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Two new policies integrating inclusive green economy principles have been recently approved in Mongolia and Peru, showing how PAGE support can effectively help countries to drive sustainability at the heart of policy making. Mongolia and Peru, PAGE partner countries since 2013, have undertaken long journeys towards sustainability and demonstrated a strong commitment to advance inclusive and sustainable societies where no one is left behind.

The recently approved “National Competitiveness and Productivity Policy” in Peru aims to increase and strengthen an inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The policy includes nine priorities to boost the competitiveness and productivity of the Peruvian economy by increasing social and economic infrastructures and services, investing on human capital and promoting decent work, improving access to finance, strengthening institutions and advancing sustainability and social inclusion. Among its nine priorities, the policy calls for environmental sustainability and aims to create green jobs and growth through 1) clean technologies and green industries; 2) circular economy and sound waste management and 3) bio-trade.

Furthermore, the nine priorities will lay the basis for the elaboration of a National Competitiveness and Productivity Plan that will define concrete actions and implementation measures as well provide a monitoring framework and indicators to move from policy to actions.

The approval of the policy represents a success for PAGE work in Peru, where the Partnership’s longstanding support has been focusing on the country’s green growth potential, sectoral policy reform and stakeholder engagement on green industry and green jobs, and capacity building and awareness raising in support of the inclusive green economy transition.

The National Competitiveness and Productivity Policy is indeed the result of a participatory process that brought together stakeholders from the public, private sector, academia, trade unions, international community and civil society. By bringing all actors together, the policy generated the consensus needed to define the way forward for an economic growth in the medium and long terms that will focus on social inclusion, poverty reduction and prosperity for all.

Another successful example of policy making for sustainability is the adoption of the National Policy in the Construction Sector in Mongolia. This policy represents another step towards sustainability in the country, where appropriate energy efficiency standards and a rating system for green buildings are among the priority areas of Mongolia’s National Green Development Policy (NGDP).

During the past years, PAGE has supported Mongolia in advancing its green development agenda with evidence-based policy appraisal of different options for implementation of the NGDP, and support for policy development and reform in specific sectors and thematic areas, such as green construction.

Furthermore, PAGE is supporting the formulation of a ‘business case’ for green buildings and is providing capacity development for stakeholders in the construction sector which should further foster up-take of green design elements for public and private buildings. PAGE has also contributed to the establishment of a multi-stakeholder Green Buildings Advisory Council.

The approval of the new construction policy is a confirmation of Mongolia’s commitment to a sustainable future and a signal of the country’s willingness to implement important economic reforms to advance inclusive green economy.

Find out more:

9-13 March 2019, Georgetown, Guyana – The Guyana Green Economy Week featured a series of technical workshops, bringing together representatives from the Ministry of Finance, the Guyana Revenue Authority, Ministry of Business, private sector, the media, the national chamber of commerce, donors, representatives of civil society organizations and research institutes among others. PAGE was represented by delegations from UNITAR and UN Environment.  

The workshops included a media training under the theme “Green Economy Concepts for Communications”, an economic modelling workshop, a green fiscal policies workshop as well as Green Conversations public event. The latter, convened in collaboration with a local partner, Conservation International (Guyana), explained green economy concepts to the general public under the theme, ‘International Best Practices in Inclusive Green Economy Transition.’

The Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 will be launched in 2019 as the main policy tool ensuring that Guyana’s development pathway promotes economic diversification and growth, social inclusiveness, and sustainable management of natural resources. Through the strategy and its recommended policy instruments, such as the establishment of the Natural Resources Fund, the income generated by the public sector from newly discovered oil reserves can be reinvested in green policies to encourage the transition and accomplish the objectives by 2040, and which will benefit all Guyanese over the long term.

With this in mind, PAGE recognises the crucial role of the media as a key partner in the implementation of the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 faithfully explaining the concepts and communicating good lessons and achievements to stakeholders in Guyana. Public awareness and understanding are essential for achieving buy-in and to appreciate long and short-term benefits. To this end, the media were instructed in effective green economy messaging of relevance to Guyana, as well as on how to identify and access trustworthy sources of information on green economy.

The two-day Green Economy Modelling workshop introduced System Dynamics Modelling methods and approaches to participants. The Workshop reviewed the modeling work undertaken in Guyana and provided a summary of the key results, running simulation exercises, whilst also interpreting results and Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA).

