Sustainable infrastructure is at the nexus of growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, and is therefore important to making progress toward the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to end poverty by 2030.
The report Financing Change: How to Mobilize Private-Sector Financing for Sustainable Infrastructure examines how to create the financing environment that could create a step change in private-sector capital flows into sustainable infrastructure. By evaluating and analyzing the global demand for infrastructure and the current lack of enough supply of finance, the report offers an overview of solutions to boost private-sector investment in sustainable infrastructure in a way that creates value for investors as well as improving climate and development outcomes.
The ninth annual State of Green Business report continues the tradition of opening a window into how, and how much, companies are improving their environmental performance and how much their efforts are making a difference. It looks at both common measures (energy, waste and carbon) and some less-common ones (for example, company's low carbon investments over the past five years).
The report also discusses 10 top sustainable trends in circular economy, technology and supply chain, green infrastruture and mining practices, as well as carbon recycling and green jobs among others to highlight future green opportunities for businesses. Moreover, it provides a quantitative view of corporate performance, leadership, and market drivers.
Actions to stimulate low-carbon innovation – a global policy priority – are moving full speed ahead. Twenty countries from across the developed and developing world, including the UK, the US, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, recently signed up to ‘Mission Innovation’ at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, promising to double their public investment in low-carbon energy innovation and to promote increased international cooperation. Alongside this, a global group of 28 key investment players from 10 countries, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson, are mobilising to deliver ‘truly transformative energy solutions for the future’ as part of the new ‘Energy Breakthrough Coalition’. In addition, the European Commission is developing a strategy to support low-carbon innovation, to be published with the second State of the Energy Union report in late 2016. This policy brief provides evidence to inform these and other initiatives seeking to stimulate low-carbon innovation.
The present paper seeks to examine the ways in which current trade policies and frameworks enable or hold back the pressing need for further development of clean energy. Based on this analysis, it identifies a set of policy options for the global trade system to support the scale-up of CETs. A first set of options is related to addressing systemic issues with a view to enhancing trade governance for renewable energy and climate policies in the context of the WTO framework. These proposals include: 1- an amendment of GATT rules; 2- temporary waivers; 3- an interpretive understanding to clarify existing obligations; 4- a plurilateral agreement; 5- a moratorium on dispute settlement in the area of clean energy.
A new economic paradigm is emerging that is going to dramatically change the way we organize economic life on the planet. The European Union is embarking on a bold new course to create a high-tech 21st century smart green digital economy, making Europe potentially the most productive commercial space in the world and the most ecologically sustainable society on Earth. The plan is called Digital Europe. The EU vision of a green digital economy is now being embraced by China and other developing nations around the world.
In this expanded digital economy, private enterprises connected to the Internet of Things can use Big Data and analytics to develop algorithms that speed efficiency, increase productivity and dramatically lower the marginal cost of producing and distributing goods and services, making European businesses more competitive in an emerging post-carbon global marketplace
The objective of the paper Trade Policy Options for Sustainable Oceans and Fisheries is to provide fresh thinking on the key challenges facing the world’s oceans and fisheries and identify policy options and reform opportunities for the global trade system to support a transition towards sustainable fisheries and healthier oceans.