9/26/2011
- Greening the economy as well as generating
decent jobs for young people now and in
the future are emerging as major tests for
the global economy
This editorial by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director and
Gusti Muhammad Hatta, Environment Minister
of the Republic of Indonesia, appeared in
the Jakarta Post on Monday, 26 September
2011
As delegates from around
the world converge in Indonesia for the
Tunza International Children and Youth Conference
2011, greening the economy as well as generating
decent jobs for young people now and in
the future are emerging as major tests for
the global economy.
The events that have
swept through parts of North Africa and
the Middle East in recent months have in
part been a reaction to joblessness and
a mood of frustration and hopelessness among
the unemployed and under-employed, especially
youth.
Youth unemployment in
many countries of the region hovers at around
23 to 29 percent, but can be higher. The
youth employment crisis isn't confined to
any region or developing countries - in
the eurozone, youth unemployment has jumped
from 14 percent to 20 percent in the past
few years, and in some countries, the number
is even higher.
In Asia, youth are 4.7
times more likely to be unemployed than
adults. In some parts of Africa, youth unemployment
can be as high as 70 percent.
Globally, youth account
for a quarter of the working age population
but account for 40 percent of unemployment.
Growth is needed to
meet this crisis - there are 1.3 billion
people under or unemployed with half a billion
set to join the work force looking for employment
in the next decade.
But the challenge faced
by world leaders is how to ensure sustainable
growth that delivers a balance in terms
of economic, social and environmental outcomes.
In other words, the growth has to be able
to generate employment and greater equity
while keeping humankind's environmental
foot print within sustainable boundaries
for the sake of planet Earth.
UN Environment Program
(UNEP) and the International Labor Organization
(ILO) in concert with a wide range of partners
have recently produced a study indicating
that being in a transition to a low-carbon,
resource-efficient Green Economy offers
a great opportunity to address these multiple
challenges.
The report, Transition
to a Green Economy - Pathways to Sustainable
Development and Poverty Eradication - suggests
that investing 2 percent of global GDP in
10 key sectors can, with the right kinds
of enabling public policies, grow the global
economy and generate decent 'green' jobs
- but without the shocks, inequities and
environmental decline as inherent in the
current economic models.
In the energy sector,
furthermore, the report indicates that investing
about one and a quarter percent of global
GDP each year in energy efficiency and renewable
energies could cut global primary energy
demand by 9 percent by 2020 and close to
40 percent by 2050.
Savings on capital and
fuel costs in power generation under a Green
Economy scenario would average about US$1000
billion a year between 2010 and 2050. Employment
levels in the energy sector would be one-fifth
higher than in a business as usual scenario
as renewable energies take close to 30 percent
of the share of primary global energy demand
by mid-century and savings on energy.
Rational use of natural
resources, by introducing waste management
and the 3R approach are also ways to achieve
green economy growth. Evidence from around
the world indicates that this also creates
enormous job opportunities.
Indonesia, as part of
its commitment to sustainable development
and in particular to voluntarily reducing
CO2 emissions, is now making efforts to
catalyze green jobs for young people through
the office of the Vice-President and the
Youth Ministry.
China aims to create
several million jobs in afforestation and
forest-based tourism over the coming years.
China has also launched a green entrepreneurship
initiative, specifically targeted at young
people.
In Europe and the United
States, investments in improved energy efficiency
in buildings could generate an additional
2-3.5 million green jobs. The potential
is much higher in developing countries.
Germany estimates that
investments in clean technology including
renewable energy and recycle facilities
will generate more jobs than in the car
industry by 2020.
In Brazil, some half
a million people are already employed in
recycling and waste management - the industry
already generates returns of $2 billion
a year, while avoiding 10 million tones
of greenhouse gas emissions. A full recycling
economy there would be worth 0.3 percent
of GDP and could also provide much better
quality jobs in the sector.
Next year's Rio+20 meeting
- 20 years after the Earth Summit of 1992
- offers an opportunity to scale-up and
accelerate delivery of sustainable development
goals in order to meet the needs and hopes
of current and future generations.
The Tunza conference
in Bandung, Indonesia, is the moment for
children and young people to shape and sharpen
their standpoints and importantly their
leadership in the run up to Rio+20. The
children and youth shall show the world
that changing lifestyles and adapting sustainable
consumption and production patterns are
crucially important.
In doing so, the children
and youth of the 21st century will strongly
articulate to world leaders about their
concerns and desire for future growth -
as for a more sustainable world.
+ More
Student Project Turns
Grease Into Green Energy Solutions and Green
Jobs
9/23/2011 - 13-year-old
Cassandra Lin launched the Turn Grease into
Fuel (TGIF) recycling programme
An award-winning recycling project in Westerly,
Rhode Island, has been collecting more than
36,000 gallons of waste cooking oil a year.
By converting the grease into heating fuel,
or biodiesel, the project is bringing an
estimated value of US$60,000 of alternative
energy to needy families in the local community.
The initiative began
in 2008 when the now 13-year-old Cassandra
Lin set out to improve the sustainability
problems in her local community. Inspired
by a project she saw at an environmental
expo in the University of Rhode Island,
in which used cooking oil was refined into
biodiesel as a source of alternative energy,
Lin launched the Turn Grease into Fuel (TGIF)
recycling programme. (Biodiesel is formed
from a reaction between vegetable oil and
an alcohol like methanol.)
TGIF encourages residents
and restaurants to bring their used-cooking
oil to the town transfer station to be recycled.
TGIF's partner, Grease Co., then collects
and delivers the grease to a biodiesel refiner
which processes it into biodiesel fuel.
Thanks to TGIF, used
cooking oil has now become a money-spinning
product, generating green energy solutions
and green jobs. Lin is proud of the success
of TGIF, "especially when I could show
that my project has helped people and the
environment at the same time," she
says.
Indeed, the success
rate of the grease project is impressive;
more than 120,000 litres of biodiesel will
be generated each year, offsetting 250 tonnes
of CO2 emissions. Lin hopes over the next
few years other youth can help the project
to expand across the United States.
The innovative teenager
and her team of five seventh-graders have
also influenced environmental legislation,
persuading the local council to place a
grease receptacle at the transfer station
where residents donate their used cooking
oil. And because of the TGIF project, Rhode
Island now mandates that all businesses
which consume cooking oil have to recycle
the grease.
Lin's family are an
integral part of her inspiration to conserve
the environment and promote sustainable
green solutions. TGIF is a result of the
Westerly Innovations Network (WIN), a community
service organization started by her father,
Jason Lin, in 2002. It is also run by students,
including Lin's older brother, Alex, who
has earned numerous accolades for his own
initiatives.
"I want to make
an impact," says Lin, and indeed she
has. In 2005 she spoke as a delegate to
the UNEP Tunza International Youth Conference
held in South Korea. She was named one of
America's top ten youth volunteers for 2011
by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, winning
a national Prudential Spirit of Community
Award for her outstanding volunteer service.
At UNEP's upcoming TUNZA
conference in Bandung, Indonesia, Lin wants
to help children understand what a sustainable
lifestyle is, and encourage them to make
simple but critical changes, such as buying
e-books rather than paperback publications.
Lin who draws her inspiration
from passion for the environment and conservation
believes, "it doesn't matter how big
or small you are, anyone can make a difference!"
Her dream project for
the future is to design a model of a zero-waste
community.
Lin will be one of over
1,400 youth who will shape and sharpen the
position of youth in the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD),
or Rio+20, that will take place in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012.
