A year ago, in October 2008, a beleaguered world that had just been through a spate of shocks and crises – in food, fuel and finance – now found itself in the grip of a global recession the likes of which it had not seen since the 1930s. G20 governments were willing to commit significant fiscal stimulus packages – estimated at more than US$2.5 trillion – towards economic recovery. The question begged to be asked: would the post-recovery economy be sustainable, or would it be prone to the very risks and weaknesses that had led to this latest recession?

To answer this question, and to address the closely related and unsolved challenges of excessive carbon dependency, increasing ecological scarcities and persistent poverty, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) decided to launch, in October 2008, an urgent inquiry into how a “green economy” model could be seeded at this critical time in order to stimulate a sustainable recovery. Named after the original “New Deal” of US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, this inquiry and its recommendations were dubbed a “Global Green New Deal” (or “GGND”), because they were “global” in scope (as befits the challenge of the current recession) and “green” in their principles for a sustainable post-crisis economy. Professor Edward Barbier was nominated to prepare a defining study and recommendation, to be taken to the UNEP General Council in early 2009, to the G8 and G20 meetings soon afterwards and to other fora.