Going for Growth 2011 highlights the structural reforms needed to restore long-term growth in the wake of the crisis. For each OECD country and, for the first time, six key emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa), five reform priorities are identified.
This report asks whether and how this transformation could become an economic opportunity rather than a costly burden. Could a transformation to a low-carbon energy system induce net economic growth that can ease the transition to a low carbon economy? Or must it only be a pricey impediment whose costs offer support to those who would resist change? We address three aspects of this problem:
1. What are the proper roles for markets, prices, and governments in the move to a new energy system?
2. Which policy interventions can become investments in a productive future, and which are just costs that we must bear to achieve our other policy objectives?
3. Can the shift to low-carbon, high-efficiency energy drive “green growth” and business opportunity?
This report contains 7 case studies from various countries and regions, and their strategies to shape green growth, as well as the obstacles encountered. These green growth cases cover Brazil, California, China, Colorado, Denmark, the EU, and Korea.
In this paper, the authors consider only two great transformations in the history of human mankind to be comparable to the Great Transformation towards a global low-carbon economy faced now: the Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. This paper discusses different social, economic, and cultural theories which might help to understand this far reaching socio-economic transformation and focus on specific arenas of change in which low-carbon dynamics occur. The authors argue that the technological, economic, and social main elements which will permit the transformation to be made to climate compatibility are already emerging. On the other hand the speed and geographical spread of the low-carbon dynamics are still not sufficient to avoid dangerous climate change.
The paper provides details on the OECD green growth strategy and focuses on what lessons the aid-for-trade community can learn from this work. The paper reviews the current literature on aid for trade and green growth as well as broader work on green growth and developing countries and the role of development co-operation. It provides an overview of the aid-for-trade flows that support environmental objectives with examples of particular projects. The paper highlights that environmental objectives have long been articulated in aid programmes and that although Official Development Assistance (ODA) is a relatively minor contributor to green growth, its role can be catalytic.
Food exporters are increasingly being asked by retailers to measure and reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their products, and new market requirements have emerged, mainly in the form of standards on ‘product carbon footprinting’ (PCFs). The current policy brief indicates that PCF standards have gained significant traction in the agri-food sector, and they can create new potential opportunities for exporters in the transition to a green economy.
The policy brief introduces the following findings: