Kazakhstan Calls for "Green Bridge" to Beat Economic Crisis

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 (Bernama) -- Kazakhstan has called on nations, businesses and non-governmenl organisations to give the global economy a green boost by uniting behind the nation’s "Green Bridge Initiative" at the Rio+20 Summit this week. Adoption of the Green Bridge Partnership Programme at Rio+20 would create a vast new market for green goods, services and new technologies, providing a massive green economic stimulus to the global economy, said the Kazakhstan Embassy here in a statement on Friday. It said the Green Bridge Initiative was a practical mechanism to achieve an international shift to a green economy by promoting technology transfers and environment management experience. Kazakhstan’s Minister for Environmental Protection Nurlan Kapparov said the Green Bridge was one of the practical solutions to grow and accelerate the green economy around the world during the current difficult economic times. "This transition is the only sustainable way for emerging markets to maintain their current growth and for developed nations to grow their way out of recession," he said at the Rio+20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, which began on Wednesday. In addition to the Green Bridge Initiative, Kazakhstan will also use the Rio Summit, attended by world leaders, to put forward a Global Energy and Environment Strategy, aimed at managing the long-term transition from conventional to sustainable energy. -- BERNAMA