Green Growth in Slovakia

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a working paper titled “Reaping the Benefits of a Transition to Greener Growth in Slovakia” describing changes necessary to move towards a green economy by fostering eco-innovation.

APEC Ministerial Statement

In their Statement, Ministers attending the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) pledged, inter alia, to strengthen food security, promote green growth and advance sustainable development of oceans.

G20 Cannes Summit

The G20 Leader's Summit concluded with the adoption of a declaration titled "Building our common future: renewed collective action for the benefit of all,” which includes a section on "Fostering Clean energy, Green Growth and Sustainable Development." with commitments to:- promote low-carbon development strategies for green growth and to ensure sustainable development;
- welcome the UN Secretary-General’s “Sustainable Energy for All” (SE4ALL) initiative; and
- support the development and deployment of clean energy and energy efficiency (C3E) technologies.

They further commit to the success of UNCSD (Rio+20), noting it will provide an opportunity "to mobilize the political will needed to reinsert sustainable development at the heart of the international agenda." Leaders also underline the opportunities created by green growth in new industries and in "areas such as environmental services, renewable energy and new ways to provide basic services to the poor."

Nairobi Declaration on RECP

The Global Network Conference on Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) concluded with the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration highlighting the role of RECP for achieving green growth and addressing climate change. Endorsed by 30 members of the Global Network for Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP net) and ten other providers of RECP services, the declaration emphasizes the need to improve resource productivity and environmental performance of businesses and other organizations to achieve low carbon, resource-efficient and green industrialization, and stresses the potential of RECP to advance the three sustainability dimensions of: production efficiency and competitiveness; environmental management; and safe and responsible production.

G20 Summit: Green Growth?

Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, and the Heads of five international agencies (OECD, WTO, ILO, IMF, and the World Bank) met in Berlin (Germany) on 6 October to call for coordinated policy action to restore confidence and improve sustainable and balanced growth and employment prospects ahead of the G20 Summit to be held in Cannes (France) on 3-4 November. According to a statement, "climate change and the protection of natural resources remain major challenges that could also become an opportunity for growth. Leaders stressed the need to: realize the potential for low-carbon development and green growth by targeted action in developed and developing countries; continue with the commitment of all international organizations to promote and work together on green growth; and ensure a successful Durban Climate Change Conference in late 2011 with a view to further promoting low-carbon development strategies."
Press Release with Joint Communique

Defining Green Economy

ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability has produced a briefing sheet on the “Green Urban Economy,” which inter alia outlines the meaning of, and reasons for, a green economy, including the cost of inaction.

UNCSD (Rio+20) Dehli Dialogue

The Secretariat of UNCSD (Rio+20) and India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests convened a ministerial dialogue on green economy and inclusive growth from 3-4 Ocotber in New Delhi (India). Views were shared on financing of a green economy, a green economy roadmap and energy access, among others. The proposed set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and possible guiding principles for a definition of "green economy" were also discussed.
Website

ADB and Green Growth

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has released a report titled “Greening Growth in Asia and the Pacific,” which aims to present a snapshot of ADB’s support to environmentally sustainable growth in the region. It also sets out ADB’s medium-term operation programme on the environment, which will focus on three strategic directions:
- promoting transitions to sustainable infrastructure, including infrastructure that will counteract the causes and consequences of climate change;
- improving natural resource management and maintaining ecosystem integrity; and
- building environmental governance capacity.

Córdoba Dialogue With Civil Society

UNEP, together with the Spanish Ministry for Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs is organizing this meeting on October 17-18 under the theme "Citizenship for a Sustainable Planet". With a special emphasis on civil society from developing countries, the event aims to ensure that the outcome of UNCSD (Rio+20) be as inclusive as possible. Individual topics on the agenda include:

- green jobs as an opportunity;

- the role of cities;

- green economy and women; and

- food security.

Further information (agenda, location, etc.) will be put on UNEP’s website as it becomes available (www.unep.org/civil-society).

Green Growth Guide

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has released a guide titled: Green growth – implications for development planning. It is primarily aimed at national planners and policy advisors in developing countries and focuses on the role of economic tools in planning for green growth challenges.

OECD: Green Growth Strategy

The information note titled “The Green Growth Strategy Reshaping the OECD’s work agenda for the years to come” outlines the 2011-2013 work on green growth, which will be mainstreamed in OECD analytical work to enrich guidance on a number of country, sector and issue-specific areas. It also outlines upcoming work, quarter by quarter, on green growth through 2013, as well as key green growth events through 2012.

