Based on more than 40 interviews with energy sector CEOs and senior executives, as well as the 2012 Energy Sustainability Index, this 4th edition of the World Energy Trilemma report attempts to identify and describe what industry executives believe they need from policymakers. The report acknowledges that executives and policymakers urgently need to work together in order to achieve a transition to a sustainable energy system. Key to this report are the three dimensions of energy sustainability: energy security, social equity and environmental impact mitigation. These three core dimensions form a complex web of links between private and public actors, regulators, resources, economic and social forces, and environmental concerns that must be fully understood by all.
This report by CARE highlights the need for Rio+20 to deliver on sustainable development solutions with equity and resilience as central pillars. It includes the following recommendations for the United Nations conference: ensure that discussions fully and explicitly recognise that urgent action on climate change must be part of a global action plan for sustainable development; prioritise adaptation and resilience to climate change in green economy as essential for the poorest and most vulnerable groups; pursue developed country mitigation strategies by shifting to low carbon development pathways globally; create a set of universal sustainable development goals (SDGs) that address all three (economic, environmental, social) dimensions of sustainable development alongside the drivers of poverty and inequality; recognise that solutions to these crises must be based on principles of good governance and equity.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
Green growth is an environmental policy strategy that aims at an absolute decoupling between economic growth and resource consumption. As far as the applied policy measures focus on direct enhancements of economy-wide resource efficiency levels, their overall achievements might however be weakened by their induced rebound effects. This paper seeks to investigate the nature and significance of such trade-off interrelationships with regards to material efficiency improvements within the German economy. To this, we present the outcomes of individual policy simulations by means of the PANTA RHEI model. Taxes, information, and regulation activities are considered as policy instruments. Our overall empirical findings cannot falsify the green growth paradigm as the observed magnitude of economy-wide rebound effects appears unable to inhibit future absolute decoupling trends.
The process of urbanisation is advancing rapidly. Towns and cities are now responsible for almost four fifths of global GDP; their share in global resource consumption and CO2 emissions is of a similar order. Cities play a leading role in the transformation from consumptive to eco-efficient societies – in short, to a “green economy”. All actors, private and public need to ensure that economic activities contribute to sustainable development. A sustainable economy is not only economically sensible, but also ecologically indispensable. All responsible institutions have to ensure the creation of enabling frameworks for actors in such a way that the “common goods” are protected and that the long-term conditions for living and economic activity are secured.
Cities are home to more than half the global population and are responsible for 60 to 80 per cent of energy use and more than 75 per cent of carbon emissions. This report examines how cities can better access climate finance through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It recommends reforming the existing CDM to allow for methodologies geared towards cities. It also recommends the development of a CDM programme of activities for pilot cities that would inform the future development of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and assist in the transition to a green economy.
Energy consumption is growing in developing countries at a great pace and improvements in energy efficiency (EE) could provide opportunity for economic growth while providing broader access to energy and related services even from limited energy resources. This report underlines that moving the developing world towards a low carbon economy requires a scaling up of financing for EE. It examines the current role of climate finance in funding EE projects and the potential to channel funds to relevant EE projects under the new Green Climate Fund. The report focuses primarily on public climate finance flows from North to South, probing the current use of funds from multilateral development banks, bilateral financial institutions and carbon markets for energy efficiency projects in developing countries. The report makes eight recommendations on the design of climate and sustainable energy finance programmes to ensure that EE projects are adequately funded by climate finance.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.