Insights Blog

The concept of environmental capital is thoroughly entrenched in policy discussions but largely missing from mainstream economic curriculum. This column by Carlo Cararro, Marianne Fay and Marzio Galeotti argues environmental externalities, climate change, and constraints on natural resources will constantly and deeply affect humankind’s future. The teaching of economics, especially growth economics, should stop ignoring them.

WWF and KnowlEdge Srl (KE) review the existing methodologies and models being used to inform-decision making and craft an approach that merges existing knowledge to understand if there is a way to make use of the strengths of each tool in an integrated way.

Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Policy Specialist on Green Jobs at the International Labour Organisation, explores the emerging evidence that green economies create jobs.

Finance experts Iain Henderson and Johan Kieft, in Jakarta for the Forests Asia Summit; and Sean Kidney, at the Abu Dhabi UN Ascent, look into all the exciting around green bonds as a mechanism to finance sustainable land use.

Scott Muller of the LEDSGP working group on Sub-national Implementation shares some of the themes discussed during the parallel session on Sub-national Governance and Climate at the GGKP and Africa LEDS Partnership workshops in Kinshasa, DRC last April 2014.

The Inquiry into Design Options for a Sustainable Financial System has passed its first milestone, and is alive and well. On 9th April, on the eve of the IMF/World Bank Spring, the World Bank hosted the Inquiry`s first Advisory Council meeting in Washington DC. The meeting, convened just 10 weeks into the Inquiry`s life, was designed to stress test and provide guidance on its fundamental scope and approach.

Alice Kaudia, Member of the GGKP's Advisory Committee, reflects on her participation in the GGKP and Africa LEDS Partnership back-to-back workshops, held in Kinshasa DRC 1-3 April 2014.

Practitioners and policymakers working towards sustainable development are constantly seeking information to understand what is happening around the world in the context of their work. At the same time however, a recent explosion of content and improved access to it (e.g. open data policies) has resulted in an unprecedented amount of information to sift through.The flood of content, in our email inboxes, on the intranet, in our online searches, in data warehouses or in the cloud is just that, a flood. Never have we had so much information at our disposal, but what is the content of all that content? More often than not, we simply have no idea.

UNEP’s new International Resource Panel report shows how REDD+ must move from pilot project to mainstream if the world is to significantly reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, ecosystem degradation and loss of biodiversity.

William Krist of the Wilson Center discusses the recent annoucement by 14 countries to negotiate a sector agreement that would eliminate tariffs on environmental goods.