The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released its Year Book 2008, providing some exciting glimpses into the emerging "green economy." According to the Year Book, growing numbers of companies are embracing environmental strategies and investors are pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into clean and renewable energies. In 2007, for example, nearly 60 percent of Financial Times 500 companies were implementing greenhouse gas reduction initiatives, reflecting a dramatic increase from the previous year.
The most compelling environmental insights from 2007
UNEP's Year Book highlights the most compelling environmental insights and events from 2007, with an unsurprising focus on climate change. The average global temperature last year was the 5th warmest on record, and significant climate anomalies--including hurricanes, heat waves and floods--were experienced all over the world. The Year Book conveniently summarizes these climatic events—over fifty in total and many that were record-breaking—in a colorful, two-page world map.
An emerging green economy
While climate change continues to alter the global environment, it is also changing the mind-sets and actions of corporate heads, financiers and entrepreneurs, according to UNEP. These important leaders of the private sector are increasingly recognizing climate change as a financial opportunity rather than a burden, hence driving the technological innovation that will provide a backbone for the emerging green economy. According to the Year Book, the world is experiencing new invention and imagination "on a scale perhaps not witnessed since the industrial revolution of more than two centuries ago."
Key findings from the Year Book:
Corporate Social Responsbility (CSR) reporting is on the rise. CSR reporting, which includes environmental as well as social justice concerns, is now found in over 2,000 corporations in over 90 countries. This is up from virtually zero in the late 1990s.
Companies with strong environmental strategies are often more competitive. A survey of companies with pioneering environmental, social and governance strategies across six sectors out-performed the general stock market by 25 percent. Nearly three-quarters out-performed their peers in similar sectors.
Disclosing carbon emissions has become the norm. Eighty percent of the Financial Times 500 companies disclose their carbon performance. The highest rate of achievement in terms of disclosure is among carbon-intensive industries such as steel and power sectors.
Carbon markets are growing worldwide, worth over $30 billion. International carbon markets under the Kyoto Protocol were worth nearly $30 billion in 2006. The Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, which allows industrialized countries to offset their domestic emissions via clean energy schemes and afforestation projects in developing countries, registered over 850 projects in nearly 50 countries worth over $1 billion as of 2007. Voluntary markets, such as the Chicago exchange in the United States, grew from zero in 2003 to roughly 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2006, worth around $90 million.
Number of Companies Using Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting, 1994-2006
Source: EarthTrends, 2008 using data from UNEP, 2008
More data and analysis from EarthTrends
