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Ouagadougou, 8 July 2019 - Burkina Faso adopted the National Strategy on Green Economy (NSGE) last month, marking a major milestone in the country’s inclusive green economy transition. The Strategy promotes the creation, development and consolidation of a critical mass of competitive, sustainable, value-adding industries and decent jobs providers, primarily in the transformation of local raw materials. 

The adoption of the Strategy creates a pathway for strong commitment from national authorities at the highest level for a transition of the country to green industry. It also promises the commitment of the private sector in the implementation of green economy principles in industrial activities.

Targets & Activities

The targets of the Strategy are to increase the manufacturing industry's share of GDP from 6.6% in 2016 to 12% in 2023, increase the share of manufactured goods in the export of goods and services to 20% in 2023 and improve the country’s 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking from 143rd in 2016 to 130th by 2023.

The activities within the Strategy can be defined within five strategic axes:

1. Improvement of the legal, institutional and organizational support framework for the industrial sector;
2. Support for development industrial projects;
3. Consolidation of existing industrial firms by modernization of facilities and promotion of green industry;
4. Support for improvement of financing access for the industrial sector,
5. Development of industrial infrastructures and promotion of the sustainability of industrial firms.

Background

In African countries, industrialization is essential as a means of increasing incomes, creating jobs, developing value-added activities and diversifying economies. The high economic growth rates of the past 10 years in Africa have proven that commodity-based economies do not lead to the structural transformation needed. African incomes are still the lowest in the world, and 34 African countries rank among the least developed countries with manufacturing sectors' share of gross domestic product lower than it was 30 years ago.

In order to stimulate and enable an environment conducive to industrial expansion, Africa needs government-driven industrial policies to add value and strengthen industrial upgrading. However, in the light of the current context of climate change, scarcity of natural resources and ethics, the “Business as Usual” way is not the solution. Instead, industrial policies should integrate issues of environmental degradation and resource depletion. Countries must adopt green growth strategies that will be supported by green industry.

PAGE Support

In Burkina Faso, UNIDO, through the framework of PAGE, conducted a green industry study that demonstrated the opportunities for the country to promote an inclusive green industry strategy given its characteristics, its development imperatives and its dependence on natural resources. The study also highlighted the commitment and compatibility of green economy with the political vision of development. Thereby, the Government with the support of PAGE has developed this new green industrialization strategy.

Opportunities Going Forward

The operationalization of the Strategy will bring together various stakeholders, including ministries, local and regional authorities, the private sector, technical and financial partners, academia and civil society organizations. This commitment from national authorities is essential as the necessary reforms for this transition will engage the entire productive apparatus and will inevitably affect the established interests of certain sectors and actors.

Moreover, the industry diagnosis phase identified that many national manufacturing firms operate in an inefficient and resource-intensive manner. These inefficiencies represent an opportunity for significant progress, as investment in new technologies promoted by the Strategy can lead to significant economic and environmental gains. Thereby, the implementation of the Strategy will help the country overcome, among other challenges, the reduction of the production factors’ costs, the increase of productivity and the transition to the green industry in order to link competitiveness and sustainability.

New York, 16 July 2019 - The Partners for Inclusive Green Economy hosted a high-level panel discussion, Fast, Fair and Green, at the UN High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York. The discussion explored the question, "How can we create an economic transition fast, fair, and green enough to achieve the SDGs and NDCs?"

Event Webcast

If you weren't able to make the event, click below to view the full webcast of the discussion from UN Web TV.

Speakers

The speakers for the event included Hon. Ola Elvestuen, President of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) and Minister of Climate and Environment, Norway, Hon. Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, Parliamentary State Secretary, Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, Mr. Gabriel Quijandría, Vice-Minister of Environment, Peru, Hon. Ms. Elizabeth Thompson, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, Ms. Astrid Schomaker, Director, Global Sustainable Development, Directorate General for the Environment, European Commission, Ms. Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment, Mr. Guy Rider, Executive Director, International Labour Organization, and Mr. Jo Confino, Executive Editor, Impact & Innovation, The Huffington Post.

Key Takeaways

Diverse institutions, including the OECD, ILO, UNDP, UNEP and the Green Economy Coalition, called for a different approach to governing economies in order to avoid environmental breakdown, one that puts people and nature first.