PAGE contributed to the elaboration of the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 by funding studies in economic modelling including assessments on the feasibility of green economy initiatives; green jobs, and green industry and trade assessments. In addition to presenting the findings of the modelling studies in the Strategy, PAGE work has also assessed the economic, social and environmental impacts of selected green policies. Guyana’s Economic Modelling Study (GEMS) used System Dynamics methods that assessed the impacts of a transfer of investments from Business-as-Usual (BAU) to green economy scenarios and how these affect a range of economic, social and environmental indicators. The modelling study evaluated the impact of the selected green policies in four priority sectors - energy, agriculture, forestry and road transport, to 2040. 

Delivering the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 requires the mobilization of significant investments in infrastructure (transport, ICT, energy), health, education and other priority areas. According to estimates in Guyana’s GEMS, investment needed for green economy interventions in the four key sectors amount to GYD 1.05 trillion between 2018 and 2040, equal to 2.7 per cent of GDP. Green fiscal policies can play an important role in this context. 

By reflecting externalities in prices, mobilizing revenues, creating a fiscal space for green investment and broader fiscal reform, adopting green fiscal policies can support Guyana in the transition to an inclusive and sustainable long-term growth path. 

The Green Fiscal Policies workshop explored the role and benefits of green fiscal policies in addressing environmental externalities by including for example, resource use prices, which can promote shifts in producer and consumer behaviors and in mobilizing public and private revenues to support policy implementation. The Workshop consisted of a series of presentations, videos, interactive group exercises and knowledge sharing on green fiscal policies across different sectors. PAGE is discussing with the Government of Guyana how it can continue to provide support for on-going analysis of green fiscal options.

The final activity of Green Economy Week was a “Green Conversations” public event with the objective to continue the series of conversations with the public begun in 2018 in the context of the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 and on green economy principles. Speakers featured international green economy experts from UN Environment discussing international cases where green economy principles and carbon taxes were effectively applied.

PAGE will continue to support the implementation of the Strategy in Guyana and to help its people to progress along the pathway to a green economy.

UN Environment launched in March 2019 a new tool that allows countries to see “hotspots” of unsustainable practices in consumption and production.

The tool, known as the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool, is an online application that analyses the environmental and socio-economic performance of 171 countries over the past 25 years to provide scientific evidence of areas where improvement can be made.

The tool builds on a powerful national footprint calculator that combines environmental and socio-economic data with trade information. It allows the tracing of environmental pressures and impacts along the supply chain of the goods and services consumed within a given country, an essential dimension of our globalized economy.

“For a long time, we have known that we need to change the way we produce and consume goods and services to make better use of the planet’s natural resources. Now we have a tool that pinpoints where we need to be taking action if we want to make truly impactful change,” said Ligia Noronha, Director of UN Environment’s Economy Division.

“It is appropriate to launch this new tool against the backdrop of the Fourth UN Environment Assembly, where we are focusing on innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production.

“In that spirit, we hope that this innovative hotspots analysis tool helps put us on a more equitable and sustainable path.”

The tool integrates a wide range of data on raw material use, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, air pollution and health, land use and biodiversity loss. It provides data at national level as well as for 26 standard sectors.

The tool was tested by Argentina, Ivory Coast and Kazakhstan during the development phase, to ensure policy relevance and user-friendliness. It will be further tested in Bhutan and Rwanda in 2019.

The Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool was developed by UN Environment, the One Planet Network, and the Life Cycle Initiative, in partnership with the International Resource Panel, Vienna University and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, with the support of the European Commission and Norway.

The tool, intended for use by policy experts, statisticians and the general public, can be accessed here: http://scp-hat.lifecycleinitiative.org/.

 For further information, please contact Moira O’Brien-Malone: moira.obrien-malone@un.org

About the One Planet Network

The One Planet network has formed to implement the commitment of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production. It is a multi-stakeholder partnership for sustainable development, generating collective impact through its six programmes: Public procurement, Buildings and construction, Tourism, Food systems, Consumer information, and Lifestyles and education.

The strategic objective of the One Planet network for the period 2018-2022 is to be recognized as the lead mechanism to support and implement the shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns, contributing as an effective implementing mechanism of Goal 12—Responsible consumption and production—of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 About the International Resource Panel

The International Resource Panel was launched by UN Environment in 2007 to build and share the knowledge needed to improve our use of resources worldwide.

