Climate Action 2012-2013

FOREWORD
under UNEP’s Green Economy initiative
indicates that investing about 1.25 per cent of
global GDP each year in energy efficiency and
renewable energies could cut global primary
energy demand by 9 per cent in 2020, and by
close to 40 per cent by 2050.
Employment levels in the energy sector would
be one-fifth higher than under a business as usual
scenario as renewable energies take close to 30
per cent of the share of primary global energy
demand by mid-century. Savings on capital and
fuel costs in power generation would, under a
Green Economy scenario, be on average US$760
billion a year between 2010 and 2050.
This transition is under way – the latest figures
from a UNEP–Bloomberg–New Energy Finance
study shows that investment in new renewables
stood at over US$265 billion in 2011, higher than
investment in new fossil fuels.
The decision by Heads of State in Rio to give the
go-ahead for a 10 Year Framework of Programmes
for Sustainable Consumption and Production
also supports such transformations including
in respect to energy and transport – again a 10
year programme and a potentially useful ally in
combating climate change.
As part of the Rio+20 outcome, governments
in collaboration with the UN and others are
exploring a new indicator of wealth beyond GDP,
which is a crude measure of progress as it fails
to take into account environmental and social
impacts including climate change.
“Every apple or sheaf of wheat
lost or wasted represents a
waste of fossil fuels.”
Meanwhile several countries including Brazil,
Denmark, France and South Africa, in
collaboration with UNEP and the Global
Reporting Initiative, are taking forward
corporate sustainability reporting. Around
one-quarter of the companies tracked by finance
houses report their environmental, social and
governance footprints including greenhouse gas
emissions – but 75 per cent do not. It is thus
difficult for pension funds and other investors to
know whether or not to invest in these
companies and essentially reward those meeting
high standards. The new initiative, supported by
insurers and organisations such as the Carbon
Disclosure Project, aims to change the ground
rules by making it an opt-out rather than an
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