Insights Blog

The transition to a green economy is happening irrespective of government direction. It’s being driven by citizens and business and by global trends. Policymakers need to anticipate these impacts and ensure that policies and programs are in place to harness the full strength of the workforce.

His excellency Ambassador Alvaro Cedeño Molinari is the current Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the World Trade Organization (WTO). He has graciously accepted to share with the GGKP his statement from the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council Meeting on 24 October 2017 on the future of world trade.

The Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) facility brings sustainable development knowledge from UN roundtables to the desks of infrastructure investors.

With our ecosystems, our climate, and our societies all straining to cope with the economic pressures of the 21st century, the need for green economies is more urgent that ever before. This primer charts the journey and latest thinking on what green economy means in 2017 - with lots of handy links if you're interested in learning more.

Making the world’s energy and infrastructure safe and sustainable for the future is going to take money – lots of money. Are green bonds a sign that financial markets are starting to mobilise?

Oceans cover three-quarters of the globe, and a staggering 80% of all life on Earth is found hidden beneath their waves. They also represent an enormous economic opportunity, which is why the “Ocean Economy” is driven by a combination of growing ocean-based industries, jobs and rising incomes as well as concerns about growing pressures on dwindling marine resources and response to climate change.

Can the international trade system be a catalyst for reforming fossil fuel subsidies (FFSs) to help relieve the burden on the public purse, reduce local and global air pollution, improve energy security and tackle climate change? 

This was the theme of a recent workshop set at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and organised by Climate Strategies, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The event forms part of a broader conversation on how the international trading system can be made compatible with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Does disruption always come from new entrants, or can large, established corporations play a role in the transition to a circular economy?

A global survey of 50 companies found that 40% of hydropower operators see evidence of climate change already influencing their engineering and design measure to a large extent. Yet most hydropower facility investors and operators do not consider future climate conditions, nor do energy planners adequately assess climate change risks in power planning.

“We can’t introduce additional environmental policies. Won’t they negatively impact our economic growth?”

This is a common concern for many policymakers around the world. Available evidence is not yet conclusive, indicating both gains for competitiveness in some cases and competitiveness decline in others.  Perhaps more importantly, the empirical analysis on this topic as a whole is surprisingly sparse, particularly for developing countries.