The private sector plays an important role in enabling or hindering green growth in developing countries. With increasing emphasis for development co-operation providers to engage private actors, there is a need for a sound understanding of the theory of change and the efficacy of private sector engagement approaches in supporting environment and development outcomes.
This paper contributes to this agenda and helps inform efforts of development assistance provider. It maps the major approaches used to engage the private sector, i.e. to mobilise private climate investment, promote green private sector development and harness the skills and knowledge from private actors, and highlights some challenges and lessons learned. The paper also provides an estimate of climate-related development finance targeting private sector engagement.
This report provides an analysis of how climate change damages may affect international trade in the coming decades and how international trade can help limit the costs of climate change. It analyses the impacts of climate change on trade considering both direct effects on infrastructure and transport routes and the indirect economic impacts resulting from changes in endowments and production. A qualitative analysis with a literature review is used to present the direct effects of climate change. The indirect impacts of climate change damages on trade are analysed with the OECD’s ENV-Linkages model, a dynamic computable general equilibrium model with global coverage and sector-specific international trade flows. By building on the analysis in the OECD (2015) report "The Economic Consequences of Climate Change", the modelling analysis presents a plausible scenario of future socioeconomic developments and climate damages, to shed light on the mechanisms at work in explaining how climate change will affect trade.
This report estimates fossil fuel subsidies to be around USD 425 billion. Such subsidies represent the large lost opportunities for governments to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development. Removal of subsidies can lead to carbon emission reductions (6~8% by 2050 globally), Reductions that can be improved further with a switch or a "SWAP" towards sustainable energy.
This report describes the scale and impact of fossil fuel subsidies on sustainable development. It describes the SWAP concept to switch savings made from fossil fuel subsidy reform, towards sustainable energy, energy efficiency and safety nets. The report provides potential SWAP outlines for Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco and Zambia. "Making the Switch" was written for the Nordic Council Ministers by the Global Subsidies Initiative of IISD and Gaia Consulting.
This paper builds on this new global sustainable development framework: making the case to mainstream poverty, environment — and now climate — issues into the centre of efforts to implement the SDGs, nationally Determined Contributions and other initiatives towards the 2030 agenda. the paper addresses the significant scale of linked poverty, environment and climate problems and emphasises the need for structural reforms, especially to improve inclusion.
The paper updates the context — with a stock-take on how linked poverty, environment and climate issues have been addressed together. It makes the point that poverty, environment and climate issues are highly political, being both created and sometimes resolved by business and social actors, and not only government. Yet the initiatives that have dealt with them tend to have been too technocratic and limited by current political, governance and finance rules.
Behavioural insights can help policy makers obtain a deeper understanding of the behavioural mechanisms contributing to environmental problems, and design and implement more effective policy interventions. This report reviews recent developments in the application of behavioural insights to encourage more sustainable consumption, investment and compliance decisions by individuals and firms.
Drawing on interventions initiated by ministries and agencies responsible for environment and energy, as well as cross-government behavioural insights teams, it portrays how behavioural sciences have been integrated into the policy-making process. The report covers a variety of policy areas: energy, water and food consumption, transport and car choice, waste management and resource efficiency, compliance with environmental regulation and participation in voluntary schemes. It shows what has proven to work – and what has not – in policy practice in OECD countries and beyond.