U.N. Environment Programme Launches Green Economy Initiative

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative, also known as the 'Global Green New Deal,' was launched last week with an emphasis on investing in clean technologies and 'natural infrastructure,' such as forests and soils.

The initiative emphasizes five sectors that it claims are likely to generate the biggest transition in terms of economic returns, environmental sustainability, and job creation.

Within the next two years, the Green Economy Initiative plans to deliver a comprehensive assessment and tool kit for the world's nations to make the transition to a green economy.

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Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

The annual cost of forest loss is between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests preform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide

Some conservationists see it as a new way of persuading policymakers to fund nature protection rather than allowing the decline in ecosystems and species to continue.

Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year.

Read more at Community Forestry Resource Center

Shade Trees Can Protect Coffee Crops

Sustainable farming that employs shade trees may improve crops' resistance to temperature and precipitation extremes that climate changes are expected to trigger. The study focuses on coffee production, although their conclusions could be applicable to other economically important crops, including cocoa and tea, which also were traditionally grown under shade trees.

Scientists believe that the intensification of coffee production has made that crop more vulnerable to higher temperatures and changes in precipitation. The evidence suggests that trends toward increased use of pesticides and less reliance on shade trees, make the crop more susceptible to weather.
The benefits of shade trees appear greater in more marginal growing areas. Further efforts are needed to determine where a return to more traditional agroforestry techniques is likely to protect the livelihoods of farmers threatened by climate change.

Read More at www.aibs.org