One of the strong messages that came out of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Durban was that the private sector has to play an important role if we are to globally move toward a low carbon, climate resilient—or “climate compatible”—future. However, private investment will only flow at the scale and pace necessary if it is supported by clear, credible, and long-term policy frameworks that shift the risk-reward balance in favor of less carbon-intensive investment. The private sector also needs information on where to invest in clean energy in emerging markets, and it needs policy support to lower investment risk. Barriers to low carbon investments often include unclear and inconsistent energy policies, monopoly structures for existing producers, stronger incentives for conventional energy than clean energy, and a domestic financial sector not experienced in new technologies.
This brief examines the reasons behind the current drive towards sustainable public procurement (SPP), and the barriers that have to be overcome in order to implement it. It also looks at the key benefits and methods involved in SPP and green public procurement (GPP). The author explains that a significant share of the world’s GDP is associated with expenditures by governments. On average, total public expenditures by central and local governments are estimated to account for about 20% of GDP in OECD countries, and roughly 15% in non-OECD countries.
Governments have increasingly become involved in making their procurement “greener” or more sustainable. While green procurement and sustainable procurement refer to different concepts, the underlying idea is the same: to use public procurement in order to achieve desirable environmental and, in the case of sustainable public procurement, social outcomes.
Reasons for engaging in GPP or SPP include:
This report is very much focused on private sector led initiatives to responding to climate change. The report is based upon the results of a survey of business leaders committed to advancing climate action, especially in ways that build the resilience of vulnerable communities in developing countries. It offers help to companies with national, regional or global reach to develop strategies for dealing with the immediate to long‐term consequences of climate change in developing countries where they have operations, supply chains, employees, or customers.
The first phase of the REDD+ mechanism consists of helping countries to improve their capacity to carry out national forest inventories, notably to assess land-use changes and forest carbon stocks and fluxes. However, there might be some links between the funding of this first phase and the quantity of avoided deforestation that will happen during the following phases of REDD+. This paper precisely investigates those links, using a simple two-step, two-players, subsidiary-based REDD+ mechanism.
Bangladesh seeks to attain middle-income status by 2021, the 50th anniversary of its independence. To accelerate growth enough to do so, it will need to undergo a structural transformation that will change the geography of economic production and urbanization. Critical to its transformation will be the creation of a globally competitive urban space, defined here as a space that has the capacity to innovate, is well connected internally and to external markets, and is livable (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD 2006; World Bank 2010). This study identifies what is unique about Bangladeshs process of urbanization and examines the implications for economic growth. Through the lens of Bangladeshs most successful industry, the garment sector, it describes the drivers of and constraints to urban competitiveness. Based on the findings, it provides policy directions to strengthen the competitiveness of Bangladeshs urban space in ways that will allow Bangladesh to reach middle-income status by 2021.
The paper reviews evidence of the economic impacts of green infrastructure in fragile states. Upfront construction costs for GI were up to 8% higher than non-green infrastructure projects. Climate Finance was not adequately captured by Fragile states for GI investments, and governance issues may further hinder capability to take full advantage. GI Investments needed strong government participation as well as institutional capacities and capabilities that fragile states may not possess. Potential poverty reduction includes improved agricultural yields and higher rural electrification rates, benefits that can be transmitted to other sectors of the economy not directly linked to the GI investment. Whilst there are examples of GI investments creating new jobs in a number of sectors, it is unclear what the employment opportunities advantages are in respect to traditional infrastructure investments. The correct market conditions (i.e. labour regulations or energy demand) are also required in order to maximise employment creation opportunities. Such factors that may not be fully exploited by fragile state governments lacking the capacity to do so.
The report “Resource Productivity in the G8 and the OECD” (also available in French), responding to a request by G8 Environment Ministers at their meeting in Kobe in 2008, presents an evaluation of progress on resource productivity. It highlights key trends and main policy developments related to resource productivity in OECD countries, with a particular focus on efforts to implement sustainable materials management; and identifies the main policy challenges and opportunities and discusses the steps that need to be taken to achieve further progress.
There are currently debates in many countries on whether or not to adjust or correct the measure of gross domestic product (GDP) for deterioration of the state of the environment and depletion of natural resources. The surge in interest for developing such a "green GDP" can perhaps be traced back to the World Commission on Economy and Development's report "Our common future" (WCED, 1987) and the follow-up conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, (UNCED). Also the process of revising the system of national accounts (SNA) and the emergence of a "blue book" on System for Economic and Environmental Accounting (SEEA) (UN, 2003) have played an important role in motivating these debates.
This report is an effort to summarise international experiences and current status with regard to the development of a "green GDP". The context is an ongoing debate in China on how to measure performance at the national and local level in a way that not only gives incentives for economic development, but also take due notice and care of the impact on the environment and the natural resources of the unprecedented economic development taking place in parts of China.
This publication includes the latest available economic, financial, social and environmental indicators for the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It aims to present the latest key statistics on development issues concerning the economies of Asia and the Pacific to a wide audience. Part I of this issue is a special chapter on green urbanisation in Asia. This chapter tackles two growing concerns: environmental sustainability and rapid urbanisation. It argues that proper management of the urbanisation process can mitigate the environmental impacts and lead to a better life for the region's urban residents. Parts II and III comprise of brief, non-technical analyses and statistical tables on the millennium development goals (MDGs) and seven other themes. This summary was prepared by Eldis.
As France works out its plan to tackle climate change issues, questions are arising in the forest sector as to how sectoral mitigation programs such as those designed to enhance fuel wood consumption or to stimulate in-forest carbon sequestration may coincide with an inter-sectoral program such as an economy-wide carbon tax.
This paper provides insights into this question by exploring the impacts of (1) a combination of a carbon tax and a fuel wood policy, and (2) a combination of a carbon tax and a sequestration policy on (i) the economy of the forest sector, and (ii) the dynamics of the forest resource. To do this, a modified version of the French Forest Sector Model (FFSM) is used and simulations are carried out on a 2020 time horizon.