Fear not: The economic, food, and climate crises can be tackled in one fell swoop, says the United Nations Environment Program. The organization launched a Green Economy Initiative Wednesday, comparing it to Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-tackling New Deal. “Investments will soon be pouring back into the global economy,” says Pavan Dukdhev of Deutsche Bank, which is working with the initiative. “The question is whether they go into the old, extractive, short-term economy of yesterday or a new green economy that will deal with multiple challenges while generating multiple economic opportunities for the poor and the well-off alike.” Indeed. UNEP hopes it will be the latter, and specifically encourages investment in clean-tech and recycling; small-scale rural energy generation; conservation, particularly of forests; urban transportation and green building; and small-scale, organic agriculture, which UNEP head Achim Steiner says “could make a serious contribution to tackling poverty and food insecurity.”
