According to UNEP’s working definition, a green economy is one that results in improved human well-being
and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. This definition
has been utilised to develop and test alternative investment scenarios using economic models and applied
policy analysis in the GER.
The GER found that allocating up to 2 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) (approximately
US$ 65 trillion in 2011) over the next 40 years to jump-start a green transformation of the global economy
would generate as much growth and employment as a brown economy, and outperform the latter in the
medium and long run, while yielding significantly more environmental and social benefits and reducing the
risks of global climate change. The three main findings of the GER are as follows:
• The transition to a green economy not only generates increases in wealth, in particular a gain in
ecological commons or natural capital, but also, over a period of six years, produces a higher
rate of GDP growth.
• There is an inextricable link between poverty eradication and better maintenance and
conservation of the ecological commons, arising from the benefit flows from natural capital
that are received directly by the poor. The role of natural capital and especially “living” natural
capital (i.e. the planet’s ecosystems and biodiversity) cannot be overstated in this context.
• In a transition to a green economy, new jobs are created that over time exceed the losses in
brown economy employment. Achieving this net gain, however, requires investment in re-skilling
and re-educating the workforce.