Jun 29 2009
Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), today welcomed the 'Green Growth' Declaration by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) saying it underlined the way environment was rapidly being brought into the centre of economic discourse and policy-making.
Ministers from 40 countries said: "Well targeted policy instruments can be used to encourage green investment in order to simultaneously contribute to economic recovery in the short-term and help to build the environmentally-friendly infrastructure required in the long term—the crisis should not be used as an excuse to postpone crucial decisions for the future of the planet".
The Ministers, representing the 30 OECD member countries along with five who are candidates for membership plus Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa, called on the OECD to work with a wide-range of partners including international organizations to develop a Green Growth Strategy "to achieve economic recovery and environmentally and socially sustainable economic growth".
They also underlined their determination to realize an "ambitious, effective, efficient, comprehensive and fair international post-2012 climate agreement" at the UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen, December as a key building block.
In a wide-ranging Declaration, the ministers also called for greater cooperation over low carbon, clean-tech including renewable energies and green information and communications technologies to assist in realizing a sustainable 21st century.
Mr Steiner, who addressed the ministerial meeting on Thursday, said UNEP stood ready to work with the OECD in shaping and delivering the Green Growth Strategy over the next 12 months underlining the way it dovetails with UNEP's Global Green New Deal/Green Economy initiative.