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28 August 2017, Geneva - On Monday, August 28 2017, PAGE hosted an expert workshop to gather feedback and ideas for the draft Green Industry and Trade Methodology toolkit.

Green Industry and Trade Assessments (GITAs) are a major tool offered by PAGE to determine opportunities for sectoral development to drive the new green economy. These assessments are undertaken in various PAGE partner countries, in collaboration with respective national partner institutes. To inform and guide the work of national partners, PAGE is devising a methodological toolkit for national-level Green Industry and Trade Assessments.

The toolkit will provide a concise but encompassing overview of trade-related green industrial policy instruments.

The toolkit is targeted primarily at national policymakers and green economy professionals and can be used in two ways: 

• Firstly, the manual can be used as a stand-alone tool-box by government officials, policy-makers and/or trade negotiators who want to consider a wide range of trade-related industrial policy policy options to advance the transition to inclusive green economies;
• Secondly, the present manual can be used as a trade-related tool complementing the PAGE Practitioner’s Guide to Strategic Green Industrial Policy from 2016.

The workshop gathered 15 experts from various organizations, including international organizations, NGO’s and Trade Missions to discuss the initial draft of the toolkit. PAGE will now integrate comments and feedback from the workshop, as well as additional comments received in written form, before the toolkit will undergo a second review process.

The toolkit is projected to be completed and released by December this year.

PAGE today has released a key tool for policymakers, analysts and other stakeholders for understanding how green economy is progressing. PAGE developed the Green Economy Progress (GEP) Measurement Framework to help countries evaluate their overall progress towards
an Inclusive Green Economy and to enable a cross-country comparison of progress. The GEP Measurement Framework complements UN Environment’s previously developed green economy indicators framework (UNEP, 2012; UNEP, 2014; and UNEP, 2015), which uses several types of indicators at different stages of a typical policymaking cycle.

The GEP Measurement Framework has four objectives:

• To support the assessment
of progress in achieving a selection of the SDGs within the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and establishing direct links with them;
• To help countries monitor progress against nationally set targets in priority areas;
• To introduce greater levels of transparency to policymaking and provide policymakers with the tools necessary to set-up policies that support the transition to an Inclusive Green Economy; and
• To measure and compare green economy efforts across countries.

The GEP Measurement Framework aims to understand the extent to which an inclusive green economy addresses three main global challenges, namely: (a) persistent poverty; (b) overstepped planetary boundaries; and (c) inequitable sharing of growing prosperity.

It includes measurements of accumulation of capital – be it natural, low carbon and resource efficient, human, or social – which serves as input for producing goods and services in an environmentally friendly manner. It also attempts to capture the transition of consumption, investment, government spending and trade towards such goods and services. The GEP Measurement Framework also includes measurement of the outcome of enabling policies that are conducive to an Inclusive Green Economy.

Progress in improving these outcomes is then analysed against specific planetary boundaries, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water and land use.

In its initial version, the GEP Measurement Framework is composed of a GEP Index and a companion Dashboard of Sustainability indicators. These components can be both analysed individually and combined to allow the ranking of progress by country (GEP+).

The first component, the GEP Index, measures the progress made in improving the well-being of current generations
in relation to economic opportunities, social inclusiveness and environmental protection. It is composed of 13 indicators that capture critical issues faced in achieving an Inclusive Green Economy transition, such as material footprint and inequality. The GEP Index focuses on the progress achieved by countries with respect to a target set for each individual indicator. Construction of the GEP Index utilizes a weighting system that allows for the assessment of how far off a country is from the global threshold on a specific component of
an Inclusive Green Economy (an indicator) and
an evaluation of the relative importance of one component (an indicator) with respect to the others from the country’s perspective.

The Dashboard
of Sustainability includes six indicators that track the sustainability of any progress that has been achieved as measured by the GEP Index. Its role
is to monitor the long-term sustainability of the factors underpinning humanity’s current and future well-being.

The GEP Measurement Framework Methodology, along with the GEP Measurement Framework Application package are now available to download here.

July 14 2017, Montevideo, Uruguay - A stocktaking workshop of the PAGE program for Uruguay was held this Friday,  the 21st July 2017, at the Uruguay Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM).

Uruguay is one of PAGE’s newest partner countries, joining the partnership at the PAGE Ministerial Conference in March this year.

