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This report was prepared for the G20 Development Working Group to inform the creation of a public-private G20 Dialogue Platform on Inclusive Green Investment  to scale up commercially viable financial investments. The report provides a stocktaking exercise on existing innovative mechanisms to mobilize private capital for inclusive green growth investments in developing countries, and how to scale them up, including  initiatives to engage institutional investors in these investments to identify best practices. The report distills key lessons learned and policy implications as the basis for strategies for attracting investment outside the G20 countries, consistent with making green growth more “inclusive”.

While the term ‘green economy’ has been widely used at the international level, very little information exists about what the concept looks like in practice. It remains to be explored what policies are required, and what the challenges of implementation at national level are.

This book contains case studies from eight small states that have committed publicly to greening their economies: Botswana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Nauru, Samoa and Seychelles. It provides insights into the success of various initiatives and highlights how small states themselves are making practical progress on a green economy approach.

The State of Green Economy Report 2015 was developed by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (DSCE) and the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (Dubai Carbon) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It was launched under the framework of the World Green Economy Summit. The publication engaged the private sector, as well as the United Nations network. 

Six thematic chapters touch on the progress and innovation in green economic development including smart cities and living, clean energy, sustainable lifestyle and consumer choices, responsible tourism, green industries, and environmental finance and investments.

This working paper reviews the use of tax preferences to achieve environmental policy objectives. The paper suggests that the comparative advantage of tax preferences is in providing support for positive externalities. When designing tax preferences, care must be taken to ensure that they do not encourage technological lock-in, provide perverse incentives for environmentally harmful activities, or reward producers or consumers for actions they would have taken anyway. Since tax preferences are a form of subsidy, they should be subject to the same degree of scrutiny and oversight as other forms of public expenditure.

The book includes a survey assessing the performance of the United Nations and its member states in all key areas, laying down a road map for sustainable development in the future. Deploying the Human Green Development Index (HGDI) as a new metric for an era in which human survival is intimately dependent on the viability of the Earth as a clean and sustainable habitat, the report showcases a large array of data, including HGDI indicators for more than 120 nations.