New infrastructure? Let’s invest in green capital!

3 February 2009. Most world leaders seem to consider investment in infrastructure building as a solution to the present economic crisis. The construction of new infrastructure would help reverse the current trend of unemployment, but what would its impact be on the environment?

President Obama has recently announced a stimulus packages allocating considerable funds to the creation of new infrastructures in the US. The German and Norwegian governments and others have also taken similar measures. Billions of Euros to add more concrete to our environment thus reducing even further our green areas and the ecosystem services they provide with disastrous consequences for our own survival.

How can we then solve the economic crisis but at the same time ensure development and employment? Tamas Marghescu, Director of IUCN Regional Office for Europe, explains that investment in natural capital would create new jobs and at the same time contribute to human well-being. Mr. Marghescu invites the G8 leaders – meeting in Italy later on this year – to increase investment in green infrastructure.

^{Photo from Flickr/tambako the jaguar}