Reducing environmental degradation would provide substantial economic benefits for a country like Tajikistan where the cost of environmental degradation expressed as percentage of GDP equivalent is currently estimated at about 10 percent, according to a new World Bank study.
Titled “Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development,” the report estimates that land degradation alone, including soil erosion and salinity, results in Tajikistan loosing 3.7 percent of its GDP annually.
“Green policies can contribute to growth and boost a nation’s overall wealth. And they help to reduce the damage done by environmental degradation, which is costly for an economy: equivalent to 8 percent of GDP across a sample of countries representing 40 percent of the developing world’s population,” the report said.
The study also provides an analytical framework and priority steps for designing public policies and inducing investments needed to strengthen green growth and improve standards of living in rapidly developing countries.
“Green growth” strategies are designed to break the pattern of environmental degradation and natural resource depletion that are too often the consequence of economic growth and to avoid locking growing economies into unsustainable patterns. Economic activity that imperils future environmental viability and fails to efficiently utilize natural resources cannot be sustained, the World Bank said.
On the other hand, as a result of green policies, benefits may well outweigh the costs, the study says, adding that $900 billion to $1,700 billion of green investments in land, water, and energy could yield economic returns of around $3 trillion per year.
“There’s no denying that our current economic system is enormously inefficient because we don’t put a value on resources that are finite. We have today a looming crisis of food security, water security and energy security. And in that context we have to build economic systems that force us, and encourage us, to be more resource efficient,” Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development, said in a statement.
“It’s a myth that green growth is a luxury that only the rich can afford. Fragile countries, poor countries, fast growing economies from the developing world all face planning decisions today that will either lock in an irreversible use of resources for the long term, or which will free countries from that,” she said.
