About the green economy

The green economy is one of the two key themes of the upcoming UN Rio+20 conference, scheduled for June 2012.

Rio+20 will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Earth Summit, which galvanized the world community to address global environmental challenges and founded the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and approved the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

According to the vision put forward by the UN, the green economy is one that will improve “human well being and social equity,”? while at the same time substantially reducing “environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”?

At the heart of the green economy vision is debunking the notion that there is an inevitable tradeoff between environmental and social sustainability and economic growth.

Instead, the green economy vision sees a future that provides long term economic growth, good jobs, and progress on poverty eradication, while the earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity will be simultaneously conserved.

For more on the green economy, see:

• UN green economy vision
• Green economy page on the Rio+20 site maintained by the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD)
• Green Economy Report prepared by UNEP