in the world.
It aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 26 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, against a 1990 baseline.
"So now our task is to ensure that British-based firms and British-based workers supply the goods and services that will enable those reductions to be achieved," Brown said, adding "the government is working on a new industrial strategy for the low carbon economy."
Employment is the key
Britain has been sliding into deep recession since October 2008. Its GDP is estimated to shrink by 2.8 percent and the unemployed will soar to 3 million by the end of the year.
With a great potential in creating jobs and increasing energy efficiency, low-carbon initiatives have been hailed as a viable solution to the economic crisis engulfing the world.
Citing independent research, Brown said that Britain can expect 400,000 new jobs in the environmental sector over the next eight years, with a total of 1.3 million people employed in the sector by 2017.
"That is an annual growth rate of 5 percent -- even with today's economic difficulties," he said.
It underlines the tremendous economic opportunities the low carbon economy provides for jobs and for Britain's future prosperity, he said.
Paving the way for G20 Summit
Britain's strong commitment to make a transition to low-carbon growth has sent a positive signal, especially in the run-up to the G20 Summit scheduled to start on April 2 in London.
To reform and stabilize the global financial system and get the world economy back on track will be a priority at the summit. However, it is widely expected the summit will put global development on the green path.
The G20 meeting will discuss how the proposals for a coordinated set of national fiscal stimulus packages can also be aligned with the need to address climate change, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) director, Camilla Toulmin, said.
The emergence of a range of "green" fiscal packages offers governments a way forward that means they can try and align both economic and environmental agendas, Toulmin said in an interview with Xinhua.
While the Poznan climate change conference was overshadowed by the financial and economic crisis, there has now been a bit of time for people to think through the best way of addressing the combined challenges of economic crisis and climate change, she said.
The G20 summit should provide a platform to build some trust and confidence among leaders to push forward greener initiatives, Toulmin said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2009)