Is The Economic Recovery Plan ‘Green’ Enough?
The ‘green’ aspect of President Obama’s recovery plan has fallen short of expectations.
The $100 billion allocated to green measures representing just under 13% of the total package falls way short of the benchmark set in a recent report led by economist Nick Stern, that green measures should account for 20% of global economic recovery plans. It also fails to meet the UN target of 1% of GDP. This is especially shameful given that South Korea has devoted two-thirds of its $36bn recovery package to green investment. China too has allocated one-third of its $580bn recovery plan to green measures such as energy efficiency. (Source: The Guardian)
- » See also: Green Print, Paper, and Marketing Conferences for February
- » Get The Inspired Economist by RSS or sign up by email.
On the flip side, the environmentalists are celebrating. Their view is that a few percentage points here or there does not matter given the relatively quick passage of the recovery plan. Earl Blumenauer, a Congressman from Oregon and a champion of the environment says that just a year ago, the U.S. was still in denial on many environmental issues.
What are your views? Are you disappointed or ecstatic? Does the recovery plan provide the ‘green’ that it promised?
Read more about green initiatives in the recovery plan:
Stimulus Includes Solar Incentive, But Will it Be Enough for Struggling Solar Companies?
Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan
[...] Is The Economic Recovery Plan ‘Green’ Enough? : The Inspired EconomistThis is especially shameful given that South Korea has devoted two-thirds of its $36bn recovery package to green investment. China too has allocated one-third of its $580bn recovery plan to green measures such as energy efficiency. … read more… [...]
[...] The Inspired Economist asks the question this week as to whether Obama’s stimulus package is green enough. Linking to a report in The Guardian it is pointed out that the $100 billion allocated to green measures amounts to less than 13% of the total package, some way below that recommended by economist Nick Stern. South Korea, by comparison, has devoted two-thirds of its $36bn recovery package to green investment and China one-third of its $580bn. It is observed that 13% is significantly better than what might have been the case under the previous administration given it spent the best of part of eight years in climate change denial. However, this is likely to be small comfort for those reading the reports last week that climate change is worse than the IPCC thought. Blogged with the Flock Browser [...]
Cut the defense budget in half. Budget = balanced. Piece of cake.