The negative effects of climate change and environmental degradation are hard to ignore. Natural disasters – storms, floods, droughts, heat-waves and pan-epidemics have become recurring features, affecting lives of millions. Climatologists issue dire warnings of worse to come.
Results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have shown more and more clearly that measures to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change are urgently needed. All people of all countries are required to act. For coordinated action and hoped-for results, green governance is the only answer.
Comprising of policies, institutions and resources, green governance involves:
a) The enactment of laws and regulations for environmental protection and the use of incentives to ensure that national economies meet the standards of a green economy (i.e. sustainable use of resources, clean technologies, and investments in “green jobs”).
b) Educating and informing citizens about environmental protection and raising awareness for the dangers of environmental degradation and climate change.
c) Implementation of environmental/economic laws and standards through adequate administration and coherence between different policy fields.
d) Regulations and procedures for effective management of natural and man-made disasters and resources for recovery, including allocation of resources and the capacity to transfer them quickly to areas of need.
Effective green governance requires a multi-stakeholder participation of the state and private actors, operating under a high level of risk perception.
Green governance factors in the ecosystem in the economy. It is centred on sustainable economy – “one that relies on renewable energy, recycles so effectively that there is near zero waste, emits few if any toxins and meets the needs of the poorest people.”
In 2008 the “Green Economy Initiative” of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was started in order to assist governments in “greening” their economies by using clean technologies in production, transportation, buildings, sustainable agriculture, the promotion of decent labour conditions, etc. Business and infrastructure were to be reconfigured so as to get good returns on investments on the one hand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the extraction of resources on the other. However, due to
assumed contradictions between environmental protection and economic growth the acceptance and implementation of such programs was sub-optimal. The Stern report has since then concluded that “… the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting” and calculated the expenses for countering climate change at around 1 % of the annual global GDP.
The Global Green New Deal (GGND) proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in early 2009, appears to be a way past the impasse. The GGND will accelerate economic recovery and job creation while addressing sustainable development, climate change and food security challenges. The program would be built around massive, multilaterally cross-subsidized public investments in renewable energy and small-holder food agriculture in developing countries.
The GGND proposal has already inspired and encouraged several countries to channel stimulus packages towards investment in renewable energy, public transport, waste management, and integrated water management. Political leadership across the world has expressed its commitment to green governance, as the way to solve problems of economy and ecology.
The Chinese President, Hu Jintao declared at the UN September 2009: “We will step up effort to develop green economy, low-carbon economy and circular economy, and enhance research, development and dissemination of climate-friendly technologies.”
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina said “… my government has adopted a National Climate Change Strategy and a National Plan of Action that aims at sustainable, green development and adapting to climate change.“
Prime Minister Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, praised widely for its
green policy, said “The Green New Deals are a strong expression of the government’s will to exert all its efforts to ease people’s pain and create jobs.”
US-President Obama’s in his State of the Union Speech in January 2010 declared that by “ … by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.” He mentions also that, “with more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”
According to Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director, “The 20th century economy, now in such crisis, was driven by financial capital. The 21st century one is going to have to be based on developing the world’s natural capital to provide the lasting jobs and wealth that are needed, particularly for the poorest people on the planet”
