The working paper is a response to the call for the UN system to support countries interested in pursuing green economy policies by providing methodologies for their evaluation. It aims to provide guidance to policy analysts and advisers, and other stakeholders, who are involved in developing green economy policies by using indicators as a tool for identifying priority issues, formulating and assessing green economy policy options, and evaluating the performance of policy implementation. Emphasis is placed on policy options with “multiple dividends” across the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development.
This paper focuses on how to undertake energy subsidy reform in light of country experiences. The paper reviews the challenges arising from energy subsidies, emphasizing their fiscal costs, adverse macroeconomic and environmental impacts, and the regressive distribution of subsidy benefits. A novel feature of the paper is that it presents the most comprehensive estimates of energy subsidies available covering petroleum products, electricity, natural gas, and coal. A central objective of the paper is to learn from past subsidy reform experiences, both successful and otherwise, to identify key design features that can facilitate reform.
The paper draws on lessons from international reform experiences from 22 country case studies (covering 28 reform episodes) undertaken by IMF staff, which are provided in a supplement to this paper.
Developing countries are faced with the dual challenge of reducing poverty while improving management of natural capital and mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and local pollutants. The challenge is particularly acute for large, rapidly growing economies, such as India, China and Brazil. In 2007 the Energy Sector Management Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank began to provide support to countries to develop long-term frameworks for reducing GHG emissions in a way that is compatible with economic growth objectives. This report presents lessons learned from seven country studies. These include: countries must take the leading role; adopt a flexible approach and build a multi-disciplinary team; stakeholder engagement and consensus building is essential; allow sufficient time and resources; and invest in data and tools. The report is intended as a practical guide for government officials, practitioners and development agencies involved in low carbon development planning.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
In June 2012, the Green Infrastructure Finance Framework Report was published to address the constraints in financing green infrastructure and to develop a new approach to accelerate investments in low-emission technologies. The approach includes a financing and advisory interface, which clarifies the principles and concepts of the shared financing roles recommended by the methodology. The Framework attempts to bring clean investments towards a more familiar financing environment and to distance them from the charged political debate that has adversely affected the progress in international climate change discussions for over a decade. The detrimental effect of climate change is growing, yet clean investments are still grossly insufficient making it necessary to rethink the approach to greening the global energy mix. The need for some level of concessional financing or outright subsidy support is widely understood but the approach must be equitable, non-political and deliver a sufficient level of support.
In order to achieve long-term sustainable growth, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa need to adapt their economies and growth models taking 'Green Growth' or 'Green Economy' concepts into account. Only in a scenario, where economic growth and the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources are equally taken into consideration, poverty can be reduced in a sustainable way. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ supports partner countries in the transition towards a Green Economy, helping them to use upcoming opportunities, manage political risks throughout the transformation process, and tap into new markets and products based on a green economy.
Each of the last several years has seen a fresh record high in global carbon dioxide emissions, and scientists say if this trend continues the planet will suffer a catastrophic increase in temperature. With electricity generation responsible for about half of recent growth in emissions, a new IEA book looks at ways the power sector can keep up with an improvement in global living standards while minimising the risk of drastic climate change.
In Electricity in a Climate-Constrained World, IEA experts consider potential solutions ranging from the design of a Chinese emissions trading programme to stand-by consumption of networked appliances to carbon capture and storage.
The book lays out the reasons electricity generation must get cleaner, and do so quickly. Higher temperatures will affect all aspects of human life, including the very electricity sector that emits so much of the cause of climate change.
Low Carbon Development: Key Issues is the first comprehensive textbook to address the interface between international development and climate change in a carbon constrained world. It discusses the key conceptual, empirical and policy-related issues of low carbon development and takes an international and interdisciplinary approach to the subject by drawing on insights from across the natural sciences and social sciences whilst embedding the discussion in a global context.
This publication serves as a background document highlighting initiatives which have been successfully implemented to facilitate a transformation to a green development on different levels: the level of single companies, the household level and the macro-economic level (countries).
By bringing together the large number of existing best practice examples, an argument is made that a concerted effort could realise the transition towards the urgently required systemic change. In addition concepts that go beyond “Green Growth”, resulting in a more “colourful” development are discussed.
This paper explores the relative average GHG intensity of production of selected goods in different world regions and the potential for regions to access low-GHG fuels and feedstocks needed to expand low-GHG production. While a complete analysis of shifting trade patterns would assess the economic implications, including the scale effect, the authors present a simplified approach which allows them to gauge what conditions might enable countries to be future low-GHG producers.
They begin by looking at the emissions embodied in trade (Section 2), based on a multiregional input-output model, to help identify significant trade flows for further analysis. Section 3 then examines differences in GHG-intensity among regions for some of the categories identified, while Section 4 asks whether and how shifting the location of steel production could reduce global GHGs. Section 5 assesses a range of national and international policies that could be used to shift trade patterns. Section 6 summarizes the results and identifies areas for further research.
The G20 Development Working Group (DWG) has tasked an informal group of co-facilitators with developing a Dialogue Platform on Inclusive Green Investment (G20 DPGI) to promote the increase of private investment related to green growth and climate-related activities in developing countries, with a specific focus on lower middle income countries. The G20 DPGI will hone in on stocktaking and lessons learned from existing initiatives, as well as an extensive literature review, with the aim to better identify the barriers to private investment and the mechanisms that have been successfully used to overcome these. Drawing on these ideas, the G20 DPGI may also wish to explore new initiatives to attract world-scale institutional funds that could finance large investments. To be successful the dialogue platform should advance mutual understanding between publicly funded, donor programs and the diverse range of potential private investors, in order to better design financing instruments that efficiently use public funds to best mobilize and leverage private funds.