Asian giants sign up to "Green New Deal" policies

The march of so-called "Green New Deal" policies reached Asia yesterday as the South Korean government announced it would invest more than $38bn (£25bn) in environmental projects and Japanese ministers pledged to create one million new jobs through green infrastructure initiatives.

Announcing the "Green New Deal Job Creation Plan", South Korean prime minister Han Seung-soo said that the programme would help stimulate the country's flagging economy and create 960,000 new jobs over the next four years, 140,000 of which will be realised before the end of this year.

The new government spending is expected to focus on a wide range of low carbon and climate change adaptation projects, including energy efficiency measures, enhanced recycling capacity, flood prevention measures around the country's four largest rivers, and forestry protection schemes.

Meanwhile, Japan's environment ministry yesterday issued a report outlining plans to bolster its green business market, in an attempt to boost exports and tackle unemployment.

Japan is already one of the world's leading developers of green technologies, and according to the government its green business sector, including renewables firms and developers of energy efficient technologies, currently employs 1.4m people and generates sales of $745bn.

However, the environment ministry said yesterday that it was looking to accelerate the development of the sector and could bring forward its 2020 target to create a green business sector worth $1 trillion and employing 2.2m people.

The report, which has been approved by prime minister Taro Aso and is expected to form one of the centrepieces of the upcoming budget in March, outlines plans for increased spending on low carbon projects and the creation of zero interest loans for green firms.

Speaking to Reuters Ichiro Sumikura, an environment ministry official, said that the proposals were further evidence of the growing support globally for "Green New Deal" style economic stimulus packages.

"The worldwide trend is to kill two birds with one stone by investing in action against global warming and linking that to taking care of both the environment and the economy," he said. "We want to take the initiative and build a leading low-carbon society while stepping out of recession before anyone else in the world."

Earlier this week, UK prime minister Gordon Brown said he planned to create 100,000 jobs through new infrastructure projects, many of which will be focused on curbing carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, US president-elect Barack Obama pledged to create five million jobs by investing $150bn in clean tech – one of the centrepieces of his planned economic stimulus package.