United Nations (UN) secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon called on world leaders at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, to use the global economic crisis as impetus to form a ‘Green New Deal' that would create jobs and fight climate change, by investing in renewable energy and technological development.

Ban explained that while climate change threatens the world's development, it also offers the opportunity of solving two issues at once - climate change and economic decline. Ban called his plan, the ‘Global Compact 2.0', which was reminiscent of former UN chief Kofi Annan's ‘Global Compact of Corporate Responsibility' plan a decade ago.

Ban stressed that all challenges could only be solved with cooperation. He said that these new crises, the threat of global warming and global recession, prompt "a renewed sense of mission".

With today's economic downturn and changing climate, Ban said that the stakes for corporations had never been higher, but for businesses with vision, the rewards would be just as high.

A "green economy" was low-carbon and energy-efficient, Ban explained, as well as capable of creating jobs. He emphasised that investment in sustainable technologies, means that the current economic crisis would be turned into sustainable growth in the future.