Investments Can Have Environmental Returns

15 September 2005

Spending to protect the environment, from coral reefs to forests, can bring big returns to aid a global assault on poverty, a U.N.-backed report said yesterday.

The study, coinciding with a summit of world leaders in New York, suggested that forests may be more valuable when left standing rather than being cleared for crops because trees can absorb heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

"The environment . . . is not a luxury good, only affordable when all other problems have been solved," said Klaus Toepfer, head of the U.N. Environment Program, which was among 30 international groups behind the report.

The study estimated that annual investments of $60 billion to $90 billion in the environment over the next 10 to 15 years would reach a world goal of halving the proportion of humanity living on less than a dollar a day, currently more than a billion people.

A further $80 billion a year was needed to limit global warming over the next 50 years.

It said that every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs to higher work productivity and school attendance.

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