聯合國出版一份新報告中指出，由於人類的活動違反了地球的永續發展，現在需要一個比工業革命規模更大、速度更快的科技革命，以避免發生「全球性的大災難。」
《2011世界經濟與社會概況：綠色技術大改造》 （The World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation）5日由聯合國經濟與社會事務部（UNDESA）出版，呼籲每年至少要投入1.9兆美金以避免這場災難。
報告中說，「以化石燃料為主的能源使用急速擴張，解釋了人類違反地球永續發展的原因，包括全球暖化、生物多樣性喪失、干擾氮循環的平衡等，都影響著地球生態系統的永續性。」
報告中警告，「現在迫切需要一個全面的全球性能源轉型，才能避免這場重大的災難。」
聯合國秘書長潘基文在報告的序中寫道，「我們應該看到永續與成長兩者間互補與互相支持的重要性，而不是相互競爭矛盾。如果我們支持低碳、節約資源且有利窮人的經濟模式，這就能成為可能。」
「原本覆蓋地球的森林，大約有一半已經消失。地下水源正在枯竭且遭受污染，生物多樣性大量降低，這些都已經發生，」報告說，「石化燃料的使用不斷增加，地球氣候的穩定性正受到全球暖化的威脅。」
調查報告建議：「為了讓發展中國家的人民達到一定的生活水準，特別是數十億仍處於赤貧中的人，以及本世紀中將增加的另外20億人口，人類需要更大規模的經濟發展。」
「維持現狀並不是一個選擇，」報告的主要作者Rob Vos說，「即使我們現在停止推動世界成長的引擎，現有的生產方式與消費習慣將使資源的消耗以及自然環境的污染持續下去。如果沒有大規模的改善並推廣綠色科技，我們無法扭轉持續下去的生態破壞，也無法為全人類保住現有的生活，不論是現在或是將來。」
為了滿足戰勝貧窮以及保護環境的雙重目標，《2011世界經濟與社會概況》中呼籲推動一個以人類經濟活動為基礎的科技轉化。
報告建議，全球應該在發展與擴大潔淨能源科技、永續農業與林業技術、改善氣候的基礎建設以及減少廢棄物的科技等項目進行主要投資。
這個「綠色科技大改造」，必須在30-40年間完成，速度必須是上一波工業革命的兩倍。
調查中指出，接下來的40年間，每年需要投入1.9兆美金在綠能科技，其中至少有1.1兆美金要花在發展中國家，以滿足不斷增長的食物和能源需求。
該報告建議建立一個全球性的公共技術共享的國際制度和網絡技術的研究和應用中心。
報告指出，為了加速傳播綠色科技，必須建構更多的多邊智慧財產權模式，而不能拘泥在當前的世界貿易組織（WTO）架構下。
「現在需要比第一次工業革命更大規模的科技轉化，而且要再更短的時間內達成。」報告指出，「新的技術必須要能夠使今天的窮人達到一定的生活水準，同時減少排放以及廢棄物，並且終結對地球不可再生資源的無限制消耗。」
《世界經濟與社會概況》每年出版一次，去年的調查要求對國際金融、援助與貿易進行大規模改造。
Humanity is near to breaching the sustainability of Earth, and needs a technological revolution greater and faster than the industrial revolution to avoid "a major planetary catastrophe," warns a new United Nations report.
"The World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation," published today by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs calls for investments of at least $1.9 trillion per year to avert this catastrophe.
"It is rapidly expanding energy use, mainly driven by fossil fuels, that explains why humanity is on the verge of breaching planetary sustainability boundaries through global warming, biodiversity loss, and disturbance of the nitrogen-cycle balance and other measures of the sustainability of the Earth"s ecosystem," the report says.
"A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe," the report warns.
In his preface to the report, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes that "rather than viewing growth and sustainability as competing goals on a collision course, we must see them as complementary and mutually supportive imperatives. This becomes possible when we embrace a low-carbon, resource-efficient, pro-poor economic model."
About half of the forests that once covered the Earth are gone, groundwater resources are being depleted and contaminated, enormous reductions in biodiversity have already taken place," according to the report, and, "through increased burning of fossil fuels, the stability of the planet's climate is being threatened by global warming."
"In order for populations in developing countries to achieve a decent living standard, especially the billions who currently still live in conditions of abject poverty, and the additional 2 billion people who will have been added to the world's population by mid-century - much greater economic progress will be needed," the survey advises.
"Business as usual is not an option," said Rob Vos, the survey's lead author. "Even if we stop the global engines of growth now, resource depletion and pollution of our natural environment would continue because of existing production methods and consumption habits. Without drastic improvements in and diffusion of green technologies, we will not reverse the ongoing ecological destruction and secure a decent livelihood for all of humankind, now and in the future."
To meet both the objectives of conquering poverty and protecting the environment, the World Economic and Social Survey 2011 calls for a complete transformation of technology on which human economic activity is based.
Major investments will be needed worldwide in the developing and scaling up clean energy technologies, sustainable farming and forestry techniques, climate-proofing of infrastructure, and in waste-reduction technologies, the report advises.
This "great green technological transformation" will have to be completed in the next 30 to 40 years - twice as fast as it took to accomplish previous major technological transitions.
The survey says $1.9 trillion per year will be needed over the next 40 years for incremental investments in green technologies. At least $1.1 trillion of that will need to be made in developing countries to meet increasing food and energy demands.
The report proposes to build a global public technology-sharing regime and networks of international technology research and application centers.
To rapidly spread green technology, the report says, more multilateral intellectual property rights modalities must be used than presently allowed under the World Trade Organization.
"Technological transformation, greater in scale and achievable within a much shorter time frame than the first industrial revolution, is required," the report states. "The necessary set of new technologies must enable today's poor to attain decent living standards, while reducing emissions and waste and ending the unrestrained drawdown of the Earth's non-renewable resources."
The World Economic and Social Survey comes out annually. Last year's survey called for a major overhaul of the machinery for international finance, aid and trade.
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