In 2013, following the UNEP Governing Council Decision and with the support of the government of China, UNEP began work to share the South’s various experiences and national-level initiatives for transitioning to sustainable and socially inclusive economies. This work culminated in 2015 when UNEP published a report, entitled Multiple Pathways to Sustainable Development: Initial Findings from the Global South, that highlighted four unique national initiatives: Living Well in Bolivia, Ecological Civilization in China, Green Economy in South Africa, and Sufficiency Economy in Thailand.
This report serves to build on that earlier publication by examining four additional approaches that have been adopted at the country or regional level: Circular Economy in the European Union (EU) and Germany, Natural Capital Accounting in Botswana, Payment for Ecosystem Services in Costa Rica, and Gross National Happiness in Bhutan. The purpose is to show that there is no “one size fits all” approach to sustainable development, but rather a range of concepts, methodologies, and tools that can be used, depending on the specific context.
This report Reforming Economic Instruments for Water Resources Management in Kyrgyzstan presents recommendations on the reform of economic instruments for water resources management in Kyrgyzstan, specifically on tariffs for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) and irrigation water, pollution charges, surface water abstraction charges for enterprises (consumptive and non-consumptive uses), specific land tax rates for the Issyk-Kul biosphere reserve, as well as taxes and customs duty on products contributing to water pollution.
High upfront costs and investment risks constitute critical barriers for investments in low-carbon infrastructure technologies in the Middle East and North Africa. This article uses a case study of Morocco's solar strategy for the electricity sector in order to explore how domestic versus regional/multilateral governance structures impact upon the downside risk of clean energy investments and translate into lower financing costs. The authors firstly process-trace the differential effects of governance on policy and financial de-risking, intended as risk reduction and risk transfer. Then they quantify the impact of policy and financial de-risking on the financing costs of the Ouarzazate CSP Noor 1 project.
To be relevant to developing countries, green growth must be reconciled with the two key structural features of natural resource use and poverty in these countries. First, primary products account for the majority of their export earnings, and they are unable to diversify from primary production. Second, many economies have a substantial share of their rural population located on less favored agricultural land and in remote areas, thus encouraging “geographic” poverty traps. If green growth is to be a catalyst for economy-wide transformation and poverty alleviation in developing countries, then it must be accompanied by policies aimed directly at overcoming these two structural features. Policies and reforms should foster forward and backward linkages of primary production, enhance its integration with the rest of the economy, and improve opportunities for innovation and knowledge spillovers. Rural poverty, especially the persistent concentration of the rural poor on less favored agricultural lands and in remote areas, needs to be addressed by additional targeted policies and investments, and where necessary, policies to promote rural-urban migration.
The primary goal of the present study, Government Subsidies to the Global Financial System, is to understand the character and to estimate the total value of subsidies, both direct and implicit, from governments to the private sector institutions that make up the global financial system.
This report, Green Finance for Developing Countries, outlines key concerns and needs of developing countries in relation to green finance, particularly focusing on developing countries that are not members of the G20.