The panelists recognized that few countries are on track to achieve either their national targets for tackling climate change or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Humanity is facing unprecedented and interrelated challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss and growing inequality. As such, business as usual cannot continue.

Key steps for the transition to inclusive green economies include recognising the multiple values of nature in economic decision-making; prioritising wellbeing and the equitable distribution of opportunity and outcome; aligning prices, subsides and incentives with the true costs to society; embracing new models of development that enable economic growth without raising resource consumption; and supporting public participation and social dialogue.

Launches

The event coincided with several important launches. Among them were two new knowledge platforms: the Green Industry Platform and the Green Finance Platform. These platforms provide the financial and private sectors with the latest research, data, guidance, and tools from leading experts and institutions to help green their operations. Read more about these new platforms in a press release from the Green Growth Knowledge Platform.

This event also marked the launch of the Five Principles of Green Economy, which provide a valuable compass as countries around the world transition to sustainability. The principles comprise a series of catalytic activities and key priorities to guide collective action in diverse contexts. Read more about the five principles and their role in delivering the SDGs in a press release from the Green Economy coalition.

Partners

The event was jointly organized by the Partners for Inclusive Green Economy, an initiative involving UN Environment, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Poverty-Environment Action for SDGs (PEA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Partnership for Action on Green Economy (UN-PAGE), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Uruguay, 5 June 2019 - Lanas Trinidad, NIDO, URUPLAC, Prendetec and Repapel were among the winners of the first-ever Uruguay Circular Economy Award, given out on World Environment Day this month. The Award was created by the PAGE Uruguay Programme to recognize initiatives and projects that are contributing to the country’s transition towards a circular economy. It is the first award of its kind in the Latin-America and Caribbean region.

The Award recognized winners in five categories: Large Companies, Cooperatives, MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises), Educational Institutions and Communities.

Winners

Lanas Trinidad was the winner of the Large Companies category and received the prize from the Undersecretary of Industry, Energy and Mining, Olga Otegui. Lanas Trinidad was recognized for promoting environmental sustainability in the productive process and for circulating and valuing materials that would normally be treated as waste in a linear economy.

The prize in the Cooperatives category was taken by NIDO and was awarded by the National Director of Environment, Alejandro Nario. NIDO, a cooperative composed of eight women, works to promote conscious and responsible consumption with a focus on social inclusion.

URUPLAC was the winner of the MSMEs category, a prize awarded by the President of the Board of Directors of the National Development Agency, Martín Dibarboure. URUPLAC consists of two partners who have been working in recycling for more than 20 years. The company was born in 2012 as an effort by the partners to find a recycling alternative for potentially unprocessed products that are not processed in Uruguay due to lack of productive alternatives.

The prize for the Educational Institutions category, delivered by Manuel Albaladejo, the representative of the UNIDO Regional Office, was awarded to PRENDETEC of Ceibal. Ceibal has delivered almost two million devices in the Uruguayan public system, managing around 13 tons of waste and electronic devices on a monthly basis. PRENDETEC is an example of how collaboration between the education system and private companies can be used to build new assets.

Pablo Montes, the Coordinator of PAGE Uruguay, presented the award to Repapel in the Communities category. The Repapel community offers a solution to the problem of garbage throughout the country. In Uruguay, the average person generates 1.1 kg of garbage daily. At least 15% is paper or cardboard and more than 20% is plastic. Repapel promotes a system of classification and subsequent recycling of paper and PET plastic throughout the country. In doing so, Repapel generates recycled paper and plastic supplies for public schools that participate in the project and environmental education programs for all organizations.

Going Forward

Uruguay is one of the partner countries of PAGE (Partnership for Action on Green Economy), which seeks to contribute to the incorporation of the concept of green growth in public development policies, with the purpose of promoting the efficient use of resources and environmental sustainability. This successful first year of the Uruguay Circular Award is an important step in advancing the country's path towards sustainability.

Check out the winners profiles:

Lanas Trinidad

NIDO 

URUPLAC

CEIBAL PRENDETEC

Repapel

Guyana, 28 May 2019 – The Green State Development Strategy Vision 2040, 20-year national development strategy for Guyana, was officially received by President of Guyana, Mr. David Granger, marking an important milestone for the country’s transition towards inclusive green economy. The Strategy provides a long-term vision and guidance for Guyana's economic, social and environmental development placing sustainability at the heart of national development up to 2040. It will guide the national development policies for the next 20 years, under a vision of development that is inclusive and prosperous, provides a good quality of life for all its citizens, based on sound education and social protection, low carbon and resilient development, providing new economic opportunities, justice and political empowerment. 

