Developing countries are faced with the dual challenge of reducing poverty while improving management of natural capital and mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and local pollutants. The challenge is particularly acute for large, rapidly growing economies, such as India, China and Brazil. In 2007 the Energy Sector Management Program (ESMAP) and the World Bank began to provide support to countries to develop long-term frameworks for reducing GHG emissions in a way that is compatible with economic growth objectives. This report presents lessons learned from seven country studies. These include: countries must take the leading role; adopt a flexible approach and build a multi-disciplinary team; stakeholder engagement and consensus building is essential; allow sufficient time and resources; and invest in data and tools. The report is intended as a practical guide for government officials, practitioners and development agencies involved in low carbon development planning.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
This paper explores the relative average GHG intensity of production of selected goods in different world regions and the potential for regions to access low-GHG fuels and feedstocks needed to expand low-GHG production. While a complete analysis of shifting trade patterns would assess the economic implications, including the scale effect, the authors present a simplified approach which allows them to gauge what conditions might enable countries to be future low-GHG producers.
They begin by looking at the emissions embodied in trade (Section 2), based on a multiregional input-output model, to help identify significant trade flows for further analysis. Section 3 then examines differences in GHG-intensity among regions for some of the categories identified, while Section 4 asks whether and how shifting the location of steel production could reduce global GHGs. Section 5 assesses a range of national and international policies that could be used to shift trade patterns. Section 6 summarizes the results and identifies areas for further research.
The G20 Development Working Group (DWG) has tasked an informal group of co-facilitators with developing a Dialogue Platform on Inclusive Green Investment (G20 DPGI) to promote the increase of private investment related to green growth and climate-related activities in developing countries, with a specific focus on lower middle income countries. The G20 DPGI will hone in on stocktaking and lessons learned from existing initiatives, as well as an extensive literature review, with the aim to better identify the barriers to private investment and the mechanisms that have been successfully used to overcome these. Drawing on these ideas, the G20 DPGI may also wish to explore new initiatives to attract world-scale institutional funds that could finance large investments. To be successful the dialogue platform should advance mutual understanding between publicly funded, donor programs and the diverse range of potential private investors, in order to better design financing instruments that efficiently use public funds to best mobilize and leverage private funds.
The notion of green economies seems to have gained momentum in both developed and developing countries. For South Africa, the transition to a green economy presents a mix of challenges and opportunities. This stems from the fact that South Africa faces myriad socio-economic realities that force the country to maintain a generation of industries that contribute directly to the production of greenhouse gases in order to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality. This paper provides an overview of South Africa’s attempts to migrate to a green economy. It specifically looks at the domestic and continental implications of South Africa’s reorientation of its economy towards a low-carbon growth path. While the country has managed to put together impressive policies meant to steer it onto a trajectory of low carbon economic growth, the realities facing South Africa point to an opposite direction.
In June 2012, the Green Infrastructure Finance Framework Report was published to address the constraints in financing green infrastructure and to develop a new approach to accelerate investments in low-emission technologies. The approach includes a financing and advisory interface, which clarifies the principles and concepts of the shared financing roles recommended by the methodology. The Framework attempts to bring clean investments towards a more familiar financing environment and to distance them from the charged political debate that has adversely affected the progress in international climate change discussions for over a decade. The detrimental effect of climate change is growing, yet clean investments are still grossly insufficient making it necessary to rethink the approach to greening the global energy mix. The need for some level of concessional financing or outright subsidy support is widely understood but the approach must be equitable, non-political and deliver a sufficient level of support.