Dear reader, the United Nations Environment Progamme (UNEP), created in 1972-36 years talking about the environment and where we come! - Is promoting since last October, the Green Economy Initiative to Get the Global Markets Back to Work wants to make the international economic situation experienced in 2008 to promote the transition towards a green economy. But in addition to UNEP, it seems to detect a certain current of opinion that echoes the idea of a Green New Deal (500,000 entries in Google), which is boosted just before the summer sponsored by the New Economics Foundation (NEF). Its basic concept is to take advantage of circumstances, not to change the capitalist system, but using it to generate growth and wealth in a sustainable world.

This made ​​me retrieve a report from the OECD that fell into my hands in 2000: The Future of the Global Economy: Towards a Long Boom? (1999). The synthesis report was being given a confluence of historical factors, technological, social and economic that could cause the average global per capita income could be more than 3% - might say that what had to be able to predict as we -. Three would cause specific, correct or incorrect management of which could determine the expansion, but the recession. These reasons were: 1) development of a society and a global economy based on knowledge, 2) the emergence of a global economy based on international trade and investment flows and technology, and 3) research a sustainable global environment. The orientation in the direction favoring a continued economic expansion would depend on public policies that different countries to undertake and should be designed to generate a long period of agreement and convergence of systems, which allow subsequent and once reached a global technological progress, market integration and increased productivity, re direct elections towards environmental sustainability, and this would require two main areas: one that encourages creativity and facilitate change, particularly through initiatives that give support to people to experiment, innovate and take risks, so locally and globally, and one that promotes a new global framework for cooperative action freer , designed to go beyond the reduction of conflicts.

These contributions of the OECD in 1999 recovered the methodology of economic cycles, Kondratieff (1892-1938) - rescued by Schumpeter (1883-1950) in the thirties - which last between fifty and sixty years and start a set of basic innovations that lead to a technological revolution, which leads in turn to new economic sectors. It happened in 1850 with the telegraph and electric power, in 1914 with the radio and electronics, and in 1973 with computers and information technology. Now may be happening again, then those three revolutions are the source of the information revolution in which we are immersed and which should last until 2025, according to the authors.

If they are right, the current time of crisis could be the story as a sawtooth in the great wave of growth. Possibly what is happening, it needed a jolt to change the misguided policies that the report is noted and is also the reason that allows to incorporate the third because it can promote growth: in search of a sustainable global environment. In this sense, the idea of a Green New Deal and the UNEP initiative to give a coherent whole thing to be taken into account. Will be worth it is willing to international agreements.

But however, there are companies that are investing in the future, such as General Electric, which in May 2005 issued a new strategic area: Ecomagination . A clear desire to closely link the interests of shareholders, customers and society. Market and company are not in conflict with the ecology, and new needs are certainly there are those who are willing to meet them, opening new opportunities for large and small.

Joseph Albet
28-11-2008

See also Article Climate change. An opportunity (November 2006)