SME Times News Bureau | 06 Nov, 2009
Climate-friendly policies not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bring environmental benefits, they also boost and diversify the economy, reveals a recent study analysing some 100 climate policies of G20 countries.

Carried out by think tanks Ecofys and Germanwatch for global NGOs WWF and E3G, the study evaluates climate policies of countries accounting for around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, identifying best and worst examples and lessons learned.

As G20 finance ministers prepare to meet in St. Andrews, Scotland, on Friday and Saturday, WWF has urged them to take the steps required now to ensure that the next major wave of infrastructure investment is green.

That includes concrete proposals on climate finance to help developing countries build low carbon economies and adapt to climate change, as mandated by the Pittsburgh Summit of G20 Leaders in September, a WWF spokesperson said.

The top places in the report were given to an "Efficiency in Buildings" programme implemented by the German government and a "Feed-in tariff for renewable electricity" initiative, also in Germany. The latter guarantees a producer of renewable energy a fixed feed-in tariff for 20 years. Germany's buildings programme reduces emissions, creates jobs in the construction sector, and offers broad scope for replication in others countries.

A Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Mexico has shown that green solutions have strong potential to increase comfort and quality of life - important considerations for fast-growing, emerging economies. China's programme of targets for the 1,000 most energy-intensive enterprises led to permanent improvements in energy management and efficiency in these companies.

"This report shows that governments which implement green and climate friendly solutions will win and take a leadership position in the world," Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF's Global Climate Initiative, said.

"Governments which don't invest in low carbon solutions will lose in the end and their voters will turn away from them," he said. "We call on the G20 to come up with a strategy to drive investment in the green economy. Not investing in low carbon solutions nowadays is simply short-sighted."

WWF estimates that industrialised countries will need to provide financing in the order of $160 billion per year for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, especially to those most vulnerable to climate change.