Council for Socially Responsible Investment
www.csri.org .nz

16th April 2009

NEWS RELEASE

How New Zealand can learn from “Towards a Global Green recovery”

The Council for Socially Responsible Investment endorses a recently released report prepared on behalf of the German Foreign Office for discussion at the G20 London Summit which highlights key measures in seven strategic areas that G20 members need to take to tackle the economic crisis and re-orient development towards sustainable, low-carbon growth.

The report 'Towards a Global Green Recovery - Recommendations for Immediate G20 Action' was jointly written by a team led by Ottmar Edenhofer and Nick Stern and provides the most detailed and significant global plan for a post Kyoto strategy according to the Council for Socially Responsible Investment.

Dr Robert Howell, CEO says that effectively this is a global perspective building on the UK Government’s Stern report published in 2006 and it is based on lessons learned from the European Emissions Trading Scheme and Germany’s green shift:

“This updates the UK Stern report using recent scientific and economic data, and presents a strong argument to politicians and economists that global stimulus plans should be (a) international and (b) green rather than Business as Usual. Put simply we should be using the urrent economic stimulus packages to establish and promote energy efficient technologies and practices. ”

“The authors propose that governments should establish the right mix of public-private financing (with government incentives, re-regulating and targeting) rather than implementing the policies recommended by the financial sector which have already been seen to fail spectacularly causing a loss of confidence in investment markets worldwide.”

The report recommends:

• the establishment of a global carbon market
• technology co-operation and sharing
• action to slow deforestation
• funds to assist adaptation to residual climate change in developing countries

The authors provide detailed proposals for the world’s governments and policy makers to:

• improve energy efficiency through conservation, maximizing so called “negawatts” and utility finance;
• invest hugely in infrastructure (smart grid, public mass transport, integrated freight and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) pipelines);
• massive Government incentives for investment in clean technologies;
• flagship low-carbon projects, e.g. large-scale CCS, solar, biomass, power storage, hydrogen-powered ships, freight and transit;
• international Research &Development prompted by government incentives and the re- regulation of venture capital funds; and
• stabilize a world carbon price (via a G20-wide, then a global cap-and-trade system).

The report ends with a detailed analysis of costs of action and inaction. Dr Howell recommends that New Zealand politicians take a close look at the report:

“The NZ Government and the finance community here need to adopt the recommendations and apply them to investment criteria. We need to have properly regulated financial systems which will prevent the short term greed which has become rampant. This report sets out a way to achieve this.”

“Ordinary investors no longer trust fund managers with managing their savings and their pensions. If the financial sector is going to regain the confidence of ordinary investors then it needs to address the medium to long term issues which it has largely ignored. This means moving investment away from those companies that harm the environment and society to those that are part of the solution. When there are businesses that are addressing climate change and resource depletion, helping produce food that is safe, protecting our water, providing houses that are ecologically sound; developing energy efficient products, why are we still investing in those who choose to ignore their responsibilities?”

The full report is available for download at: http://www.pik-potsdam.de/globalgreenrecovery

ENDS

http://www.csri.org.nz/events.htm

The Council for Socially Responsible Investment was formed in response to a growing demand from ordinary people and investment institutions for help in making ethical investment choices. The Council is a charitable trust which:
• promotes ethical, sustainable investment
• helps people and organisations to develop guidelines, investments and methods for socially responsible investment
• researches, educates, promotes and advocates.

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