Clearing up the future of the planet 07:00 | 07/06/2021
There could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050, warned the Ellen MacArthur Foundation five years ago. Today, this warning still holds value if business continues as usual. The G20, inter-regional projects like Rethinking Plastics, and groups of scientists have taken the initiative and are trying their utmost to reduce marine litter and protect the future of our ocean as well as ourselves.
Plastic is used all over the world for thousands of applications in many economic sectors. Its low cost, light weight, durability, and flexibility to be shaped and coloured in any form have pushed the material onto the shelves of supermarkets, into childrenâs toy collections, and their parentsâ houses and vehicles. However, its popularity and ubiquitous application have also caused major pollution and waste challenges, with an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic leaking into the ocean
This included $15.2bn and $28.5bn Australian dollars the federal government recently announced in infrastructure spending and tax measures.
â[The Australian infrastructure spending] is a lot. That is one-and-a-half times the normal level of investment in transport,â says the Grattan Instituteâs transport and cities program director Marion Terrill.
âThe budget took us back to transport megaprojects. And thatâs after a short break in the past budget where the biggest single contribution from the commonwealth was $750m. In this budget the commonwealth put in $2bn or more into three whopping great big projects.â
The budget included $2bn for an intermodal terminal in Melbourne, $2.6bn for the Anzac Highway in South Australia and $2bn for the Great Western Highway in NSW.
Brian O’Callaghan
A year ago, the arrival of Covid-19 thrust Europe into its worst economic crisis since World War II. If the official rhetoric to ‘build back better’ is to be taken seriously, policy-makers must better prioritise green recovery investment and rebut an economic system coupling growth with greenhouse-gas emissions.
The economic, climate and social benefits of green public spending could drive future prosperity for the European continent, in the short and long term. A growing body of evidence suggests green public investment can deliver economic returns equivalent to, or even greater than, conventional stimulus.
David Tritsch
A May 2020 paper surveyed leading economists to identify policies with high potential to secure economic and climate impacts following the panic. Clean physical infrastructure, building-efficiency retrofits, investment in education and training, ‘natural capital’ investment and clean research and development found favour. Another stud
Bouncing forward? polity.org.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from polity.org.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Are we on track for a green recovery? Not Yet
March 13, 2021
Share this post:
One year from the onset of the pandemic, recovery spending has fallen short of nations’ commitments to build back more sustainably. An analysis of spending by leading economies, led by Oxford’s Economic Recovery Project and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), finds only 18.0% of announced recovery spending can be considered ‘green.’
The report, Are We Building Back Better? Evidence from 2020 and Pathways for Inclusive Green Recovery Spending, calls for governments to invest more sustainably and tackle inequalities as they stimulate growth in the wake of the devastation wrought by the pandemic.