As a demand-driven project, countries wishing to join the partnership must complete a comprehensive application process, demonstrating cross-ministerial support for green economy transition in the country. Uruguay acceded to PAGE thanks to the commitment of Presidency of the Republic of Uruguay, several ministries and institutions of the academy, the private sector and civil society. They are, in addition to the MIEM, the Ministry of Economy and Finance; The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment; The Ministry of National Defense; The Ministry of Labor and Social Security; The Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries; The Ministry of Health; The Ministry of Tourism; The Office of Planning and Budget; The National Secretariat for Environment, Water and Climate Change; The Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation; The University of the Republic; The University of Montevideo; The Catholic University; Claeh; The PIT-CNT; The Chamber of Industries of Uruguay; The Pando Science and Technology Park; The Cerro Industrial Technology Park; And the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations.

Since welcoming Uruguay to the PAGE family earlier this year, PAGE is setting its focus on catalyzing the process of green economy transition in the country, focusing investments and public policies towards a new generation of resources - cleaner technologies, healthy ecosystems, qualified green manpower - driven by strong institutions and good governance. Together, PAGE and Uruguay will promote the establishment of conditions that will drive increased prosperity, greater equality, conservation of natural resources and the eradication of poverty.

Interinstitutional work 

At the opening of the workshop, the undersecretary of MIEM, Guillermo Moncecchi, and the resident coordinator of the United Nations in Uruguay, Mireia Villar, spoke.

Moncecchi said that the work of the UN is taken "very seriously and with great force" in Uruguay. He also welcomed the fact that, since the project was presented in the Environmental National Cabinet, it brought together the multi-stakeholder approach. He considered that it is his "great strength" and the sample of the attitude with which this program is taken in Uruguay.

He also stated that this inter-institutional work "is not exceptional"; On the contrary, it is part of the state of development to which Uruguay has advanced, as the knowledge arising from the government, the academy, the private sector and civil society makes it possible to move to "new stages". "It is emblematic of the Uruguayan government and society," he said.

"Looking for what each one has to contribute will give us very good results as a country," Moncecchi said.

For his part, Villar said that PAGE represents an "open space" and an excellent opportunity to seek connections between the state, academia and the private sector. The objective is to accompany governments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

The UN resident coordinator, said that Uruguay is a country ideal characteristics to take the leap to accede to the "second half of the SDG table," referring to reductions in gaps in health and education, on which there have been years of work with good results.

However, he felt that he should be humble about the overall results obtained in areas such as the green economy, where, he pointed out, Uruguay has some progress to make, for which PAGE could be a valuable resource.

He explained that the alliance of PAGE is a platform for the exchange of knowledge inside and outside the partner countries. For this reason, high-level technical support is offered to those who want to "make a change in their public policies" and ensure policy coherence, avoid redundancy, provide overarching technical guidance, and the tools to measure progress and attract investors.

Villar congratulated Uruguay for wanting to join the Partnership, noting that this model was a good fit and consistent with the rest of the work that the country has done.

After the interventions of Moncecchi and Villar, the activity continued during the day, with interventions from, among others, the Secretariat of PAGE, the OPP, the National Secretariat for Environment, Water and Climate Change and the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development.

July 17 2017, New York, USA - As world leaders gathered over the last two weeks to discuss progress towards the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, one partnership of UN Agencies had an ambitious goal of its own. The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) believes that by convening international institutions, governments, the private sector and civil society, it can radically alter the way market forces work to promote sustainable and equitable economies. PAGE aimed to spread this message to thought-leaders and policy-makers at a side-event to the High Level Political Forum, entitled “Recalibrating Market Forces: How Greener and More Inclusive Economies and Finance are Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals.”

In the aftermath of a G20 summit that marked shared prosperity and environmental sustainability cornerstones for a broader global development agenda, the question of how to shape this future has never been so relevant.  Global economic activity increased almost sevenfold between 1950 and 2000, but that increased productivity has come at a cost, with rapid biodiversity loss, increasingly polluted air and waterways and climate disruption indicating to many that a new model for productivity must be found.

PAGE explored this issue at the side-event by covening leading international institutions, governments, the private sector and civil society to discuss pathways and options for radically altering the way market forces deliver sustainable and equitable economies. A first panel, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of unleashing green finance, featured speakers who stressed that the dual imperatives to protect the earth and spark economic growth are not necessarily at odds with one another. The second panel stressed the challenges of recalibrating market forces and explored policy options and institutional innovation as solutions.

Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, said “greener economies can be engines of growth, both in advanced and developing economies. They can generate decent green jobs that contribute significantly to climate mitigation and adaptation, but also to poverty eradication and social inclusion.”

Risto Artjoki, State Secretary to the Ministry of Finance of Finland, supported this point, proposing that an “increasing number of Governments and private companies recognize that future will be built on resource-efficient and climate-friendly solutions. In Inclusive Green Economy we do things in a smarter, more cost-efficient and sustainable ways.”

“More and more we are seeing that the choices that are good for profitability are the choices that are good for the planet. When the policy environment is ripe for it, we see that private investors are more than keen to jump on green investment opportunities,” said Simon Zadek, Advisor to the Secretary General on Financing for the SDGs. “What PAGE really does is help governments to create that policy environment, to give green enterprise, green trade, green jobs a place to flourish, and then investment can come in and really accelerate the progress on the ground.”

Organizers hope that the side-event will help mainstream these ideas even further. “The High Level Political Forum is really the stage where global decision makers and international institutions come together and think about ways we can meet the SDGs. We think the PAGE model is a really good example of how we can help countries at the very beginning of the process, but then it really takes on a momentum of its own,” said Asad Naqvi, Acting Head of PAGE Secretariat.

The Side-event focused on reviewing green development progress with a particular focus on the SDGs in order to demonstrate the innovative ways that green policies already contribute to reaching these world benchmarks. According to Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, “inclusive green economy approaches are central to advancing the integrated social, economic, and environmental goals of the 2030 agenda and successful implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

Others, such as Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Ministry for the Environment agreed, added, “The SDGs lead us to redefine what economic success means. There are already several CEOs who tell us that the goals are an excellent reference point for their corporate investment strategies. But of course, this can only be a start. We must also ensure that the massive  investments until 2030 estimated at 6 trillion USD per year into energy, transport, water and agriculture systems will be truly sustainable. This will pay off financially and serve our societies in the long-term. PAGE is a unique alliance leading the way for this transition towards sustainable economies.”

The event closed with special remarks from Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UN Development Programme.  He mapped the evolution of green economy and PAGE as a concept and partnership designed to open new choices and options for countries, noting that the success of the partnership is driven by the strong country ownership expressed by the panelists and participating countries.  He remarked that this kind of initiative is totally aligned with the Secretary General’s call for system wide reform of the UN system, and its ability to work together and deliver on the 2030 agenda. The event included speakers from donor governments, PAGE countries, UN organizations and the private sector and took place on Monday July 17, 2017 at Scandinavia House, New York City, and was attended by more than 100 people. See more photos on our Flickr account.

Photos courtesy of UN Environment New York Office.

July 5 2017, Accra, Ghana - Rahinatu Sidiki Alare is a Technical Officer at the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) at the University of Ghana. She is one of the many men and women who comprise the PAGE Community of Trainers, an initiative launched through a training of trainers (ToT) event in Turin in October 2016. Here, Rahinatu provides a short update on how she is using what she learned on green economy in Turin back home in Ghana:

“The Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies organizes regular seminars during which experts in related fields share research activities with staff, students and the university community. These seminars are also organized for students (MPhil & PhD) to present their research findings as part of their course work at the Institute. During one of such seminars, I had the opportunity to give a presentation on the issue of Green Fiscal Reform and Ghana’s Experience using the materials from Turin. The audience also interacted by asking various questions related to the presentation. Among the audience present at the seminar was the Programme Coordinator of the Institute, research fellows and students. The slides and case study materials were shared among the audience for further reading and practice.”

PAGE has been working on building up a pool of local trainers that can deliver learning action on core green economy themes. Many of the participants of the ToT in Turin in October 2016 are now actively advancing green economy learning in their home countries. Bat Buyantsogt, a professor of economics at the National University of Mongolia, for example, is carrying-out a feasibility study on integrating green economy learning into university curricula. Satchuda Arnachellum, another trainer, has supported the set-up of a partnership between the Civil Service College of Mauritius and UNITAR to run a green economy learning assessment; and Seynabou Diouf is playing a crucial role in developing a national network of green economy education and research institutes in Senegal. 

The future of economic leadership and growth is tied to green economy, according to United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres. Mr. Guterres’ statement was part of a call to action on climate change delivered to an audience of students, academics, and business leaders on 30 May 2017 at New York University. These words highlight a growing recognition of the role that green policymaking will play in shaping economies of the future.

