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Greening the global economy would lead to higher growth rates within five to ten years than a business as usual scenario, new United Nations (UN) findings show.

It would only take investing two per cent of global gross domestic product into ten sectors to kick-start a transition towards a low carbon economy, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The report suggests that this two per cent investment could be generated from removing subsidies in fossil fuel energy, water, fishery and agriculture sectors, which alone would save up to $1.3tn a year.
It found that greening the economy would not only generate growth, but produce a higher growth in gross domestic product on a global scale and per capita.
Under the GER modelling exercise, a green investment scenario achieves higher annual growth rates than a business as usual scenario within five to ten years.
This is based on a reduction in energy sector-related carbon emissions of one third by 2050, compared to current levels.
The green economy it proposes invests in natural capital, in sectors such as forestry, agriculture, freshwater and fisheries, adding close to 20 per cent value to the forest industry by 2050.
The UNEP report, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication suggests that investing as little as two per cent of the world’s money each year from now until 2050 could generate economic growth alongside sustainability.
The report shows that under a green economy scenario economic growth and environmental sustainability are not incompatible, UNEP said.
The key sectors that would benefit from this investment, of close to $1.3tn, are the agriculture, buildings, energy, fisheries, forests, manufacturing, tourism, transport, water and waste management sectors.
The report warns, however, that these investments must be accompanies by national and global policy reforms to be effectual.
Global demand for energy rises, returning to current levels by 2050, in the UNEP report’s green scenario, as a result of energy efficiency measures. The study also shows that increased efficiency in agriculture, industrial and municipal sectors would reduce demand for water by about a fifth by 2050, as compared to projected trends.
The economic growth characterised in the report decouples environmental impacts with the global ecological footprint to bio-capacity ratio, which is projected to decline from a current carbon level of 1.5 to less than 1.2 by 2050, UNEP said.
The UNEP report was conducted by global experts and institutions from both developed and developing countries, the organisation said.