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IGPN’s first anniversary on 25th April 2006
April 24, 2006
IGPN’s first anniversary on 25th April 2006
IGPN was set up a year ago, based on the Sendai declaration in October 2004 in Japan, to promote Green Purchasing around the world by coordinating those who take the initiative in implementing Green Purchasing toward sustainable consumption and production.
In its first year, it held international conferences and workshop in Thailand, India and China. This year its planned activities include greater cooperation with the newly-established China GPN, assistance to establish India GPN as well as holding more conferences, workshops and the 2nd International Green Purchasing Conference in Spain.
IGPN Chairman, Prof Ryoichi Yamamoto, has the 1st anniversary message for everyone.
Message from IGPN Chairman, Ryoichi Yamamoto
24 April 2006
According to the US Department of Commerce, the world population reached 6.5 billion at 9.19am on 26 February 2006. It is rising at the rate of 2.3 persons per second this year and estimated to reach 7 billion in 2013 and 9.2 billion in 2050. Meanwhile, the world economy has been growing steadily at the rate of over 3% per year. Particularly in China and India, the economy has been growing at a remarkable rate of over 8% per year. As the result, the middle-class population in many parts of Asia (China, the South East Asia, India and the Far East excluding Japan) is rapidly rising. One statistical survey projects the rise of the middle class population in Asia from 159 million in 2004 to approx 400 million in 2009 due to the economic growth in China and India. Not only are those parts of Asia “the world’s manufacturing plants” but also fast becoming “the economic growth centre”. Rapid economic growth in Asia and other regions will bring benefits and is of course welcome. However, our planet’s future could depend on whether this wealthy middle class is going to do green purchasing or not. They are expected to zealously purchase expensive home appliances, motorbikes, vehicles and properties, and it would result in a huge increase of the environmental loads for the entire world.
The special edition of the TIME (3 April 2006) on the global warming describes the hugely increased impact from Asia as follows: The greenhouse gas emission in India is estimated to increase by 70% by 2025. The increase in the greenhouse gas emission in China between 2000 and 2030 would equal to the sum of the increased greenhouse gas emissions in all the other industrialised countries during the same period. The electricity demand in China by 2050 is estimated to be 2,600GW, which would require the construction of new power plants capable of generating 300MW per week for the next 45 years. Despite establishing the national target to reduce the energy consumption per GDP by 20% by 2010, China is estimated to have additional 140 million vehicles by 2020.
This month we published a new book titled “Climate Change +2°C” in Japan. The book introduces the projection, by the supercomputer Earth Simulator at Japan’s National Institute of Environmental Studies, on how the global warming would advance with the rapid economic growth. It is 2016 when the rise in the world’s average temperature would exceed the pre-industrial level by 1.5°C, it is 2028 when it would exceed by 2°C and 2052 by 3°C. If this scenario becomes the reality, Greenland’s ice sheet would start melting extensively in 2016, the temperature increase would exceed the EU 2°C climate target and cause a climate crisis, and then in 2052 a kind of climatic collapse beyond anyone’s imagination could occur.
The TIME states “Climate change isn’t some vague future problem ? it’s already damaging the planet at an alarming pace…Earth at the tipping point.” In 2005 the Kyoto Protocol entered into force and in 2006 the Asia-Pacific Partnership will start the full operation. These are some of the international collaborations for simultaneous pursuit of environmental preservation and economic development. We need to make a great effort to dramatically increase the eco-efficiency at every occasion, and IGPN has been set up to do this work. IGPN’s aims are to globally promote the concept, methods and information of green purchasing in order to bring about environmental technological innovations and to reduce environmental impacts by promoting eco-products and services. It is our mission to disseminate green purchasing around the world. We have called for the establishment of the green purchasing network first in China, India and the Asia-Pacific region where the economy is fast growing. We have already held small, yet effective, symposiums on green purchasing in both India and China. We are going to hold an international conference in Barcelona, Spain in September and in Singapore in November this year. We are going to strengthen the cooperation with international institutions such as APO, UNEP and UN-DESA. We hope you will join us in our utmost effort in promoting green purchasing around the world.
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