Misleading signsIt is one of the pitfalls of the crisis

Arnold Schwarzenegger has regained his film roles: in a State in quasi-cessation of payments, the Governor of California is ready for a "green" war to save its citizens. On 17 March, Captain "schwarzy" has thus created a "green body" (the California Green Corps), a battalion of young Americans in school failure, aged 16 to 24 years, who will be trained for twenty months to fight against energy wastage and pollution. In the more voracious State energy of the planet, we swear today as the "cleantech" out the homeland of the crisis. The Republican Governor will not come to the g-20 London April 2, but ranks behind the General Obama for a green "New Deal" decisively.

Upon the outbreak of the crisis, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, had claimed this "green New Deal", asking the heads of State to devote at least one-third of their spending of stimulus to the fight against climate change, the preservation of natural resources and the preparation of the agriculture of the future. He had even encrypted the effort needed to $ 750 billion, or 1 of global GDP.

To bring together the heads of State for the G20 in London, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said share the conviction of Barack Obama on the need to transform the economic crisis in a unique opportunity to combat the dependency on oil and climate change while promoting job creation. Industrial low carbon emission "strategy defended by London provides the creation of 400,000 jobs, while the US plan in promises 2 million through its Green measures. The final Declaration of the G20, currently under negotiation, is structured around three goals: regulate the financial system, strengthen the put at the service of the economy and create new sustainable growth. In this regard, the struggle for "décarboner" the economy will be thus reaffirmed.

With more or less force. Associations denounce a crisis of the "immoderation", related to over-indebtedness of households and overconsumption, which has seriously mortgaged the planet, and warn that oil shortages and climate turmoil caused crises will be otherwise expensive. Equivalentes the sum of the two world wars world and the crisis of 1929, found the Economist sir Nicholas Stern in 2006. But the finding is getting worse: meeting last February, the scientific community stated that the probabilities of significant climate warming increase, while the international agency energy maintains that the era of cheap oil is soon completed.

Misleading signs

It is one of the pitfalls of the crisis. While it must redouble its efforts, never economic signals were also wrong: the fall of the price of oil reduced the competitiveness of renewable and alternative fuels, raw materials decreased incentives to recycle and, worse, the European CO2 market collapses, passing below the EUR 10 per tonne against 30 last summer! Since the crisis, it's factories are idle, less consumption and thus less CO2 emissions.

Before these misleading signs of market, it States to show New Economics Foundation in London their willingness to "go from an economy based on finance and shopping to a transformation of the environment economy", as requested by Andrew Simms, Director of the "think tank". Are the 2.5 trillion announced by various stimulus plans well oriented Not enough, said sir Nicholas Stern, which evaluated 13 in the United States and 14 in the European Union them are devoted to energy and environmental investments. At least, for the first time since the Kyoto Protocol, everyone takes in the same direction. Thanks to the dramatic U.S. turnaround, President Obama promised to implement a plan of 150 billion for clean energy. The British bank HSBC, who studied 20 stimulus, assigns the Green Palm to the Korea of the South, including 80 of the effort will energy habitat improvements, public transport and management of the water. In absolute terms, it is China that puts the most money on the table, with 221 billion for major infrastructure works and hydraulic (1,000 stations programmed water treatment). Among the worst students, HSBC point the Italy and the Japan, less than 3 of the investments which are aimed at ecology.

L'Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'Energie (Ademe), whose teams have also studied the stimulus plans, said they use more or less the same revenue. New: focus on the renovation of the built heritage to reduce the energy bill. Transportation measures represent the most important common point of stimulus. China, the Korea, the France, the Germany, the Spain and even the United States announce major rail projects. In flat, Ademe deplored the fact that premiums case-sensitive adopted by many countries to support their automotive market are not binding enough on respect for the environment. Finally, it notes that "the renewable energy policies are poor parents of stimulus" and wondered to what extent this reflects the temptation to use the crisis to adjourn expensive programs. As comes to England, which, on the sly, ended its aid to the installation of photovoltaic panels in public buildings, lack of adequate resources to cope with the demand.

How to get to other growth Granted share Green concerns in stimulus is almost undeniable exceptions, but as the recalled the famous mathematician Stephen Hawking, today, "must be a real war on climate change". The problem is to change its scale, as will the claim multiple NGOs which explode on 28 March next in London. The Director of the UN Environment program has raised the idea of taxing gasoline consumption in the rich countries of at least $ 5 per barrel to fund the fight against climate change. NGOs seek to tax the profits of oil companies, the Greens are a great European loan. A debate that will intensify until the meeting in December in Copenhagen, where the States of the world must decide the future of the fight against climate change.