It is estimated that transitioning to a low-carbon, and climate resilient economy, and more broadly “greening growth” over the next 20 years to 2030 will require significant investment and consequently private sources of capital on a much larger scale than previously. With their USD 28 trillion in assets, pension funds - along with other institutional investors - potentially have an important role to play in financing such green growth initiatives.
Green projects - particularly sustainable energy sources and clean technology - include multiple technologies, at different stages of maturity, and require different types of financing vehicle. Most pension funds are more interested in lower risk investments which provide a steady, inflation adjusted income stream - with green bonds consequently gaining interest as an asset class, particularly - though not only - with the SRI universe of institutional investors.
Quoting a joint analysis undertaken by the OECD and the IEA, G-20 leaders committed in September 2009 to "rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption." This report draws on previous OECD work to assess the impact on international trade of phasing out fossil-fuel consumption subsidies provided mainly by developing and emerging economies. The analysis employed the OECD’s ENV-Linkages General-Equilibrium model and used the IEA’s estimates of consumer subsidies, which measure the gap existing between the domestic prices of fossil fuels and an international reference benchmark. It shows that a co-ordinated multilateral removal of fossil-fuel consumption subsidies over the 2013-2020 period would increase global trade volumes by a very small amount (0.1%) by 2020. While seemingly negligible, this increase hides the large disparities that are observed across countries (or regions) and products. Under the central scenario, which assumes a multilateral subsidy removal over the 2013-2020 period, trade in natural gas would be most affected, with a 6% decrease by 2020.
This plan, produced by Climate Works Australia, sets out emissions reductions opportunities for Australia, the challenges faced in capturing them, and actions required to succeed. The report identifies opportunities available to businesses as well as guiding the actions required for Government and consumers to achieve the emissions reductions for Australia at the lowest possible cost. The report is not a national strategy of the Australian Government per se, but it was funded through the Australian Carbon Trust and regional and national governmental departments.
This paper provides an overview of existing measures relating to non-product-related processes and production methods (PPMs) adopted in the context of climate-change-mitigation policies, especially those linked to the life-cycle greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions of particular products. Such domestic PPM-related requirements and schemes are important policy tools for promoting sustainable development and are aimed at addressing GHG emissions resulting from the activities involved in producing, processing and transporting the product to the final consumer. Their ostensive purpose is to promote better environmental outcomes and to ensure that domestic climate-change policies and incentives do not inadvertently undermine other environmental objectives. Even though the general objectives of the reviewed regulations and private schemes are comparable (e.g. the promotion of renewable-energy sources, or provision of information on the carbon footprint of goods), the approaches, level of detail, choices of instruments and targeted environmental characteristics vary considerably from country to country and from scheme to scheme.
Developments over the past few years have shown that reforms to address climate change are no less difficult to implement than reforms in other areas, even if the objective of limiting global warming is broadly accepted. In the case of global public goods such as the climate, the political challenge is further complicated by the need to convince voters that domestic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is worth taking, notwithstanding the cost and uncertainties regarding other countries’ commitments. This paper seeks to draw a number of political-economy lessons from reform experience in other economic areas, and considers how these lessons can be applied to the particular case of climate change mitigation policy. It examines the main ingredients for building a constituency for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies at home, stressing the need to establish the credibility of the overall objective and intermediate targets.
Climate change is one of the most pressing threats to development today. Addressing climate change requires that countries take an integrated approach to climate and development planning so that policies and actions across multiple sectors and scales facilitate the adaption to climate change and deliver poverty reduction gains. An important tool for countries to manage climate finance is the National Climate Fund (NCF). NCFs are nationally-driven and nationally-owned funds that help countries to collect climate finance from a variety of sources, coordinate them, blend them together and account for them. This guidebook is part of a series of practical guidance documents and toolkits to support national and sub-national governments to achieve low-emission, climate-resilient development. It is based on UNDP’s decades of experience in delivering climate change programming in order to help countries design and establish an NCF.
The guide presents the following as key goals of NCFs:
•collect sources of funds and direct them toward climate change activities that promote national priorities