Achieving global goals for poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental health will require widespread innovation and implementation of new and appropriate “green growth” technologies. Establishing a sufficiently large suite of innovative options, suitable to all economies, and at the urgent pace required will involve unprecedented innovation activity not only from developed regions, but also from new clusters and enterprises in emerging economies and least developed countries. Stronger international cooperation can play a critical role in facilitating this transformative process. In this paper, we look at areas for new partnerships or cooperation that could most effectively accelerate a green growth transformation. We do this by reviewing the components of a successful innovation “ecosystem,” assessing the current status and prospects for green growth innovation, compiling and analyzing existing international initiatives, assessing the needs and pragmatic constraints on international institutions, and recommending an integrated approach to spur global green growth innovation partnerships, especially within developing countries.
This report highlights key trends in a growing body of research on the links between climate change and development. The purpose of the review is to pull out the main findings from this body of research to inform policymakers and practitioners who are working towards climate compatible development. It draws on a meta-synthesis of hundreds of policy-relevant research papers published between January 2010 and August 2011, and a closer review of almost 100 of those papers. All the papers chosen for inclusion in the review spoke to two key questions: how does climate change affect development and how can development contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation? The review focuses on four themes: decision-making in the face of uncertainty; natural resource management in a changing climate; innovative finance for climate action; and technology transfer and division of effort for the low carbon transition.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
An Analysis of Physical and Monetary Losses of Environmental Health and Natural Resources in India provides estimates of social and financial costs of environmental damage in India from three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution; (ii) inadequate water supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene; and (iii) indoor air pollution. It also provides estimates based on three natural resource damage categories: (i) agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and soil erosion; (ii) rangeland degradation; and (iii) deforestation.
The paper Harnessing Public Trade Finance to Foster a Green Economy in Developing Countries: Current State of Play and Way Forward investigates the potential to harness trade finance to foster the development of a green economy in developing countries.
This document is a contribution to the OECD Project on "Behavioural Economics and Environmental Policy Design". It provides succinct, one-page summaries of the intervention studies analyzed to date, with an emphasis throughout on how the results are relevant for environmental policy. It also describes a potential framework for expanding this collection of examples into an online searchable inventory. It has been prepared by Laura Vong (formerly OECD Secretariat and Université de Nantes) and overseen by Zachary Brown (OECD Secretariat).
The paper evaluates the impacts on investments and public finance of a transition to a green, low carbon, economy induced by carbon taxation. Four global tax scenarios are examined using the integrated assessment model WITCH. Taxes are levied on all greenhouse gases (GHGs) and lead to global GHG concentrations equal to 680, 560, 500 and 460 ppm CO2-eq in 2100. Investments in the power sector increase with respect to the Reference scenario only with the two highest taxes. Investments in energy-related R&D increase in all tax scenarios, but they are a small fraction of GDP. Investments in oil upstream decline in all scenarios. As a result, total investments decline with respect to the Reference scenario. Carbon tax revenues are high in absolute terms and as share of GDP. With high carbon taxes, tax revenues follow a “carbon Laffer” curve. The model assumes that tax revenues are flawlessly recycled lump-sum into the economy. In all scenarios, the power sector becomes a net recipient of subsidies to support the absorption of GHGs.