Agriculture accounts for 13 per cent of global GHG emissions. This rises to approximately 30 per cent if land clearance for farming, agrochemical production and trade in agricultural and food products are attributed to the sector. Market based mechanisms (carbon tax, cap and trade, payment for environmental services) and voluntary mitigation measures (carbon labelling and food miles) are reviewed for their effectiveness (if they reduce emissions), efficiency (the costs of the measures) and equity (fairness to suppliers). Measures to reduce agricultural emissions are limited in their effectiveness and efficiency by the technical difficulty and high costs of measuring, reporting and verification. However, pricing carbon would be effective in internalizing negative externalities in the transport, processing, retail and consumer purchase and preparation of food. The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model is used to illustrate that a US$ 40 carbon tax implemented in the EU would have little negative impact on developing country exporters of agricultural products due to their low carbon intensity.
The world is increasingly faced with the challenges stemming from the need to sustain an expanding global population while simultaneously addressing the environmental pressures that could threaten our ability to accomplish this. Green growth has emerged as a strategy to balance the historically divergent priorities of achieving economic growth and social development without putting at risk the environmental systems and natural capital we rely so heavily upon. This approach emphasizes the environmental and economic gains achieved by reducing inefficiencies in the management of resources and the stimulation of new sources of activity through innovation and green market growth.
IISD and the Partnership for Procurement and Green Growth conducted an investigation to explore the correlation between public procurement and the tipping point at which it serves as a trigger for green industrial innovation, expansion and growth. Building on the existing body of work that supports the case for green public procurement, the report demonstrates that procurement is becoming more than just a purchasing tool, but is increasingly positioned as an economic driver, an incentive for green innovation and green industrialisation, a support for small and medium enterprise (SME) competitiveness and much more.
This report is part of the United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environment Facility’s (UNDP-GEF) efforts to codify and share lessons learnt from how scarce public resources can be used to catalyse larger private financial flows for renewable energy. It provides an overview of UNDP-GEF projects in 14 developing countries which are supporting the development of national renewable energy policies based around feed-in tariffs and related instruments. In these activities UNDP-GEF assists developing countries to assess key risks and barriers to technology diffusion and then to identify a mix of policy and financial de-risking measures to remove these barriers and drive investment. This approach is illustrated through three case studies in Uruguay, Mauritius and Kazakhstan. The report finds that a key challenge for policy makers is to create the conditions to make renewable energy attractive to investors and utilities without jeopardising the attainment of other development goals.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
This paper explores the value of green growth from the perspective of sustainable development practitioners. First, it provides a brief definition of green growth, and why the concept is relevant for meeting Africa’s challenges. It then discusses how green growth can be achieved, highlighting some of the primary tools for achieving it, and then discussing focal areas that we believe will have the greatest impacts by spurring growth sustainably. Finally, it discusses how the AfDB has promoted green growth through its own initiatives. Boxes throughout the paper provide examples of the AfDB’s promotion of green growth in its project portfolio.
The publication addresses in detail seven priority areas for the Rio+20 conference: decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness.