At the close of their summit meeting in London, the G-20 leaders committed to make available a $1.1 trillion program of support in addition to their national economic stimulus packages. While repairing the global financial system was the top priority, the closing communiqué stated , "We agreed to make the best possible use of investment funded by fiscal stimulus programmes towards the goal of building a resilient, sustainable, and green recovery."
"We will make the transition towards clean, innovative, resource efficient, low carbon technologies and infrastructure. We encourage the MDBs [multilateral development banks] to contribute fully to the achievement of this objective," the communiqué added.
Also referenced was a reaffirmation of a commitment "to address the threat of irreversible climate change, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and to reach agreement at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009."
Many observers took comfort in these statements. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was encouraged by recognition of the strong links between tackling the economic turmoil, food security and climate change. Yvo de Boer, the top United Nations climate official, noted "This is a good example of the major economies of the world coming together and developing a common understanding."
The absence of specific ’low carbon’ commitments in the summit communiqué does not mean the environment lost out in this round of talks, as some have suggested. In fact several initiatives were put in play to iron out environmental and climate change related proposals for the December Copenhagen conference, including another G-20 meeting in the fall. Until then, each G-20 member will pursue their own economic recovery programs, many of which contain measures targeting clean technologies and other projects with significant environmental impacts.
That being said, the question arises how green are these individual economic recovery packages. HSBC’s Global Research Division has published an informative report that answers that question directly. The Report, entitled A Climate for Recovery, examined more than 20 economic recovery plans and categorized the spending and tax-cutting measures according to the 18 investment themes in the HSBC Climate Change Index.
HSBC estimates that roughly 15% of the estimated $2.8 trillion of previously announced economic stimulus measures can be associated with investments consistent with stabilising and then cutting global emissions of greenhouse gases.
According to the report, on a percentage basis South Korea leads the group by allocating more than 80% of its fiscal stimulus spending to green initiatives. But China tops the list in terms of the size of planned green spending ($200 billion). China has set aside 34% of its planned spending for eco-friendly projects. By contrast, India is investing nothing of its $13.7 billion stimulus plan for green ventures. Italy and Japan are the least green of the rich G7 countries, allocating just 1.3% and 2.6% respectively.
The United States and Canada rank 5th and 7th respectively on a percentage basis, though the estimated $94.1 billion allocated for green projects places the United States second behind China is total spending.
