This increase in the country's GDP could be achieved by 2030, report says

Apr 23, 2014 09:37 GMT  ·  By

The United Nations Environment Programme and the Government of Kenya have released a new joint report saying that, should said country agree to switch to a so-called green economy, its GDP (gross domestic product) could up by an impressive $45 billion (€32.6 billion) by the year 2030.

In their report, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Government of Kenya detail that, according to data at hand, an investment of just 2% of the country's current GDP in green-oriented measures that have already been proposed would yield noteworthy benefits.

Specifically, such an investment would help expand Kenya's GDP by over 12% over the next two decades. Besides, the initiative would help reduce the country's carbon emissions by approximately 9% by 2030 and would also boost agricultural yield by as much as 15%, Clean Technica informs.

Together with a drop in local levels of environmental pollution and waste production, and a better utilization of Kenya's natural resources, the reduction in carbon emissions and the higher agricultural yield would help drive the country's GDP further up.

The United Nations Environment Programme and the Government of Kenya explain that, if the country is to even stand a chance to green up its ways and boost its GDP at the same time, investments must first and foremost be made in phasing out dirty fuels and promoting renewables.

Thus, it is estimated that, given the right incentives and policies, it could happen that Kenya will have as much as 20% of the electricity produced across its territory come from clean power sources by the year 2030. These clean sources would chiefly be solar and wind, but other forms of renewables would also find their way in the mix.

As reported on several occasion, it was in late March that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report saying that, according to evidence at hand, the effects of having too much greenhouse gas emissions floating about in our planet's atmosphere were already felt on a global scale.

The Panel further argued that, under a business-as-usual scenario, things would only get worse in the near future, and, consequently, recommended that world leaders quit monkeying around and move to limit greenhouse gas emissions without delay.

In light of the findings of this recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, it can be argued that having Kenya switch to a green economy would not only benefit the country's GDP, but would also help limit climate change and global warming.