Global Green Growth Summit

Organized under the theme "Building Planet - Responsible Civilization," the 1st annual Global Green Growth Summit from 20-21 June in Seoul (Republich of Korea) explored: development strategies for green growth, prospects and challenges for the Republic of Korea's economy, enhancing global governance, and increased cooperation between the Republic of Korea and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The meeting ended with a message by President Lee Myung-bak, who stated that technology is key to a green economy with low carbon emissions.

Rio+20 News
GGGI Summit Proceedings

OECD: Green Growth and Agriculture

A preliminary report outlines a strategy for green growth in the agricultural sector and identifies three priority areas for policy making:

1) increasing productivity in a sustainable manner, in particular by prioritizing research, development, innovation, education, extension services and information;
2) ensuring that markets provide the right signals, and in particular that prices reflect the scarcity value of natural resources as well as the positive and negative environmental impacts of their use; and
3) establishing and enforcing well defined property rights, so as to ensure sustainable resource use.

OECD Preliminary Report on A Green Growth Strategy for Food and Agriculture

New Article: Directing Economic Development for Sustainability

A new article titled: “Creating the Law of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development" argues that a key to sustainability is redirecting the law of economic development and that a great many recently enacted laws that move the United States toward sustainability can be understood as economic development laws.

These laws:

- require an increase in more sustainable activity,

- create a legal structure in which more sustainable activity can flourish,

- remove legal impediments to sustainability,

- apply traditional economic development laws to more sustainable activities,

- overcome market barriers to more sustainable activities,

- foster economic development in ways that also have job creation and environmental benefits, and

- support the development of green infrastructure. 

Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1791680.  Click on “Download” and follow the simple instructions.

Energy and Green Industry Ministerial Meeting

The Ministerial Meeting on Energy and Green Industry, convened from 21-22 June in Vienna (Austria) sought to contribute to the preparations for UNCSD (Rio+20) and addressed global objectives for access to clean energy, energy and resource efficiency, and promoting green industry as an integral component of the green economy.

The meeting considered a set of three proposed goals, referred to as the “30-30-30” goals:
(1) achieving universal energy access by 2030;
(2) increasing energy efficiency by 40% by 2030; and
(3) achieving 30% renewable energy by 2030.

IISD RS coverage of the Ministerial Meeting and Vienna Energy Forum 2011]

UNCSD (Rio+20): Subregional Preparation

The Subregional Preparatory Meeting for the Caribbean convened at Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Headquarters in Georgetown (Guyana) to discuss creating a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, the need for a blue economy addressing oceans and related issues, the institutional framework for sustainable development (IFSD), and emerging issues and partnerships.

Participants noted that more work needs to be done and very little time remains before Rio+20. They heard presentations on and discussed a SIDS-focused paper on the “Green Economy in SIDS,” a proposed framework for a paper on IFSD, and a paper on existing coordinating mechanisms in the Caribbean.

In closing, suggestions were made to use the format of regional task force mechanisms to analyze documents and guide national preparations for Rio+20. One participant noted the importance of gathering tools for achieving sustainability and increasing resilience, with others stressing the need for greater engagement in more strategic discussions and greater coordination.

IISD RS Coverage of the Meeting

Report: A Business Case for Green Economy

UNEP, the UN Global Compact, Oxfam and WRI have released a study titled “Adapting for a Green Economy: Companies, Communities and Climate Change.” The report makes the business case for private sector adaptation to climate change, including through building the resilience of vulnerable communities in developing countries

Hydropower and Sustainability

The International Hydropower Association (IHA), during its biennial World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower from 14-17 June, in Foz de Iguaçu (Brazil) adopted a Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol .

The Congress also reflected on the latest IPCC assessment on renewable energy, the sustainability challenges to hydropower development, opportunities arising from the growing interest in green growth strategies within the international community, as well as from the growth of carbon market finance opportunities.

It established the need to diversify power sources and consider renewables as 'complementary' rather than alternative sources of energy. Special discussions were also held on the social and environmental impacts of the Belo Monte hydropower project recently approved in Brazil's Amazon basin.

IISD RS Coverage

 

WHO: Health and Green Economy Series

The World Health Organization has launched a report on health co-benefits of climate change mitigation in the housing sector, the first of a new series of reports on health in the green economy, which undertakes a systematic analysis of climate change mitigation and green growth strategies in five economic sectors: housing, transport, health care facilities, household energy in developing countries and agriculture.

WHO Health in the Green Economy Website

UN Regional Commissions: Decent Work and Sustainable Development

Senior officials of the five UN regional commissions met on 14 June to analyze the importance of decent work in the context of greener and more sustainable globalization, as part of the 100th Session of the International Labour Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In his presentation, Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) underlined the importance of reaching agreement so that developed countries may meet their financial and technology transfer commitments, with the aim of encouraging sustainable development and achieving a new low-carbon world economy, in accordance with Principle 9 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

ECLAC Press Release