At the official launch ceremony, UN Environment’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Leo Heileman presented the Vision 2040 to the Head of State.  Reflecting on this accomplishment, upon reception of the document, Mr. Granger said:

“The world is realizing almost by the day that climate change is a grim, relentless reality. There is no avoidance. Hardly a day passes that we do not see the adverse impact of climate change. It is great for us to be ahead of the game. We have challenges with our coastal zone management; we have cycles of El Nino, drought and flood in our hinterland; we have industries which are now starting to have an impact on air quality and water quality”.

In the context of building its greener and equitable future, Guyana joined PAGE in 2017 whose engagement in the country is, ever since, centered around supporting the elaboration of the GSDS Vision 2040. The new Vision 2040 actually builds on previous commitments to sustainable development, such as the Low Carbon Development and Climate Resilience Strategy Action Plan. The Strategy thus reflects the President’s vision of an inclusive and prosperous state providing a good quality of life for all its citizens and based on sound education, social protection, low-carbon and resilient development, providing new economic opportunities, justice and political empowerment. It promotes three key topics: management of natural resource wealth; support of economic resilience and building of human capital and institutional capacity.

SDGS brings in new modalities of financing the development through the Natural Resource Fund Act. The President explained that the revenues from oil and gas are to be invested in a wise manner to avoid the Dutch disease. He also pointed out the importance of grass-root education of the population, and especially youth on environmental consciousness to compliment the successful implementation of the strategy. 

PAGE workstreams in Guyana reflect the three main areas from GSDS. Through the work of its partner agencies, PAGE supports the mainstreaming of sustainable development into national development strategies planning and macro-economic policies, works on sectoral and thematic policies to as well as operates capacity building effort. So far, PAGE has been supporting the multi-stakeholder consultation process and has been informing the political process on SDGS. Through its work on green industry and trade & green jobs assessment, PAGE is fostering the thematic reforms in line with the Vision 2040. In addition, PAGE has been building capacity for green economy decision making through trainings on modeling to enhance the national ownership of the strategy execution.

The implementation of the Vision 2040 strategy is set to begin in 2020 following the creation of an implementation team as Ms. Ndibi Schwiers, Director of the Department of Environment at Ministry of the Presidency stated.

Subsidies that promote the use of fossil fuels are helping "to destroy the world", and are a bad way to deploy taxpayers' money, the head of the United Nations said on Tuesday. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a gathering of politicians and business people in Austriathat pollution should be taxed, and subsidies for oil, gas and coal should be ended. "Many people still think that to give fossil fuel subsidies is a way to improve living conditions of people," he said in remarks delivered at a Vienna conference on climate change.

"There is nothing more wrong than that. What we are doing is using taxpayers' money – which means our money – to boost hurricanes, to spread droughts, to melt glaciers, to bleach corals. In one word – to destroy the world." According to the International Energy Agency, global fossil-fuel consumption subsidies in 2017 were more than $300 billion, up from about $270 billion in 2016.

Guterres said he believed taxpayers would prefer to see their money returned to them rather than used to wreck the planet. A hard-hitting report produced by hundreds of scientists this month warned that up to 1 million animal and plant species are at risk of extinction due to humankind's relentless pursuit of economic growth. It identified industrial farming and fishing as major drivers of the crisis, and said climate change caused by burning fossil fuels was exacerbating the losses. The U.N. chief on Tuesday called for "a rapid and deep change in how we do business, how we generate power, how we build cities, and how we feed the world", so that global warming can be curbed, and people and the planet protected from harm.

Even if governments met the commitments they made under the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, temperatures would still rise more than 3 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times, "which means a catastrophic situation", Guterres said. The Paris accord, now ratified by about 185 countries, sets a goal to limit global temperature increase to "well below" 2C, and to strive for 1.5C, in order to avert the worst effects of extreme weather and rising seas.

The situation is "even more serious" because many countries "are not even catching up with their own promises" made under the Paris pact, Guterres emphasised. He has convened a summit in New York on Sept. 23 aimed at spurring governments, businesses and others to step up their efforts to curb climate change. "I am asking leaders not to come with beautiful speeches but to come with concrete plans to promote the climate action we need," he said in Austria.

