The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid. This year, the Development Co-operation Report 2012 seeks to provide insights into how to address today’s sustainable development challenges, with a focus on inclusiveness and good governance to ensure that our finite resources are equitably distributed, now and in the future. Sharing finite resources among a growing number people – and consumers – is a critical challenge.
This publication summarises the proceedings of a conference organised during April 2012 in Lisbon by the think tank Platform for Sustainable Growth (Plataforma para o Crescimento Sustentável) on the topic “How can we foster green growth?” Speakers included António Costa e Silva (CEO of Partex), Joy Kim (Advisor at United Nations Environmental Programme), Peter Vis (Chief of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner on Climate Action) and Carlos Pimenta (Coordinator of Sustainability at PCS). The aim of the event and the follow-up publication was to identify the role green economy can play to achieve sustainable growth in Europe in general and Portugal in particular.
“Green growth” is an attractive slogan with a variety of possible meanings. This essay critically examines several potential meanings of this slogan and provides a brief overview of some of the main implications of the other papers in this special issue. Taken together, these papers argue for the importance of careful analysis of energy/environmental policies, particularly ambitious ones claiming to offer huge benefits with little or no cost.
This article appeared in the Energy Economics Supplemental Issue: Green Perspectives.
The world is at a juncture where future financing for forests and REDD+ seems uncertain, and there is a clear risk of a narrative of disappointment setting in. These pressures demand a redoubling of international efforts.
In light of the new challenges and the lessons learned, this paper suggests several pathways to be considered for the next phase of financing of efforts to protect forests, and to enable forest countries to adopt alternative development pathways in which deforestation is reduced. These pathways include the need to: