Environmental credit crunch

The dramatic events of recent weeks, which have seen governments mobilise huge sums of money in support of the global banking system, have got many researchers thinking about how they might be mobilised to tackle environmental problems more effectively, particularly as a recession may be an ideal opportunity to kick-start 'green' jobs. And this was the key element of last month's Green Economy Initiative, launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in London. The new initiative, which is being funded by the German and Norwegian governments and the European Commission, arises out of a study commissioned by world leaders at the 2008 G8 summit into the economic value of ecosystems. It argues that the world is caught up in not one, but three interlinked crises, with the food and fuel crunches accompanying and intensifying the financial one. Soaring prices earlier this year of grain and oil, it stresses, have stemmed from outdated economic priorities that have concentrated on short-term exploitation of the world's resources, without considering how they can be used to sustain prosperity in the long term. Over the last quarter News focus of a century, says UNEP, world growth has doubled, but 60 per cent of the natural resources that provide food, water, energy and clean air have been seriously degraded. The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to the new study. It puts the annual cost of forests alone at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion, based on an assessment of the value of services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide. The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, Pavan Sukhdev, was a focus of major interest at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona last month. The dramatic response of many governments to the global financial crisis has led to many researchers thinking about how efforts might be mobilised to tackle growing environmental problems. Nigel Williams reports. Focus: The New York Stock Exchange has been at the heart of the financial crisis but researchers are keen to learn lessons from the govern-ments' response to help tackle growing environmental problems.