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Investment in environment driving global economy

Investment in the environment is driving the global economy and environmental problems are ¿rewriting the rules for business¿, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

In the State of the World 2008 report, the institute said entrepreneurs, NGOs, and governments were re-inventing a sustainable global economy, and producing a ¿remarkable array¿ of economic innovations, hopeful for new opportunities for long-term prosperity.

Environmental problems are ¿drastically rewriting¿ the rules for business, said project co-directors Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh.

Over £50 billion of annual capital flows is being directed to environmental issues, they added.

The institute estimated that £26 billion was invested in renewable energy in 2006, up by a third year on year, while last year that figure leapt to £33 billion, according to forecasters.

Worldwatch president Christopher Flavin said: ¿We should be practicing a sustainable approach to economics that takes advantage of the ability of markets to allocate scarce resources while explicitly recognizing that our economy is dependent on the broader ecosystem that contains it.¿

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