The ESCAP-initiated Green Growth concept was recognized in the Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, 2005, which was adopted by the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific in 2005, as one of the strategies for the region to pursue sustainable development.1 It could be seen as a strategy to promote win-win approaches and policies for reconciling any conflict between two important Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction (Goal 1) and environmental sustainability (Goal 7).
The Green Growth concept of ESCAP integrates the economic and socio-political growth within a limiting global environment capacity and its limited natural resources. Green Economy is consistent with the concept and can be defined as an economy where prosperity can go hand-in-hand with ecological sustainability. In practical terms, a green economy invests
in ecological resources and services, such as a stable climate, bio-diversity and clean air and water, and sees that as an opportunity for profit, employment and economic growth rather than as a cost and burden to the economy. Green Growth is the process of greening conventional economic system and a strategy to arrive at a green economy.