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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/

The PAGE Ministerial Conference on 10-11 January 2019 in Cape Town was full of thoughtful discussion, lively debate and innovative solutions for driving the green economy forward to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

These are the insights captured from the policymakers, academics, business leaders and green economy champions at the conference.

Every once in a generation an iconic leader emerges, someone who embodies the principles and the spirit of the times, overcoming adversity and showing how to navigate forward against seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Nelson Mandela was one such leader, a giant among men.

Against the backdrop of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent the better part of 27 years in prison before emerging as President of South Africa and a beacon of hope to people around the world, ministers and leaders met to navigate forward against another seemingly insurmountable obstacle; to build pathways for greener and more inclusive economies.

The conference opened with a call to arms, a reminder from world human rights leader Kumi Naidoo that the clock is ticking – not  only in terms of an increasingly unstable climate but also in terms of an increasingly unstable inequality; and that to reach the 2030 global goals for ensuring our collective wellbeing - the sustainable development goals – we will need to radically rethink and reshape our economies, our behavior and our wealth.

Image by CNBC Africa

The backdrop was fitting, as Cape Town itself embodies many of the urgent challenges facing the planet, a microcosm of the looming constraints and barriers that we ourselves have created and inherited. Recently faced with an acute water scarcity, signs were everywhere that not a drop could be wasted.

It was also fitting as the world environmental community lost another true leader in 2018, the late minister Edna Molewa from South Africa.

Opening the conference, her successor, Minister Mokonyane, said “I am walking in the footsteps of a giant.”

Image by Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa

And she is. Like Mandela, Edna Molewa reached across lines seen and unseen to bring people together for a common purpose –  elevating the issue of the environment from a boutique concern of conservationists to an issue that gets to the very core of human well-being and therefore economic policy making.

But here is the thing about giants: though they stand out in crowds and it is easy to see the direction of their footsteps, it is often quite hard to follow them, much less fill their shoes.

How did Nelson Mandela overcome his anger and bitterness of his 27-year imprisonment, and go on and reconcile and unify a deeply divided country?

Overcoming fear, anger, and obstacles imposed from outside and within, these leaders showed us how to build bridges, alliances, and a common purpose to concentrate our minds and unify our actions on one goal: our collective and shared well-being.

These traits are needed more than ever, as the world faces its own looming resource constraints and potential tipping points on climate, nature and the social contract.   

As we gathered in Cape Town, and thanks to a lively debate hosted earlier and carried into the ministerial by our colleagues at the Green Economy Coalition, five principles and pathways emerged for advancing sustainable and inclusive economies.

Image by Adobe Stock

First, it is a journey that must include us all. We cannot enjoy prosperity for the few at the expense of the many. We cannot build walls that would keep out a changing climate or dirty air or water that becomes our common heritage.

Second, it is about walking together. It is only together – building bridges across economic, racial and ideological divides – that we can successfully face the challenges of our generation. Partnerships, like the Partnership for Action on Green Economy, represent a way of scaling our individual and joint actions, distribute them across the many to reshape our world and our economies.

Third, this will require a little bit of humility and a lot of listening. The ability to agree on a common purpose starts with the ability to hear and understand each others’ rich and diverse values and approaches to creating sustainability in our lives.

Fourth, we must build trust. We must learn again to recognize the value in our relationships beyond the transactional. Trust is the social capital that underpins our institutions that shape and guide markets to good economic and social outcomes.

And fifth, it means creating a future that works for all – and in which all can work. One that creates jobs and income, and in which access to education and skills acts to counter wealth-concentrating tendencies that a new generation of information technology and machine learning threatens to propagate.

At the opening of the conference, Guy Ryder, head of the International Labor Organization, quoted Nelson Mandela, saying “everything looks impossible - until it is done.”

It is that same spirit and conviction we need now in our lives and in our world to transform ourselves and our economies to make them fit-for-purpose in the 21st century.

This year, 2019, marks the fourth anniversary of the sustainable development goals. In July, countries’ leaders will converge in New York to report on and celebrate the themes of inclusive and sustainable growth, and partnerships.

Unsurprisingly, these sit at the core of PAGE and the broader ecosystem of alliances and movements towards sustainability, with partners such as the Global Green Growth Institute.  

And like the Green Economy Coalition, which opened the week with a global discussion of how to make sure everyone gets a stake in the transition to an inclusive green economy?

And they will underpin efforts, kicked off in Cape Town, to fully align PAGE with the 2030 agenda and radically transform its ability to convene countries and share experiences in forging new pathways towards sustainability.

To walk with giants, we must draw from their strength and commitment and ability to overcome - with joy, with good humor, with knowledge - that many obstacles that we ourselves have created.

To walk in the footsteps of giants, we must make ourselves small and humble and rethink what really brings value into our lives.   

To shed the baggage of what E.F. Schumacher called the legacy of 19th century thinking, based on social Darwinism, Newtonian physics as the foundation of economics, and “enlightened” self-interest.

2019 is likely to be, again, one of the hottest years in history, if the current summer ice melt in Antarctica is any indication. So we need to get the gears in motion.

And that means finding new pathways forward. Like the Cape Town Action Pathways, that can lead us forward to 2030 and beyond.   

Thankfully, we have giants to in whose footsteps we can follow.

Friday 14 December 2018, Cape Town, South Africa - From 10-11 January 2019, 500 innovators and leaders from governments, civil society, private sector, development organizations, media and the public will meet in Cape Town for the third global forum on green economy.  Hosted by the Department of Environmental Affairs of South Africa, the third PAGE Ministerial Conference will highlight and celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and inclusivity as drivers of green industries and as the bedrock for a better and more sustainable future for all.

As an alliance of five UN agencies –UN Environment, ILO, UNDP, UNIDO, UNITAR – the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), supports countries in meeting their sustainability commitments, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals related to the economy, jobs, industrial development and the environment. It also works with them to meet their national commitments to tackling climate change under the Paris Agreement through inclusive green economy approaches.

The third PAGE Ministerial Conference will focus on how to advance inclusive and sustainable economies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Over the course of two days, participants will zoom in on how we can develop and implement innovative policy solutions to green the economy, how to green the financial system and make it work for the future, how to find solutions that work for everybody and empower the most vulnerable and how to enable and incentivize consuming and producing sustainably.

It’s an ambitious agenda, and one that requires expertise from a diversity of our global community. That’s why PAGE is bringing together a group of similarly ambitious innovators and leaders to guide these discussions.  From Chief Economist of the UN, Elliot Harris, to Kimmo Tiilikaiinan, Minister for Environment of Finland, Pierre Venter from the Banking Association of South Africa, and Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International – PAGE has gathered the most incisive minds from across the spectrum of social, economic and environmental leadership to work together towards real solutions.

Only limited spaces are still available – register now to secure your place.

For more information on the conference, including a full programme and list of speakers, please visit the PAGE Ministerial Conference 2019 website.