The Panel consists of eminent scientists, highly skilled in resource management issues. Their reports distil the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic findings around global resource use. They provide advice and connections between policymakers, industry and the community on ways to improve global and local resource management. The Panel includes scientists and governments from both developed and developing regions, civil society, industrial and international organizations.

The Panel’s goal is to steer us away from overconsumption, waste and ecological harm to a more prosperous and sustainable future.

 About the Life Cycle Initiative

The Life Cycle Initiative is a public-private, multi-stakeholder partnership enabling the global use of credible life cycle knowledge by private and public decision makers to achieve global sustainability goals faster and more efficiently. Hosted by UN Environment, the Life Cycle Initiative provides a global forum to ensure science-based support to decisions and policies towards the shared vision of sustainability as a public good. It delivers authoritative opinion on sound tools and approaches by engaging its multi-stakeholder partnership (including governments, businesses, scientific and civil society organizations, and individuals). 

This article was orginally published on unenvironment.org

13 March 2019 (6:00-7:00 pm EAT) - PAGE is supporting the Government of India in organizing an event on Global Partnerships: Keys to Unlocking Resource Efficiency & Inclusive Green Economies at UNEA4.

The event will discuss the Government of India experience and main green economy initiatives as well as the role of partnerships in unlocking resource efficiency and greener and more inclusive economies.

Event objectives:

• Explore new pathways to sustainability and inclusive green economies;
• Showcase efforts underway in India and around the world to promote resource efficiency;
• Discuss the Government of India’s initiatives like the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), to achieve sustainable consumption and production.

Download here the agenda

17-22 December 2018, Centre Forest de Thiès, Senegal – A Green Entrepreneurship training workshop brought together 37 entrepreneurs from various sectors, mainly active in the management of plastic waste, the manufacture of solar equipment, energy efficiency in the transport of dairy products in rural areas and the operation of mobile solar kiosks. The workshop also brought to practice 19 “Start and Improve your Business” (SIYB) Programme (GERME) trainers.  

GERME (Gérez mieux votre entreprise) is a management training programme developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) with a focus on starting and improving small businesses with the objective to create more sustainable jobs for women and men, especially in emerging economies. It allows entrepreneurs to develop and improve their skills in procurement, stock management, marketing, cost estimation, maintenance of accounting records, planning of activities and human resources management.

With a well-estimated awareness program in more than 100 countries, it is one of the largest global programs in this field.

Together with the Partnership for Action of Green Economy (PAGE) and the Green Jobs Opportunity Support Program (PACEV), ILO organized a first workshop in November 2017 to further strengthen a pool of trainers from Senegal and Burkina Faso already being trained within the GERME programme. In the GERME process, the implementation of programs first passes through the trainers who later accompany the ultimate beneficiaries.

At this second stage of the training, the trainers provided coaching for female and male entrepreneurs, with the support of an SIYB master trainer. The training provided the basis for promoting the integration of the environmental dimension in the supply, production and marketing functions of existing companies' goods and services; orientation towards green business ideas and, where appropriate, the creation of green businesses in Senegal.

 Important and interesting results were obtained on the knowledge of environmental challenges, consequences and solutions; about the green business as a concept and its benefits, about the characteristics of a green entrepreneur and green business ideas; on the steps of creating a green business; on the greening of production processes and the monitoring and evaluation of the appliance.

Find out more about the Green Jobs Opportunity Support Program (PACEV), the GERME Methodology and PAGE’s and ILO’s involvement:

The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), supports the Green Jobs Opportunity Support Program (PACEV). PACEV (Programme d’appui à la Création d’opportunités d’Emplois Verts) is a joint program of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and UNDP. Its purpose is to ensure the sound management of the environment and resources and to reduce poverty by creating green jobs.

ILO’s support consists of improving the skills of eco-entrepreneurs who are beneficiaries of PACEV. The objective is to reinforce their capacities in creation and management of companies oriented towards the protection of the environment.

In this support, the ILO is using the GERME Network. The GERME methodology meets the training needs of potential entrepreneurs and those in practice starting from the business idea to the improvement of management skills through the creation of viable businesses. This methodology provides a differentiated response depending on the level of education of the ultimate beneficiaries, the problem of the creation and management of companies. It is applied in more than 120 countries around the world and is placed in most training programs of governments and development organizations.

The biggest innovation in the environmental dimension has been the development of the Green Enterprise Brochure (BEV). This brochure takes into account the three dimensions of the methodology (orientation to self-employment, business creation and business management) with a "green view". The Green Business Brochure is part of the GERME product series and the Green Jobs package from the ILO.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived in Singapore last week for the 3rd Asia Pacific Ministerial meetings. Expecting the worst, I had images of fearsome sky-scrapers and privatised nature reserves sitting atop exclusive buildings, which indeed now exist in Singapore.

Yet I also found something much more exciting: the legacy of a vision of the city as a garden.

Everywhere, trees. Along the road from the airport, along a parkway. Downtown, along every avenue. Coming out of buildings. Everywhere. Trees that were planted ten, twenty, fifty years ago. Redefining, pleasantly, the concept of an urban jungle.

And then I realised that this far-sighted vision of the future seems not isolated to making the city a more livable space, but also extends to the financial ecosystem.

Though more recently planted, the green shoots were well in evidence. Such as the recent introduction by the Singapore Stock Exchange of mandatory sustainability reporting or their progressive stance on looking at the underlying rules governing asset holdings, via the Network for Greening the Financial System.

Our ability to reframe and re-stabilise our climate and our economies will depend on the signals that regulators send to markets and that markets transmit to consumers and investors.

This effort, led by the Central Bank of France and including the Monetary Authority of Singapore as well as the Central Bank of China, seeks to align reserve requirements with potential climate liabilities and risks in bank and investor holdings. Aligning incentives to reflect the social cost of potential liabilities and the threat they may represent to economic and financial stability. 

In the end, our ability to reframe and re-stabilise our climate and our economies will depend on the signals that regulators send to markets and that markets transmit to consumers and investors. This seems obvious, but there is so much more below the surface.

Consider the plastics waste issue that was boiling at the ministerial meetings. In January 2018, China banned the import of plastic waste coming from Europe, which had previously been considered an export of recycled plastic. The value of the “recycled” waste was becoming negative: with all kinds of plastics mixed together, much of it with food waste but more importantly some with toxic chemical compounds, the plastic waste was simply becoming a liability.

Which has now spilled over into the rest of Asia and probably the rest of the world. A minister from Malaysia said at the meeting that in the year 2017 about 500 million tons of secondary plastics arrived on its shores. Last year, after the ban on plastic waste from China, more than 700 million tons arrived just in the first six months of 2018; leading to its own ban on imported plastic waste in November 2018.  

The point is, the world is now deeply interconnected, and we have gone way beyond the point where a country—any country—can act in isolation from others. We need a common frame of action.

In the case of plastic waste, it appears there are proposals afoot to help reform the rules of trade and definitions of what could constitute usable secondary plastic waste, to create both a market internationally for secondary materials and also compel countries to deal with their own waste at origin and thereby contribute to more circular economies at home and around the world.

But creating markets takes work, because it depends on having robust rules and institutions behind them to make them work and operate efficiently and transparently.

Which brings us back to finance, and ultimately, back to our urban jungles. Because the markets, left to themselves, can create outcomes which are possibly mean and lean, but not always green. Nor inclusive. 

It will take vision, and courage, and the same far-sightedness as the planners and builders of Singapore so many years ago, and that still resonate and inspire to today.

To put finance at the service of sustainability, and cities, at the service of their inhabitants.

To channel and direct our wealth and resources, not into rent-seeking and public good depleting activities and transactions, but back into the real economy and the people and skills that will underpin it.

To ensure that, in the words of Mariana Mazzacuto, who argues so well in her new book about the value of everything, we do not confuse how we define and measure those activities that extract wealth as opposed to creating it.

And to ensure we have the policies in place to attack a growing concentration of wealth that is potentially damaging to our democracies, to our environment, and to our planet.

Mean, lean and green - that means redefining the competitive playing field so that we are all pulling in the same direction.

One that increases our wealth, and our chances for prosperity.

So that our cities may eventually resemble the vast urban garden that is Singapore, and that our economies become nurturing ecosystems of jobs, wealth and income for all around the planet.

