All nations obligated to green economic recovery: Experts

DAVOS, Switzerland - All nations have an obligation to green economic recovery, said climate experts attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos this week, Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.

This is the most important new norm the world should support to tackle the interconnected crisis caused by scarcity of water, food and energy, which has become a main risk threatening global prosperity and causing political and economic instability, said Per Meilstrup, climate director of the leading Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning.

"The crisis of water, energy and food is interconnected - and so are the solutions," Meilstrup told Xinhua.

"The world most adopt energy production facilities that are based on renewable resources," Meilstrup said in a joint interview together with Anders Eldrup, chief executive officer of the Nordic power giant DONG Energy.

"This would limit emissions of CO2 and in the long run help food production. At the same time wind and solar use less water than fossil fuel resources, because they are readily available," he said.

The WEF meeting opened in Davos on Jan 26 to address the challenges and risks facing the world and strive for forging new shared norms for the world.

During the five-day event, participants discussed various topics, including responding to the new reality, the economic outlook and defining policies for inclusive growth, supporting the G20 agenda and building a risk response network.

One of the key topics at this year's WEF forum, themed Shared Norms for the New Reality in Davos, was about the growing scarcity of natural resources.

WEF Global Risks report 2011 pointed out that "water security, food security and energy security are chronic impediments to economic growth and social stability."

Unlike the previous WEF meeting, this year's Davos forum highlighted emerging economies and their due roles in a new economic reality.

On the role of emerging economies in global green growth, Meilstrup expected emerging economies, including China, to play a continued leading role globally in discussions on how to solve the resource crisis.

Eldrup noted that "the emerging economies can drive down costs on green technologies. With their impressive growth rates the emerging economies are unleashing an enormous market potential."

"The developing economies should ensure that this force for change is challenged in a sustainable direction so that the increasing demand for energy, food and products is met by green businesses. This will give scale to the green industries and quickly drive down costs which would make green technologies more competitive.

"The emerging economies have an unique chance to make a fresh start. To give an example they could move straight to electric vehicles instead of promoting cars on fossil fuels. Much in the same way that many emerging economies have leapfrogged land line phones and gone directly to mobile phones," added Eldrup.

This year's Davos forum also called for more international collaboration in order to mitigate global risks.

Eldrup said that Danish companies are extremely well positioned in the entire wind energy value chain both onshore and offshore.

"This makes Denmark a global knowledge hub in on- and offshore wind power," Eldrup told Xinhua in the interview.

Another stronghold is within biomass such as combustion of biomass, second-generation bioethanol and the conversion of organic waste to energy.

Energy efficiency is also a Danish competence with leading companies in district heating, insulation, pump technology and windows, said Eldrup.

Meilstrup said, in order to share Denmark's experiences and norms with regard to global green growth with other economies, his Monday Morning cooperates with a group of leaders from the world's leading green economies to create a global alliance of cities, regions, countries and corporations, named Green Growth Leaders (GGL).

Meilstrup expects the GGL would fuel prosperous green economies.

source:Xinhua