This report suggests a conceptual framework for the new statistical field “ICT and the environment” based on an existing OECD framework for information society statistics. Sources of official data to populate the framework are investigated and some relevant work has been identified. Given the serious environmental problems facing the world, and the potential for ICT to both lessen and worsen those problems, it is suggested that this field should be of more interest to official statisticians. A number of actions are recommended and they include: conducting new or expanded household and business surveys, expanding statistical classifications to better reflect ICT and the environment, ensuring that sample sizes are sufficient to enable better identification of ICT and environment data, and producing time series data on the topic. This summary was prepared by Eldis.
This UNCTAD publication covers policy responses to meeting the challenge of climate change and the changes to the economic system that need to take place in order to do so. The report asserts that the greatest challenge to mitigating climate change is not the macroeconomic costs, but the lack of policy, regulatory and institutional structures to support the shift to a more sustainable economy that combines low‐carbon growth with job and income creation in developing countries.
The report presents three overarching ‘growth poles’ that can provide opportunities for low‐carbon economic growth and place the global economy on a path to more sustainable development. These growth poles are:
• Energy efficiency
• Sustainable agriculture
• Renewable energy technologies
Each pole is explored in great detail and policy options for the identified initiatives are discussed. The report includes an energy efficiency case study from Brazil.
The study has found that there is no existing Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCM) in Vietnam but that opportunities exist for poverty reduction projects to derive a source of funding from the international VCMs. It is however impossible at this point in time to quantify the scale of the opportunity as VCMs are in their nascent stages of development and represent a fickle and unreliable income stream that fluctuates significantly with the economy and voluntary sales and prices have declined significantly since the economic crash.
Improving environmental performance, tackling global warming and enhancing resource management are high on the list of global challenges that must be addressed urgently. The information and communications technology (ICT) industry needs to further improve its environmental performance (it is responsible for around 2-3% of the global carbon footprint), and ICT applications have very large potential to enhance performance across the economy and society (the remaining 97-98%). Governments and business associations have introduced a range of programmes and initiatives on ICT and the environment to address environmental challenges, particularly global warming and energy use. Some government programmes also contribute to national targets set in the Kyoto Protocol (e.g. Denmark’s Action Plan for Green IT and Japan’s Green IT Initiative). Business associations have mainly developed initiatives to reduce energy costs and to demonstrate corporate social responsibility. This survey analyses 92 government programmes and business initiatives across 22 OECD countries plus the European Commission.
This book presents the research and analysis carried out during the first phase of the OECD Project on Sustainable Manufacturing and Eco-innovation. Its aim is to provide benchmarking tools on sustainable manufacturing and to spur eco-innovation through better understanding of innovation mechanisms. It reviews the concepts and forms an analytical framework; analyses the nature and processes of eco-innovation; discusses existing sustainable manufacturing indicators; examines methodologies for measuring eco-innovation; and takes stock of national strategies and policy initiatives for eco-innovation. This book is part of the OECD Innovation Strategy and is also one of the first contributions to the OECD Green Growth Strategy.
Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of the twenty-first century for developed and developing countries alike. Though developing countries have contributed the least to the causes of climate change, they stand to suffer more due to their vulnerability to extreme environmental events. Women and men working in sectors most dependent on the weather, such as agriculture and tourism, are likely to be most affected. Climate change, moreover, is not gender neutral. Women are increasingly being seen as more vulnerable than men to the effects of climate change because they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources. What is more, women tend to play a greater role than men in natural resource management – farming, planting, protecting and caring for seedlings and small trees – and in ensuring nutrition and as care providers for their families. Yet, in the long run, no one – women or men, rich or poor – can remain immune from the challenges and dangers brought on by climate change.