Rapid economic growth in India during the last two decades has accentuated the demand for energy and natural resources related to water, land and forests. Based on a review of the current policy framework in these areas and data from fieldwork in the northeastern region of India, this paper addresses two inter-related themes: (i) how emerging economies like India have dealt with the question of access to resources in response to the opposing demands of inclusive growth and social divides; and (ii) the specific case study of the 'Green Mission' and hydroelectric power (HEP) dams on the river Teesta in India’s northeastern Himalayan region.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
This report is the first major output of a project on Water and Green Growth, led by the Government of the Republic of Korea and the World Water Council (WWC). It is the result of over 12 months of research and analysis by an international group of experts. It provides an analysis of 26 case studies that illustrate various aspects of water and green growth, and then uses the analysis to recommend a draft framework for policymakers.
Global warming and other impending environmental mega-problems call for a new technological paradigm. The urgency of the development and deployment of technological solutions is such that governments will need to make widespread use of ‘carrots and sticks’ to ensure that next-generation technologies are developed and deployed, more demanding standards and regulations are applied and stricter enforcement is guaranteed. To capture the main elements of this paradigm shift, we introduce the concept of Sustainability-oriented Innovation Systems (SoIS). SoIS make particularly high demands on governance, because governments need to disrupt unsustainable technological pathways and encourage alternative technologies long before they reach the stage of commercial viability. This implies picking winners in situations of technological uncertainty and highly disparate stakeholder preferences. SoIS also build on new types of policies that help to internalise environmental costs. The policy-driven nature of technological development may possibly result in a wide divergence of national technological trajectories.
This paper explores existing patterns of green innovation and presents an overview of green innovation policies for developing countries. The key findings from the empirical analysis are: (1) frontier green innovations are concentrated in high-income countries, few in developing countries but growing; (2) the most technologically-sophisticated developing countries are emerging as significant innovators but limited to a few technology fields; (3) there is very little South-South collaboration; (4) there is potential for expanding green production and trade; and (5) there has been little base-of-pyramid green innovation to meet the needs of poor consumers, and it is too early to draw conclusions about its scalability.
Why were participant countries in the Rio+20 conferences (2012) not able to find any common ground on the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) as they sought to identify a path for achieving “green economy” in the decades ahead? The current policy brief seeks to answer this question by examining the evolution of the global debate on IPRs and green technologies from the Earth Summit in 1992 to Rio+20.
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This volume examines the experiences of 21 developed and developing countries in adjusting their training provision to meet the new demands of a greener economy. Analysts started by identifying the drivers of transformation to a greener economy – changes in the physical environment itself and changes induced by government regulations, more efficient technologies and changes in consumer demand. Then they assessed the effect of these changes on employment, identifying areas of job growth and of job loss
Only then could researchers start to understand how skill requirements are changing and are expected to change in the future, and to examine how well national training systems are anticipating and responding to these new needs. Their analysis shows that skills development is critical to unlocking the employment potential of green growth, yet skills shortages are becoming an obstacle in realising this potential. The report recommends that countries devise strategies based on well-informed policy decisions, social dialogue, and coordination among ministries and between employers and training providers.