This report highlights the main outcomes of the European Union Water Initiative (EUWI) in the Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries. Section 2 highlights specific achievements at the country level in the context of national policy dialogues facilitated by the OECD and UNECE. Section 3 focuses on water diplomacy, highlighting progress in the context of transboundary water management and the regional dimension of the EUWI EECCA. Section 4 looks ahead and suggests avenues for future work in the region, highlighting where the input of the EUWI and EU member states can make a difference. Section 5 describes how National Policy Dialogues work as a process for achieving policy reform. In addition, country fiches highlight in more detail specific achievements at country level in the context of national policy dialogues facilitated by the OECD and UNECE.
This policy manuel aims to help the European Union’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – design or reform economic instruments related to environmentally harmful products. Within the broad range of economic instruments to promote greener growth, this manual addresses instruments directed at changing consumer purchasing behaviour (product taxes) and those targeting improvements in waste generation and management (deposit-refund systems and extended producer responsibility schemes). The main target audience of this policy manual includes government stakeholders (ministries of environment, economy and finance) as well as business communities, non-governmental and academic institutions in EaP countries.
It is widely acknowledged that introducing a price on carbon represents a crucial precondition for filling the current gap in low-carbon investment. However, as this paper argues, carbon pricing in itself may not be sufficient. This is due to the existence of market failures in the process of creation and allocation of credit that may lead commercial banks – the most important source of external finance for firms willing to invest – not to respond as expected to price signals. Under certain economic conditions, banks would shy away from lending to low-carbon activities even in presence of a carbon price. This possibility calls for the implementation of additional policies not based on prices. In particular, the paper discusses the potential role of monetary policies and macroprudential financial regulation: modifying the incentives and constraints that banks face when deciding their lending strategy - through, for instance, a differentiation of reserve requirements according to the destination of lending - may fruitfully expand credit creation directed towards low-carbon sectors.
As an increasing number of countries adopt green economy strategies, there is a need to support them in measuring the magnitude of this new economy. This papers aims to guide them in this discussion. An Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS) framework is a vital instrument for facilitating the greening of the economy, as it encompasses the two priority areas for green economy indicator development, namely the greening of conventional economic activities and the growing share of green or environment-related sectors.
This report examines the feasibility of China adopting new global standards for tracking the latest data and trends in its Environmental Goods and Services Sector (EGSS), as a means to inform its green development strategy and identify potential new green growth opportunities. This is the first study to explore how EGSS framework could be adopted by a country with an emerging economy.