Green Economy Coming Despite Downturn

"HSBC, the international banking group, forecasts that the market for wind energy will drop by 20 per cent in 2009, the first time in years that wind companies have seen anything but rapid growth.

Recycling has suffered a serious blow as the price of commodities has plunged...Environmental consultancies are also facing a tough year.

Yet, despite these portents of gloom, there are reasons to be cheerful for both businesses in the sector and companies looking to improve their environmental performance. One is that a large amount of money is about to enter the "green" economy, with the stimulus packages governments are concocting as a cure for the financial crisis. About $430bn of the planned $2,800bn of stimulus spending is likely to go on green measures, according to HSBC."

From A massive injection of clean energy cash:

"The economic stimulus, amounting to more than $2,800bn, is being compared with the "New Deal" programme of spending on national infrastructure initiated by Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930s, in his attempt to pull the US out of Depression.

But this time, many of the governments involved are looking to focus large slices of their funds on projects that will help change the footing of the world economy, away from its high consumption of fossil fuels to a low-carbon basis.

The phrase "green new deal" means different things in different countries, but broadly it refers to the argument that if we direct the stimulus spending into building more of the same kind of infrastructure that we already have, such as coal-fired power plants and petrol-guzzling vehicles, it will result in ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions, provoking a global warming crisis."