International trade in environmental goods and services (EGS) may contribute to the achievement of environmental, economic and developmental benefits and to the transition towards a “green economy”. The international community has been exploring several strategies to promote sustainable development through enhanced trade in EGS. One key question remains how to maximise the sustainable benefits of trade liberalisation and market creation/expansion of EGS for developing countries. This paper seeks to explore the possible role of trade preferences for EGS in promoting the transition towards a “green economy”, focusing on potential beneficial effects for developing countries.
This publication calls for a shift away from labour- and resource-intensive production towards resource-efficient productivity. Only if changing patterns of consumption are aligned with corresponding transformations in governance systems and companies, can a real green growth transition occur. Therefore green growth needs to combine business and household strategies towards a better life for all.
Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. Extending the use of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) is a key component in mitigating and adapting to climate change. WIPO, along with industry partners, recently launched the pilot version of a new platform known as WIPO GREEN, which seeks to accelerate the adaptation, adoption and deployment of green technologies. WIPO GREEN is a sustainable technology exchange that promises to help facilitate the adaptation, adoption and deployment of climate-friendly technologies, particularly in developing countries and emerging economies.
The ocean is an essential part of the world economy for transport and for the resources it contains and activities it supports. Yet, the health of oceans is in decline and future opportunities are being lost through this degradation. The current system of governance and management of oceans is in need of urgent reform. This discussion paper provides a concrete framework for considering how this might be achieved.
The paper sets out a 5-part practical action framework to transform the way in which oceans are governed to create a more harmonised approach that supports long-term environment, social and economic goals.
In its flagship report, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) elaborates explicitly on the fact that the technological potential for comprehensive decarbonisation is available, outlines business and financing models for the transition, and points out that the political instruments needed for a climatefriendly transformation are widely known. The council also describes how the requisite transformation encompasses profound changes to infrastructures, production processes, regulation systems and lifestyles, and extends to a new kind of interaction between politics, society, science and the economy. Various multilevel path dependencies and obstacles must be overcome. Furthermore, the transformation can only succeed if nation states put global cooperation mechanisms before their own shortterm oriented interests, in order to make a trend reversal, particularly as far as the global economy is concerned, towards climatefriendliness and sustainability possible. And not least, from a global perspective, this is also about issues of fairness – issues that need resolving.
Going for Growth 2011 highlights the structural reforms needed to restore long-term growth in the wake of the crisis. For each OECD country and, for the first time, six key emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa), five reform priorities are identified.
This report asks whether and how this transformation could become an economic opportunity rather than a costly burden. Could a transformation to a low-carbon energy system induce net economic growth that can ease the transition to a low carbon economy? Or must it only be a pricey impediment whose costs offer support to those who would resist change? We address three aspects of this problem:
1. What are the proper roles for markets, prices, and governments in the move to a new energy system?
2. Which policy interventions can become investments in a productive future, and which are just costs that we must bear to achieve our other policy objectives?
3. Can the shift to low-carbon, high-efficiency energy drive “green growth” and business opportunity?
This report contains 7 case studies from various countries and regions, and their strategies to shape green growth, as well as the obstacles encountered. These green growth cases cover Brazil, California, China, Colorado, Denmark, the EU, and Korea.
In this paper, the authors consider only two great transformations in the history of human mankind to be comparable to the Great Transformation towards a global low-carbon economy faced now: the Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. This paper discusses different social, economic, and cultural theories which might help to understand this far reaching socio-economic transformation and focus on specific arenas of change in which low-carbon dynamics occur. The authors argue that the technological, economic, and social main elements which will permit the transformation to be made to climate compatibility are already emerging. On the other hand the speed and geographical spread of the low-carbon dynamics are still not sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change.
The paper provides details on the OECD green growth strategy and focuses on what lessons the aid-for-trade community can learn from this work. The paper reviews the current literature on aid for trade and green growth as well as broader work on green growth and developing countries and the role of development co-operation. It provides an overview of the aid-for-trade flows that support environmental objectives with examples of particular projects. The paper highlights that environmental objectives have long been articulated in aid programmes and that although Official Development Assistance (ODA) is a relatively minor contributor to green growth, its role can be catalytic.
Food exporters are increasingly being asked by retailers to measure and reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their products, and new market requirements have emerged, mainly in the form of standards on ‘product carbon footprinting’ (PCFs). The current policy brief indicates that PCF standards have gained significant traction in the agri-food sector, and they can create new potential opportunities for exporters in the transition to a green economy.
The policy brief introduces the following findings: