Green economy is a concept developed early with bringing the philosophy of Green Growth Strategy. This concept is commonly emphasized on how the economic sector applied the low carbon activities and products to help mitigate climate change.

To make the acceleration of green and growth, there are three key requirements which are (UNEP 2010):

1.      There needs to be strong political will and leadership to make the transition to a new paradigm.

2.      The public needs to embrace the new paradigm and discard old habits of thinking and acting.

3.      There needs to be a technological revolution to support the first two requirements.

From the above, the third point is about technologies. The breakthrough in technologies should be evolved with considering the environment despite of the first two requirements above.

We know familiarly there are some high-technologies which are not environmentally friendly. Thus, to embody the green economy, the initiatives of green technologies should be introduced and applied in the worldwide. For instance, 27 Green Technologies have been identified and introduced in which the technologies will be expected positively to change the world. Furthermore, the government also supports the green technologies, where by 2020 a quarter of all government R&D spending will be spent on green technologies.

The followings are some examples of the eco-technologies should be introduced in the mother earth (UNEP 2010):

1.      Energy-generating speed humps: The device constructed from a metal sheet generates electricity from cars as they pass over a speed hump. A car moving over the hump pushes it down, turning the pedals which in turn spin gears that generate around 2,000 Watt of electricity per car! (www.inhabitat.com)  

2.      The fairground of the future?: The Star Wheel, a mobile Ferris wheel, is powered entirely by the passengers themselves. The more effort that is put into pedaling, the more thrilling the ride – vigorous pedaling results in the seat flipping around on its own axis – a loop within a loop! The fun of the fairground is going green. (www.origin.popularmechanics.com)

3.      Solar power after dark: A new commercial-scale solar plant currently under construction in Spain, GEMASOLAR, will be the first to use new technology that allows it to continue generating electricity after the sun goes down. The plant is thermo-solar, which means it collects the sun?s heat and uses it to make steam, which in turn powers electrical generators. GEMASOLAR will be capable of providing 25,000 households with safe, clean energy, and reducing CO2 emissions by over 30,000 tons per year. (www.torresolenergy.com/)    

4.      YoGen: YoGen is a pocket-sized hand-powered electric charger that can be used anywhere at any time to recharge the batteries on your mobile phone, MP3 player, game system, organizer, GPS, laptop or other personal electronic gadgets. The efficiency of this system allows for extended charging effort with minimal operator fatigue. (www.easy-energy.biz) 

5.      Solar-cell e-book reader: E-books can store the contents of thousands of books in an easy-to-carry device. LG has extended this convenience even further with the development of a solar-powered e-book prototype.. Four to 5 hours exposure to sunlight would extend the running time of the e-book?s battery by a day. (www.lgdisplay.com)

6.      Be green, run clean: A treadmill actually generates electricity as you are exercising. In a completely self-contained system, the user pushes the jogging surface around, generating electricity that is stored in a battery. The battery in turn powers the display and elevation systems. Now gym treadmill users can get fit in an eco-friendly way. (www.woodway.com)

We are now in green economy era, so we need the initiatives from all of you to embody the concept. Hopefully, the initiatives to green-technologies could be fast attained by us. Don?t be lazy people to think creative because the earth needs you as you need the earth.

Reference:

UNEP. 2010. Green Economy: Making it work. Our Planet, the magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): Nairobi, Kenya.