During the speech, Guterres underscored the need for both national governments and private industry to become highly engaged in the worldwide green transition, proposing “Those that will be betting on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, on the green economy, will be the ones that have a leading role in the economy of the 21st century.”

Guterres furthermore outlined the downside of inadequately embracing green measures, explaining that “Those who fail to bet on the green economy will be living in a grey future [but] those who embrace green technologies will set the gold standard for economic leadership in the twenty-first century.” The message is clear: economies of the future will depend upon green policies and measures. 

The economic growth referred to by Guterres may be a result of the various opportunities that climate action provides, such as the creation of jobs, growth of key industries, and international cooperation to name a few. PAGE’s work in 13 countries, focusing on putting sustainability at the heart of economic policymaking has provided witness to these benefits first hand.

PAGE’s partner countries, as well as nations across the globe, are increasingly recognizing a green economy pathway as key to addressing poverty and climate change, and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. As Guterres suggests, first movers towards this sustainable and resource efficient economic system will reap benefits of increasing profits, wellbeing, and environmental resilience.

To read the full story, please visit www.un.org

Photo credit: UN/Mark Garten

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China,  June 5, 2017 – The workshop on “Unlocking South-South Trade in Environmental Goods and Services in Jiangsu” was held in Nanjing as part of the newly launched Green Trade Project under the framework of Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE). The workshop convened around 50 participants from local governments, business associations, environmental companies, international organizations, and environmental NGOs. Key issues discussed included global and national trends in trade in Environmental Goods and Services (EGS), Jiangsu’s experience in trade in renewable energy and environmental technologies, the implications of rising global value chains of EGS, as well as opportunities and challenges of expanding green trade with developing countries.

The workshop was jointly organized by the Environment and Trade Hub of UN Environment on behalf of PAGE and Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy of Ministry of Environmental Protection (PRCEE) of China, in collaboration with Jiangsu International Environmental Development Centre (JIEDC). Keynote presentations were delivered by representatives from UN Environment, PRCEE, the Environmental Protection Department of Jiangsu Province, the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Association of PV industries, Global Value Chains Institute, and Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.

At the event, Ms. Liu Jianlin, Chief Engineer (Deputy Director-General) of the Environmental Protection Department of Jiangsu Province highlighted the importance of the workshop to Jiangsu’s Green Development and Green Economy Transition. She also anticipated that the workshop would further Jiangsu's understanding of green trade and South-South cooperation regarding EGS trade and value chain integration.

Mr. Xia Guang, the director-general of PRCEE noted the potential of Jiangsu to upgrade EGS trade as a pathway towards Green Economy, given its fast-growing trade in renewable energy and strong policy commitment from the local government. He regarded the workshop as an important starting point for translating EGS trade potential into local level development opportunities.

Ms. Zhang Ying from UN Environment took the opportunity to share the work of the Environment and Trade Hub on green trade in the context of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the rising global momentum driven by south-south trade, global value chains, and regional trade agreements and plurilateral negotiations. She stated, “As an early mover of EGS trade and Green Economy Transition, Jiangsu enjoys great potential on green trade and has a lot to share with its trading partners. We hope the workshop could help Jiangsu identify and harness these opportunities, as well as scale up successful stories and good practices to more developing countries.” 

The workshop kicked off a new PAGE project to look at“The Role of Trade in Transition to a Green Economy in Jiangsu”. Jointly developed by the Environment and Trade Hub of UN Environment and PRCEE, the project aims to help Jiangsu evaluate and harness opportunities of green trade, summarize and share good practice, and explore how trade could facilitate the the transition to an Inclusive Green Economy and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). To achieve the goal, the project has been actively engaging with public and private stakeholders in the province, including the Environmental Protection Department of Jiangsu Province, the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, local business associations and environmental NGOs. Apart from the workshop, the project will also deliver a stocktaking study report on the development of green trade in Jiangsu with concrete policy recommendations. The project taskforce-an advisory body, was established to provide guidance and support for the implementation of project activities.

The Second Regional Exchange and Practitioners Dialogue Forum, organized by the Ministry of Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment of Uruguay (MVOTMA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany (BMUB), and supported by members of the Inter-institutional Working Group on Green and Inclusive Economy, took place on April 26th and 27th in Montevideo, Uruguay. The forum was entitled “Putting Inclusive Green Economy into Practice in Latin America and the Caribbean” and gathered representatives from over 140 relevant public institutions, academia, the private sector, civil society, and 9 regional countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.

