Creating value through sustainability (5) = Global Green New Deal + 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet

The latest in a series of blogs arguing that we are witnessing the birth of a new 'Kondratiev' wave of economic development, which recognises that in creating solutions to overcome our greatest constraint - the imminent need for 9 billion people to be able live on a basis of equity and shared fulfillment - we are seeing new 'glimpses' of the future breaking through.

Two major developments and one great example give confidence that my argument that we are on the threshold of a powerful new wave of economic development is reaching a tipping point.

Firstly, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative:

Secondly, The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet – and electronic book just published in the USA by the Presidential Climate Action Project, which sets out to do what it ‘says on the tin’, and is the subject of a fascinating blog by PCAP Executive President Bill Becker.

The Green Economy Initiative

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director argues:

“The enormous economic, social and environmental benefits likely to arise from combating climate change and re-investing in natural infrastructure - benefits ranging from new green jobs in clean tech and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises”.

Pavan Sukdhev, who is seconded to UNEP to lead the research, and spoke at a Tomorrow’s Company event last week, asked whether new investment will 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”

The Green Economy Initiative, has close to $4 million-worth of funding from the European Commission, Germany and Norway and has three pillars - valuing and mainstreaming nature's services into national and international accounts; employment generation through green jobs and the laying out the policies; instruments and market signals able to accelerate a transition to a Green Economy.

100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet – ‘mutual assured survival’

Becker argues that:

“It is a given that we must move from a carbon-intensive to a post-carbon economy, but the required transformation is deeper than that … The American DNA doesn’t like limits and views natural systems as something that must be controlled … we must now engage in mutual assured survival … the recognition of interconnectedness must go mainstream, accepted not only by moralists, climatologists and ecologists, but by political leaders, civil society and the captains of industry.

PCAP’s recommendations cover ocean ecology; fresh water resources; energy use in transportation, buildings and power production; the role of state and local governments; international leadership; agriculture; and national security. ‘Stand out’ calls for action by the President include: 

·          requiring that vehicles average at least 50 miles per gallon by 2025 and 200 miles per gallon by mid-century;

·          setting America’s goal for greenhouse gas emission reductions at 25-30 percent reduction by 2020, compared to 1990;

·          a bilateral agreement with China on emission reductions and technology transfer, demonstrating concrete cooperation between the world’s biggest developing and developed economies – see also my blog, Beijing, A City on the Edge of Forever;

·          an end to taxpayer subsides of fossil fuels and redirect the money to research on and commercialization of low-carbon technologies such as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy.

·          a moratorium on the construction of new conventional coal-fired power plants in the United States, while supporting continued research on “clean coal” technologies.

The example - the world's first zero CO2 net emissions auto plant

One great example - Zero net CO2 emissions: GDF Suez/Electrabel/Volvo – with thanks to our friends at WBCSD

 Since September 2007, Volvo Europa Truck in Ghent has been producing more than 40,000 trucks a year in Europe, making it the Swedish group's largest truck plant. It is the first automotive plant in the world to operate without any net CO2 emissions. The symbolic value for Volvo and for the manufacturing world as a whole can hardly be underestimated.

The project to make the entire plant carbon-neutral by the end of 2007 was conceived and carried out with Electrabel, subsidiary of GDF Suez, as a partner right from the start, beginning with the feasibility studies. GDF Suez owns some 98.62% of Electrabel, which proposed the combination of four types of energy:

• Green electricity from the grid and produced onsite through an contract with AlpEnergie that guarantees renewable energy from hydroelectric plants via the Compagnie Nationale du Rhone
• A 5 megawatt wood-burning heater to meet basic needs and the transformation of an existing heater into an oil-based bio-heater for extra needs in winter and summer
• Three windmills of 2 megawatts each installed onsite and which will provide 14 gigawatt/hours of electricity yearly, 150 photovoltaic panels with an electricity production of 28 megawatt/hours per year on the roof of the new biomass boiler house.

Energy consumption has been reduced by 23% between 2001 and 2006: during the same period production rose by 33%, through measures which included:

• Fitting “light lanes” or large transparent panels in the roof, to let in more daylight
• Painting walls and ceilings in lighter colors so as to reflect natural light better
• Automatically adjusting the lighting level in the assembly line according to the ambient light.

CO2 emissions have been reduced to zero through:

• Two gas-fired boilers were replaced with a new thermal system fired by biomass pellets. The new installation covers the basic heating needs of the plant.
• A third gas-fired boiler was converted to run on bio oil. This boiler meets the additional demand for heat in the winter, and when demand is very low during certain periods in summer it can be used alone.

The CO2 balance of these renewable fuels is entirely neutral: their emissions are offset by the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by the plants used to make the fuels.

Electricity is 100% sustainable through three wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2 megawatts which cover half of the plant's energy consumption. The other half comes from  “green energy” produced by hydroelectric power stations in the French Alps. 150 photovoltaic panels produce 28 megawatts of electricity per year from the roof of the new biomass building.

For this project Volvo Europa Truck and Electrabel have entered a long-term partnership, with Electrabel supplying know-how in renewable energy such as wind power and biomass, as well as helping to develop other energy-saving measures. The joint investment in this project by Volvo Europa Truck and Electrabel is some 10 million Euros.   Extra electricity is sold to employees and those living around the plant.