Blue Economy Calls For Joint Strategy With UNEP

Online, March 27, 2012 (Newswire.com) - When the heads of governments and nations meet in Brazil in June this year to discuss globally sustainable development, the question of defining a sustainable economy will also come up. It has taken a long time before governments could agree about the basic guidelines of the term "Green Economy". For more than a decade, the "green movement" has been shaped without a unifying political image, leading to the present, multifaceted term of the Green Economy. Some prefer to call it "greenwashing".

Slowly a consensus has been reached that the Green Economy's aim is a "naturally supportable economy of low emissions". Of course a corresponding policy of regulation is necessary to follow this path, which supports businesses orientated towards innovation and reduces emissions of pollutants into the environment. In spite of all the progress which has been made concerning this subject, we know that the Green Economy is only a step towards transforming the patterns of social and economic development.

On February 10, 2012, a UNEP press communication stated:

"Mediterranean countries and the European Union meeting in Paris have called for a "blue" economy to be set up to safeguard and promote a clean, healthy, productive Mediterranean environment."(*1)

The creator of the term "Blue Economy", Prof. Gunter Pauli, is delighted that UNEP and the Mediterranean countries have adopted his term Blue Economy for an undoubtedly positive initiative to protect a clean, healthy and productive Mediterranean environment. With the report "Green Economy in a Blue World" the United Nations is pointing out the potential of the oceans: economy and protection of the environment do not need to oppose one another.

Achim Steiner summarizes the results as follows: "An expansion of green investment in marine and coastal resources, as well as a reinforcement of international cooperation within management of cross-frontier ecosystems, are essential if the transition to a CO2-reduced and resource efficient green economy is to become a reality."(*2)

Even so, we should not forget that the Report to the Club of Rome "The Blue Economy" which features a hundred examples and envisions the possibility of creating 100 million jobs, is setting an even more challenging objective. Since 2010, Blue Economy has successfully presented one innovation per week including market data and indications regarding its potential to thousands of entrepreneurs, inspiring them to imitation worldwide.

Sustainable business in the spirit of the Blue Economy makes it possible to respond to the basic needs of all without exploiting our natural resources, but also without the need to renounce these commodities. In contrast to the Green Economy, the Blue Economy stands for a new way of designing businesses, a new market-oriented business model, sustainable businesses and sustainable growth. Blue Economy stands for making the good more accessible and the bad more expensive. Blue Economy stands for clean water, clean air and for Planet Earth.

The term Blue Economy means that by using available resources in cascading systems, the waste of one product becomes the raw material for a new cash flow. In this way jobs are created, social capital is built and income increases - without further exploiting and damaging the environment, but rather conserving and improving it. This makes sustainable growth possible. The present global economic system can be transformed into a sustainable development by innovations and entrepreneurship. Innovations and better livelihoods are promoted by demand, by means of the free market and by education instead of inhibiting them with subsidies and social barriers.

The key is a holistic view of things, it is about intelligent synergies and connections of different levels (cascades) within (eco)systems which may not be visible at first sight. Now we need to search for dialogue in order to promote a holistic understanding of an interrelated world of production, integrating the basic resource of water as a pillar for plants, animals, algae and bacteria.

In the sense of a partnership between ecologically oriented initiatives worldwide before the Rio+20 Summit, we offer the attractive term Blue Economy as a basis for a commonly and mutually consistent communication.

Gunter Pauli's Book: "The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs" will be published in May this year in the European as well as the German Edition.

*1:http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2667&ArticleID=9025&l=en

*2:http://www.dgvn.de/news.html?&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=978&cHash=3aab6ea41951e55175e82c2ba29dd27b

About Blue Economy
Blue Economy is a worldwide alliance guided by Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (www.zeri.org) and supported by Konvergenta InterZero Marketing and Communication Agency.

Guiding principles:
· Nature focuses on economies of scope - diversity means wealth.
· Nutrients, materia and energy are cascaded on and on within natural systems - waste does not exist.
· Any by-product is a raw material for a new product, any process generates multiple benefits.
· Nature provides space for entrepreneurs who create more from less - Nature is efficient.

Blue Economy stands for consumption instead of renouncement: It means using available resources and energies to an optimum.

Interested? Read more at www.blueeconomy.eu