This article was orginally published on eco-business.com 

9 January 2019, Cape Town, South Africa - Has national ‘wealth’ has been miscalculated for decades? Could some countries be wealthier than previously understood because of their natural and social assets? What will happen to our economies if we do not reverse environmental degradation? 

Now governments and corporations are starting to account for wealth in rather different terms. For the first time, natural capital and social capital is being quantified alongside productivity. This new approach is revolutionising what it means for a country or a business to be wealthy and profitable. It has the potential to overhaul historic divisions between rich and poor countries, or profitable and unprofitable companies, as credit rating agencies and investors shift behaviour.

In this context, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform, Green Economy Coalition (GEC), and the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) convened a panel discussion to explore the question “What is Wealth?” at the 2019 PAGE Ministerial Conference  in Cape Town. On 9 January 2019, a panel of experts gathered for the High-level Media Debate, What makes your country wealthy?, broadcast live on CNBC Africa.

The panel featured Kumi Naidoo (Secretary General, Amnesty International); Nozipho January-Bardill (Chairperson, UN Global Compact Local Network SA and Non-Executive Director, Anglogold Ashanti, Credit Suisse Securities, and Mercedes Benz SA); Professor Cameron Hepburn (Director of the Smith School, University of Oxford); and Honourable Dr Mary Goretti Kitutu (Minister for Environment, Uganda).

Nozipho Mbanjwa (CNBC Africa Financial Anchor and Fellow of the African Leadership Institute) moderated the debate, keeping panellists on their toes with thought provoking questions, including, perhaps, the most pressing question: “If not GDP, then what?”

The debate started with a stocktake of where we stand in terms of how we account for wealth and related implications for the environment and society.

“We are locked into an existing status quo that has not worked for humanity,” said Kumi Naidoo.

“Some businesses are only beginning to learn the discourse of sustainable development. It is not a conscious, ideological thing that they have in their heads. Most businesses do business to make money, they do not do business to save the environment,” said Nozipho January-Bardill.   

Discussions then shifted to focus on the value of nature to economies.

"27% of [Uganda's] GDP comes from agriculture. Our agriculture is rain-fed and the rainfall comes from the wetlands and the forests – 40% of it. You will find that nobody has ever valued that contribution,” said Hon. Dr Mary Goretti Kitutu.

“The challenge with not valuing, not pricing nature, is that it doesn’t get factored in to decisions. Whether you like it or not we live and operate in a capitalist economy, where people are free to trade, and if you don’t put a value on the things that you actually care about then they’re going to be ignored, and they’re going to be trashed, and that’s exactly where we are,” said Prof. Cameron Hepburn.

 The audience included students from South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) Youth Programme, who continued to challenge the panel.

“How are we going to prevent the 4th industrial revolution from becoming another threat like climate change?”, said Akhona Xotyeni, representing the SAIIA Youth.

Finally, moderator Nozipho Mbanjwa asked the central question of the debate, “What makes your country rich?”

“What makes my country rich is really the people,” said Nozipho January-Bardill. “I think the people are going to get South Africa back on its tracks, because they have a lot of resilience, they know exactly what to do, they just need to go out and do it.”

“Sustainable use of natural resources has made us rich, but more than that: the quality of education,” said audience member Kimmo Tiilikainen (Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing for Finland). “What do you see as the role of education in an inclusive Green Economy?” 

The discussion wrapped up with unanimous agreement on the value of nature for economies, and emphasis on the opportunities that lie ahead and the urgent need to move things forward.

“Climate change offers us an opportunity,” said Kumi Naidoo. “An opportunity to break down the divisions between north and south, east and west, developed and developing, because we have to realize, we get this right as rich and poor countries acting together”.

“It's not easy, but it is possible. I think we're failing if we don't try,” said Prof. Cameron Hepburn.

“In Uganda, everyone knows [the] environment should be protected if the economy has to grow,” said Hon. Dr Mary Goretti Kitutu.

The event was held in the wake of the GEC Annual Meeting, Giving Everyone A Stake in the Green Economy, and on the eve the eve of the Third PAGE Ministerial conference, Advancing Inclusive and Sustainable Economies.

This story was adapted from GGKP's on a series of related High-level panels, available here: https://bit.ly/2Twt9Dt

The whole media debate is available here: 

https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2019/01/14/wealth-debate-what-makes-countries-rich-or-poor/