The forum opened with words from the Uruguayan Minister of Housing, Eneida de León, and the Uruguayan Minister of Labour, Ernesto Murro, who underscored the importance of collaboration and coordination in support of inclusive green economy. The forum provided a space for dialogue and knowledge-exchange regarding economic transformation and its potential to bring sustainability to sectors such as tourism, products and services, waste and resource management, industry and innovation, consumption and renewable resources.

Addressing transformation paths in the light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, Professor Peter Poschen introduced green and inclusive jobs as a means to work towards the SDGs. Additionally, Professor Lucia Reisch, member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, introduced the use of behavioral economics to nudge policy makers towards a green and inclusive economy.

One highlight of the forum was the Ministerial Reception, where the Uruguayan Minister for Energy, Carolina Cosse, Viceminister for Housing, Jorge Rucks, and National Director of Employment, Eduardo Pereyra, jointly announced the start of Uruguay’s partnership with PAGE. At the reception there was a clear indication of strong cross Ministerial support for the work of PAGE. Building on the green economy work completed under an earlier UN Environment project, the key ministries have a clear vision for Uruguay’s need to innovate and create value around its bioeconomy. 

The event demonstrated that the concept of green economy has become more and more embraced in Latin America and the Caribbean since the first Regional Forum in 2013, with discussions focusing on the implementation of green economy measures rather than a debate over the concept itself. Furthermore, attendees expressed interest in cooperation and collaboration, such as through joining PAGE, and celebrated the increasing dedication towards a green and inclusive economy across the region.

Berlin, Germany – On March 28, 2017, Uruguay and Guyana joined the Partnership for Action on Green Economy. The announcement was made at the PAGE Ministerial Conference in Berlin attended by over 430 participants, including 40 Ministers.

Both countries have demonstrated a strong commitment to making the transition to inclusive green economies, reducing pollution and emissions, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. By joining PAGE, the governments of Uruguay and Guyana not only took a leap forward towards sustainable economies in their respective countries, but also created new opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-exchange in Latin America.

In Uruguay, PAGE will build upon a green economy scoping assessment completed in 2014 and conducted by Instituto de Economía (IECON) de la Universidad de la República, the government of Uruguay, United Nations Environment Programme, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in 2014. The report identifies several areas for targeted support for green economy, including agriculture, livestock, industry, tourism and transport.

As said by Ambassador Alberto Guani of Uruguay, “Uruguay shares the view of PAGE in focusing on sustainability as the main core for all national policies, pursuing the purpose of aligning such vision to an economic growth that will reflect in higher income, creation of new jobs, moving towards poverty reduction and inequality by strengthening the fundamental environment of economic structures.” These changes will be made possible by the high-level and cross-sectoral commitment of the government of Uruguay to green economy as well as by the support of the private and civil sectors.

As in Uruguay, the government of Guyana has similarly demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainable and inclusive economy. In its application to PAGE, the government identified exceptionally strong cross sectoral support for inclusive green economy in the country. President David Granger of Guyana has said Guyana "is a state that will ensure a secure future for its people in the pursuit of a ‘green’ economy. It is one that is proud of its place as a reliable and cooperative partner in international efforts to protect the earth’s environment”.

Guyana’s transition to green economy will involve working toward de-coupling economic growth from the depletion of natural resources and pollution to ensure Guyana’s long-term sustainability and well-being. In December 2016, the government of Guyana and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) hosted initial consultations on the National Green State Development Strategy, which brought together  government officials, civil society, the private sector, and bilateral agencies to generate an initial framework for action. The established core objectives of the framework include the following: social cohesion and inclusion; wellbeing; sustainable use of biodiversity and increased resource efficiency; decarbonisation and climate resilience; sustainable finance and; good governance.

Bringing together the expertise of five UN agencies – the UN Environment Programme (UN Environment), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) PAGE seeks to put sustainability at the heart of economic policies and practices to advance the 2030 Agenda. Working closely with national governments, private sector and civil society, PAGE has been assisting partner countries to embark on inclusive green economy trajectories since 2013. With the inclusion of Uruguay and Guyana in the partnership, PAGE has renewed its commitment to supporting an increasing number of countries and has created exciting new possibilities for green economy and collaboration in the Latin America.