A global green ‘New Deal’ is needed to transform the world’s economies, according to a new UN report.

It would be similar to Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal which helped the US recover from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But it would be aimed at a fundamental restructuring of economies weaning away dependence on oil and towards cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy.

The Green Economy Initiative from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for global economies which invest in better care and management of the Earth’s natural resources such as rainforests and oceans.

Rather than more boom and bust cycles and the continued asset stripping of dwindling resources, the new green system would nurture and re-invest in them.

It would refocus the global economy, create growth, trigger a 21st century employment boom and at the same time combat climate change, it is claimed.

Launching the report in London Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director, said the worldwide financial crisis had created an historic opportunity to replace a system which had seen the world’s GDP double between 1981-2005 but which had resulted in 60 per cent of the Earth’s ecosystem being degraded while 2.6bn people were still living on less than $2 per day.

He said the financial, food and fuel crises of 2008 had been caused by speculation and a failure by governments to regulate markets but they were also part of a wider market failure which was eating away the world’s natural resources.

The system was also over-reliant on a finite amount of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - which were often subsidised.

“The flip side of the coin is the enormous economic, social and environmental benefits likely to arise from combating climate change and reinvesting in natural infrastructure - benefits ranging from new green jobs in clean teach and clean energy businesses up to ones in sustainable agriculture and conservation-based enterprises,” he said.

Mr Steiner said that even though the world’s focus was on the financial crisis, the pressing problems of food, fuel, energy and especially climate change had not altered and the world had no alternative but to reach a deal at the climate conference in Copenhagen next year.

“We need to accelerate towards a green economy. We are talking about nothing less than the transformation of our economies in effect a global green New Deal,” he said.

“There will be challenges in bringing about this transformation but there are enormous opportunities and potential and it pays us to do so but governments need to change the signals about how the markets work.”

The report has identified six keys areas which would underpin the New Deal:

* Clean energy, cleaner technologies including recycling

* Rural energy including renewables and sustainable biomass

* Sustainable agriculture

* Ecosystem infrastructure

* Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation.

* Sustainable cities including planning, transport and buildings.

Pavan Sukdhev, a banker seconded to UNEP, who is leading an attempt to draw up an ‘inventory’ of the Earth’s resources and what they are worth, said current economic models were now at the limit of what they could deliver.

“Investments will soon be pouring back into the global economy - the question is whether they go into the old, extractive short-term economy of yesterday or a new green economy that will deal with multiple challenges while generating multiple economic opportunities for the poor and the well-off alike.”

The UNEP is developing a tool-kit for transforming economies which it will deliver to governments within the next two years.

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