Get the Latest Investment Ideas Delivered Straight to Your Inbox. Subscribe

Going Green Will Cost $76 Trillion

Share on Stocktwits

Source:

"A new U.N. report has more than tripled previous estimates to $1.9 trillion per year for 40 years."

Fox News, Dan Gainor

Two years ago, U.N. researchers were claiming that it would cost "as much as $600 billion a year over the next decade" to go green. Now, a new U.N. report has more than tripled that number to $1.9 trillion per year for 40 years.

So let's do the math: That works out to a grand total of $76 trillion, over 40 years—or more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product of the United States ($14.66 trillion a year). It's all part of a "technological overhaul" "on the scale of the first industrial revolution" called for in the annual report. Except that the U.N. will apparently control this next industrial revolution.

The new 251-page report with the benign sounding name of the "World Economic and Social Survey 2011" is rife with goodies calling for "a radically new economic strategy" and "global governance."

Throw in possible national energy use caps and a massive redistribution of wealth and the survey is trying to remake the entire globe. The report has the imprimatur of the U.N., with the preface signed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon—all part of the "goal of full decarbonization of the global energy system by 2050."

The press release for the report discusses the need "to achieve a decent living standard for people in developing countries, especially the 1.4 billion still living in extreme poverty, and the additional 2 billion people expected worldwide by 2050."

In other words, $38 trillion would go to the developing world: "Survey estimates that incremental green investment of about 3% of world gross product (WGP) (about $1.9 trillion in 2010) would be required to overcome poverty, increase food production to eradicate hunger without degrading land and water resources, and avert the climate change catastrophe."

Want to read more about Alternative - Cleantech investment ideas?
Get Our Streetwise Reports Newsletter Free and be the first to know!

A valid email address is required to subscribe