'PEOPLE POWER'

The U.N. boss said doing the right things - such as halting the building of coal power plants, decarbonising urban infrastructure, and producing and consuming in a greener way - would have "profound" benefits for societies around the world. Those include cleaner water and air, less pollution, more chemical-free agriculture and reduced loss of wildlife and plant species, he said.

"In short, we need a green economy, not a grey economy, to have a green society," he added. Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, whose weekly school strikes about climate change have sparked a global youth movement over the past nine months, said the general public had not been well-informed about the risks of a warming planet. It was up to politicians, executives, journalists and others with influence to tell the truth about the climate "emergency", and not pretend it could be fixed with technology or simple solutions, she said. "We promise we will not let you get away with it anymore," she insisted at the conference.

Former California governor and Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose R20 climate change initiative for regional, state and city governments organised the gathering, said the greatest movements for change all start with "people power" holding governments or corporations to account. "The movement for a clean energy future is no different," he said.

Click HERE to view the orginal article

16-17 May 2019 - The Partnership for Action on Green Economy together with the Argentine Government, through the Ministry of Production and Labor, the Secretariat of the Government of Environment and Sustainable Development, begins its activities in Argentina to enable the country’s transition towards green economy, leaving no one behind. The program will last four years and focus on a green and fair transition towards green economy that will generate opportunities, improve competitiveness and productivity, promote decent work and gender equality and protect the most vulnerable populations.

The inception mission lasted three days including: a High-level launch, a Partnership workshop to identify strategies and partners and an Inception Workshop to determine objectives, products, activities, indicators and partners.

The two-day event featured face-to-face consultations between PAGE agencies, government representatives and key stakeholders to identify needs and demands, and ensure the national commitment and ownership of PAGE. Around 160 participants from all sectors involved, including trade unions, businesses chambers, the financial sector, several state agencies at the three levels of government (national, provincial and local), Organizations of Civil Society, Reseach and Development, as well as several programs of the United Nations system attended the event.

Thought several round of consultations and workshops, participants determined PAGE activities in the country during this initial phase and unchained the debate with a long-term perspective, also taking into account other programs that are currently being implemented by the PAGE partners, agencies of the UN and other development partners in the country.

The Secretary of Industry of the Ministry of Production and Labor, Fernando Grasso, said:

"PAGE is an opportunity for development that can generate a lot of quality employment within the framework of the Industry 4.0 revolution." He also noted that "the PAGE alliance is launched in Argentina with the aim of promoting public policies towards a green and inclusive economy, the work that is being promoted in the field of Circular Economy from the Ministry of Production and Labor".

Carlos Gentile, Secretary of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, stressed that:

"The most interesting thing about this project is that it is a platform that allows ordering many different efforts for the good of the country and that there is a transformation towards a green economy"  The official added that "to achieve the objectives of the initiative, social dialogue is fundamental, involving government institutions, employers, workers, the science and technology sector, civil society and development partners such as development banks, South-South and bilateral cooperation. "

Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Argentina, René Mauricio Valdés, expressed the importance that the system can join forces and provide joint solutions without overlapping, as is being promoted by the reform of the United Nations at present, "I am very happy that, as United Nations agencies, we can unite in this effort in a key year for the fight against Climate Change", he added.

The high level event closed with remarks by Secretary of State of Environment and Sustainable Development Sergio Bergman who unbderlined that:

"The concept of green economy is not yet internalized in Argentina, Laws that sustain the green economy from the fiscal point of view are needed, to emphasize that the initiative requires an accompaniment of the finance and economy portfolios. The solution must be to develop ourselves in a sustainable manner. If we want a green economy, we must have regulations in the fields of rewards and punishments, because the economy does not work with good intentions, it works with incentives." said Bergman, adding that "this is why, within the concept of green economy, it is so important to us not leaving anyone behind. For that to happen, generate green work, generate social inclusion, not discard people as we discard goods, and at the same time, generate new rules of the game of the economy, because until the economy changes, we will not be able to make also profitable what is sustainable ".

PAGE Argentina is expected to strengthen the country Green Economy Governance by improving and integrating information and facilitating the decision making on green economy, to accompany the labor markets in a Just Transition by adapting professional formation systems and the occupational change, as well as launching processes that promote sustainable productive development through the capacities building and the leveraging of public and private investment for technological innovation.