This October, Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment, opened the second global Academy on the Green Economy in Italy with imagery of Peru:

“Peru is one of the most biodiverse nations on the planet, one of the nations with the immense beauty of the rainforest, the jaguars and the butterflies and the greenery… economic growth, we all know, comes with the danger of deforestation… reduce deforestation and you can replant and bring forests back… Good for the environment and good for development at exactly the same time. Exactly what we need on this planet.”

The capacity-building event - based around the question of how to achieve inclusive green economies – ran for two-weeks and attracted over 150 participants, including the private sector, civil society, policy-makers, trade unions and many UN agencies.

One of the key messages was underlined in an introductory video message by Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation and host of the conference: “The world does not have to choose between job creation and preserving the environment. In fact, greener economies can be engines of growth in both advanced and developing economies.”

“It is estimated that the world market for environmental technologies, most of all in energy and energy-efficiency, could be well worth over 4,400 billion Euro by the year 2025,” he added, “the transition to a green economy could generate up to 60 million additional jobs over the next two decades and we must strive to make those jobs both green and decent.”

Global agendas, stakeholder engagement, strategy and policy implementation were a number of the focus areas discussed and analysed during the event – encouraging knowledge-sharing and ultimately inspiring a movement towards increasingly greener economies.

UN Environment – one of the international organisations that arranged this event – developed the Green Economy Initiative in 2008, which has since grown and transformed to an Inclusive Green Economy model. This is with the intention of transforming today’s dominant economic model – threatening health and the environment – into a system that focuses on green investment and equality.

For more information please write to chiara.moroni@unep.org or vanessa.burrows@unep.org.