China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has launched a ground-breaking report that sets out in specific and practical terms an ambitious agenda of how China can green its rapidly developing financial and capital markets.
The report, entitled “Establishing China’s Green Financial System”, is the outcome of a Green Finance Task Force which was tasked to develop policy, regulatory and market-innovations that would better align China’s financial system with the needs of green industry and sustainable development. The Task Force was co-convened by the Research Bureau of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and the United Nations Environment Programme project Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System (`UNEP Inquiry`).
A growing number of companies globally have started to develop and apply circular business models. These business models replace the traditional linear, “end-of-life” concept. Companies are now employing restoration rather than destruction and are shifting away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. Manufacturers are stopping the use of toxic chemicals and aiming towards the elimination of waste through superior material, product and system design. Governments have good reasons to act as well: Besides strengthening the economy by saving hundreds of billions of euros per year on finite resources, the shift to a more circular economy not only stimulates innovation, it also offers the promise of new employment opportunities. Given the importance of government intervention in establishing sustainable national economies, the Dutch Sustainability Business Association has in this publication identified best practices by analysing government initiatives worldwide.
The Korean government adopted “green growth” in 2008 as an environmentally friendly growth strategy. The energy efficiency of Korea, however, is still relatively low due to the large portion of energy intensive industry (EII) in its manufacturing sector. To improve energy efficiency in Korea, from an EII perspective a new approach has to be taken because restructuring entire industries would take too much time and be too costly. This study aims to emphasize the importance of innovation and analyze the effects of R&D on product and process innovations in EII in Korea. The Probit model is adopted to estimate the effects of eight determinants in the Korea Innovation Survey 2008 data. The results of this study demonstrate that one of the most important determinants, the R&D personnel ratio, has a strong positive effect on both product and process innovation, while another determinant, R&D intensity, only has a strong and positive effect on process innovation in EII. Because of the resulting innovation, energy policies should be enacted to enhance energy efficiency.
Current models examining the possible implications which changes towards a low-carbon economy may reflect for low-income countries include a look at best practices from countries such as Kenya, Cambodia and Nepal, some of which may also prove relevant for the Caribbean context. To this end, ten key measures were identified by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) which could help such countries to remain competitive in a future low-carbon global economy. These ten measures further assisted in examining the Caribbean context and may be seen to sum up the various observations and recommendations already examined within this paper.
The analysis in this report focuses on selected production-consumption systems, which link environmental, social and economic systems across the world - generating earnings, supporting ways of living, and meeting consumer demands - and also account for much of humanity's burden on the environment. production and consumption are addressed together because they are highly interdependent. Only by adopting an integrated perspective is it possible to get a full understanding of these systems: the incentives that structure them, the functions they perform, the ways system elements interact, the impacts they generate, and the opportunities to reconfigure them.