With the sun gradually setting on the Kyoto Protocol (Phase One), it has become quite apparent that the global response to resource scarcity and climate change is going to be variable and disaggregated.
Increasingly, countries and businesses across the globe are adopting various financial mechanisms and policies in order to manage such challenges. However, many such responses are restricted to advanced, developed countries, whereas the effects of climate change and the increasing cost of resources such as fossil fuels are likely to be more severe for developing countries. This dichotomy in response measures needs to be urgently addressed, and this report is an attempt to highlight the benefits of an inclusive growth oriented financial response mechanism with particular focus on India.
The technical brief highlights the close inter-linkages between climate change and the world of work and discusses entry points for promoting policy coherence between climate and social and labour policies.
This report comprises a series of three perspectives of the ‘Green Economy’ from leading experts Jose Antonio Ocampo, Aaron Cosbey and Martin Khor and an overarching summary by Jose Antonio Ocampo. The core elements of the paper are:
In this report, the WBCSD puts forward six key elements to enhance investments and sales of low-carbon technologies in developing countries. These range from government signals to foster low-carbon solutions to engaging business more actively into the international and national climate change process.
The diffusion of low-carbon technologies to developing countries is necessary to achieving a 450 parts per million (ppm) atmospheric CO2 target and keeping an increase of global temperature below 2ºC.
As key providers of technology and innovation, companies can support these targets but the transition to a low-carbon growth will be facilitated if governments set up frameworks that are conducive to investment in the first place.
Specifically, the six elements to enhancing investments and sales of low-carbon technologies are:
This paper lays out how a ‘green economy’ must be designed to contribute to – rather than distract from – sustainable development. The authors define the equitable green economy as one that is ‘not a state but a process of transformation and a constant dynamic progression. The Green Economy does away with the systemic distortions and dis‐functionalities of the current mainstream economy and results in human well‐being and equitable access to opportunity for all people, while safeguarding environmental and economic integrity in order to remain within the planet’s finite carrying capacity. The economy cannot be Green without being Equitable.’
The paper proposes five key working principles that aim to help inform policy and market decisions in progressing the green economy and providing the link between an equitable green economy and sustainable development. The principles are that the Green Economy:
1. Links to policies specifying clear goals for key cross‐cutting pre‐requisites (enabling conditions) to address systemic distortions and dis‐functionalities in order to establish the foundation for equitable transformation and achieving sustainable development.