UNIDO advocates green technology

VIENNA, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- With the cost of going green decreasing, industries can adopt low-carbon ways of doing business in developing countries, U.N. officials said in Vienna.

Kandeh Yumkella, the director general of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, said global trends suggest the cost of producing renewable energy is on the decline.

He pointed to the increase in the use and production of solar panels and wind turbines as contributing to a way to diversify the economies in developing countries rich in natural resources.

"Diversification provides security against volatility, and extends the benefits of growth to the many instead of the few," he said.

Yumkella was appointed to his second term as UNIDO director general during the annual conference in Vienna, Austria. The general conference for 2009 adopted a theme of green industrial development.

The director general said UNIDO was focusing on finding a common standard for industrial energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility in an effort to tackle global environmental challenges.

"Climate change can be effectively addressed through a new, sustainable trajectory of growth in which industry adopts a low-carbon and resource-efficient means of production," he said.