Dear reader, the United Nations Environment Progamme (UNEP), created in 1972 to 36 years talking about the environment and where we met! - Is encouraging, since last October, the Green Economy Initiative to Get the Global Markets Back to Work who wishes to use the international economic situation experienced in 2008 to promote the transition to a green economy. But in addition to UNEP, it seems to detect a certain body of opinion that echoes the idea of a Green New Deal (500,000 entries in Google), which takes force immediately 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 taking advantage of it, generate growth and wealth in a sustainable world.

That made me retrieve a report from the OECD that fell in my hands 2000: The Future of the Global Economy: Towards a Long Boom? (1999). The synthesis report was that he was giving a confluence of historical factors, technological, economic and social problems could cause the average global per capita income could be higher than 3% - maybe tell them that what had to be predictive as we -. Three would be the specific causes, correct or incorrect management of which could determine the expansion, but also the recession. These causes were: 1) the 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 favored a continued economic expansion would depend on public policies that different states were carried out and they had to be designed to generate a long period of agreement and convergence of systems, which allowed subsequent and once reached an overall level of technological progress, market integration and increased productivity, re-orient the elections towards environmental sustainability, and this requires two main lines of action: one that encourages creativity and facilitate change, particularly through initiatives that support people to donate to experiment, innovate and take risks, both locally and globally, and another, promote a new global framework for cooperative action freer which aims go beyond the reduction of conflicts.

These contributions of the OECD methodology 1999 rallied the Kondratieff economic cycles (1892-1938) - rescued by Schumpeter (1883-1950) in the thirties - which last between fifty and sixty years and started a set of basic innovations caused a technological revolution, which leads in turn to new economic sectors. Already happened in 1850 with the telegraph and electricity; 1914 with radio and electronics, and in 1973 with computer and information technologies. And now may be happening again, then these three revolutions are the source of the information revolution in which we are involved and that should last until 2025, according to the authors.

If these are right, the current era of crisis in history might be a sawtooth in the great wave of growth. Possibly what is happening is a shock necessary to change the misguided policies and pointed out that since the report is also the reason that allows to incorporate the third cause that can promote growth: in search of a sustainable global environment. In this sense, the idea of the Green New Deal initiative of UNEP and give coherence to all this that must be taken into account. It is worth is willing to international agreements.

However, but there are companies that are committed to this future, such as General Electric, which in May 2005 was to promote a new strategic area: Ecomagination . A clear desire to closely match the interests of shareholders, customers and society. Market and business are not incompatible with the ecology and appear safe and needs that someone is willing to meet them, opening up new opportunities for large and small.

Joseph Albet
28-11-2008

See also article on climate change. An opportunity (November 2006)