In October 2008, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched its “Green Economy Initiative”.  It was a call to change global patterns of investment so that they better deliver sustainable development. According to UNEP, “unsound financial investments” lie at the root of the world’s financial, economic and climate crisis.

This Initiative has now been relayed throughout the UN system, the World Bank, IMF, WTO, G-20, and business and civil society. When Brazil hosts the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in 2012 - also referred to as ‘Rio+20’, twenty years after it hosted the Earth Summit of 1992, a key item on the agenda is expected to be “The Green Economy in the context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication”. The concept of the green economy is therefore very much on the agenda of national governments worldwide.