This working paper assesses opportunities and policies for green growth in the Chicago Tri-State Metropolitan Area. It first examines the Chicago metro-region's economic and environmental performance and potential constraints to regional growth, and identifies emerging regional specialisations in green products and services. This is followed by a review of sector-specific policies that can contribute to green jobs, green firms and urban attractiveness, with particular attention to energy-efficient buildings, the wind energy industry, public transportation, and the water and waste sectors. Finally, the working paper considers the role of workforce, innovation and governance policies, focusing on skill shortages and skill mismatches in the regional labour market, ways to make the most of the region's innovation assets, and opportunities for regional institutional co-ordination.
This is the final report for the joint Adam Smith International and Vivid Economics ‘study of mechanisms to incentivize the financial sector to scale up financing of green investment in Jordan’. The overall aim of the study is to identify the barriers associated with private sector financing of ‘green economy’ activities in Jordan. The study also proposes possible ways to overcome these barriers, drawing, where appropriate, on experiences in other countries. The decision to undertake this study was taken in 2010 by Jordan’s Prime Minister and Ministry of Environment following a Green Financing Seminar held by the Ministry of Environment and the Association of Banks of Jordan. It also follows a Scoping Study – Towards a Green Economy carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with the Ministry of Environment carried out in 2011.
Growing concerns about the environmental unsustainability of past economic growth patterns and increased awareness of a potential future climate crisis have made it clear that the environment and the economy can no longer be considered in isolation. At the same time, the financial and economic crisis has provided the opportunity for policy interventions aimed at encouraging recovery and renewed growth on more environmentally and socially sustainable grounds. A strategic vision is necessary to ensure that, during the crisis exit and beyond, the policies that governments will implement are the most appropriate from an economic efficiency, environmental integrity and social equity point of view, as well as coherent both at a national and an international level.
Energy consumption is growing in developing countries at a great pace and improvements in energy efficiency (EE) could provide opportunity for economic growth while providing broader access to energy and related services even from limited energy resources. This report underlines that moving the developing world towards a low carbon economy requires a scaling up of financing for EE. It examines the current role of climate finance in funding EE projects and the potential to channel funds to relevant EE projects under the new Green Climate Fund. The report focuses primarily on public climate finance flows from North to South, probing the current use of funds from multilateral development banks, bilateral financial institutions and carbon markets for energy efficiency projects in developing countries. The report makes eight recommendations on the design of climate and sustainable energy finance programmes to ensure that EE projects are adequately funded by climate finance.
This summary was prepared by Eldis.
The New Growth Strategy aims to create demand and jobs through regulatory reform and fiscal measures. The Strategy focuses on key challenges, notably climate change and population ageing, which can be turned into sources of growth. Given Japan’s precarious fiscal position, it is essential to co-ordinate spending related to the Strategy with the medium-term fiscal plan, in part by increasing the emphasis on regulatory reform. Such measures should cover the entire economy, rather than being limited to the seven areas identified in the Strategy. Among those areas, effectively promoting green innovation will require market-based instruments to place a price on carbon, preferably through a mandatory and comprehensive emissions trading system, to promote private investment, accompanied by a range of other policies. Achieving deeper economic integration with Asia depends on reducing support for agriculture to facilitate more bilateral and regional trade agreements, while bringing down barriers to foreign direct investment and foreign workers. Policies to expand venture capital would help launch innovative firms.