B.C. green economy could hit $27 billion a year
Report finds worldwide market value of $5.2 trillion US
British Columbia's green economy could grow into a $27-billion-per-year green giant by 2020, according to a new report from the Globe Foundation.
(See report, attached below - BCSEA)
B.C. could become a "living laboratory" for green-sector growth that would add value to the provincial gross domestic product more than twice as fast as the economy as a whole, John Wiebe, president and CEO of the Vancouver-based foundation, said yesterday in an interview.
"This is a very, very conservative estimate. I think this can be much bigger depending on what one does and how one goes about it," Wiebe said.
B.C.'s present green-sector economy encompasses 28 sectors and sub-sectors, including renewable energy, forestry, transit and telecommunications.
It accounts for 166,000 direct and indirect full-time-equivalent jobs, 7.2 per cent of total provincial employment.
"The green economy is a fast-growing economic development model that focuses on the creation of green jobs, the promotion of real, sustainable economic growth, and the prevention of environmental pollution, global warming, resource depletion and ecological degradation," the report states.
Worldwide, the green sector has a market value estimated at $5.2 trillion US.
The B.C. green sector accounted for 10.2 per cent of GDP in 2008 -- $15.3 billion in direct and indirect GDP, the report said.
A Globe research team calculated that green-sector GDP growth by 2020 would push that to $21 billion at a "conservative" annual growth rate of 2.7 per cent -- or $27.4 billion at an annual growth rate of five per cent.
At the higher rate of growth, which the report calls "achievable," the green sector would account for 14.1 per cent of total GDP.
The report assumes that B.C. overall maintains projected annual GDP growth of 2.2 per cent.
Globe says the higher target is achievable in light of B.C.'s inherent advantages such as a "full spectrum" of renewable energy resources, an abundant supply of natural gas, a "world-class" quality of life and a strategic port location on the western North American coast.
The report says the international marketplace for green products and services is highly competitive and that B.C. will need exportable technology and ideas and solid self-promotion in order to succeed.
