A new report was launched by the Green Growth Best Practice (GGBP) initiative which pulls together the many tangible benefits that governments and communities are realizing through the adoption of green growth policies.
The report, Green Growth in Practice: Lessons from Country Experiences, is the result of a collaborative partnership between the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). It is the culmination of over a year of work by over 75 green growth practitioners from around the world.
The report is the first comprehensive international assessment of best practices and lessons from experiences of pursuing green growth policies across all levels of government. It is designed to be used by governments, development assistance agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders, in helping them transition their economies away from fossil fuels in ways that result in sustainable growth.
“There are thousands of examples around the world of green growth policies in practice: policies that help local communities and national governments both grow their economies and address climate change. By highlighting the best of these, this report allows national and local governments to make informed choices from a deep pool of experience and learning”, says Johannes Meier, CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
By assessing more than 60 programs around the world and focusing on those elements commonly used by governments in green growth analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring, the report provides guidance and examples to policymakers interested in pursuing such policies in their own country, region, and municipality.
Some of the key findings of the report are:
- Green growth can unlock substantial economic, social, and environmental benefits. Green growth strategies enable governments to achieve significant near and long-term benefits in economic growth, environmental protection, and poverty reduction. These synergistic benefits can be achieved through improvements in resource efficiency and management, support for green technology and business innovation, and investment in initiatives to mitigate the risks and costs of this transition to green development.
- Integrated and robust planning, analysis, implementation, and monitoring are essential. Green growth strategies tend to be most effective where they link robust and credible planning, analysis, implementation, and monitoring processes in an iterative and reinforcing cycle and with active stakeholder engagement.
- Broad support for transformative change is required. Green growth plans are most effective when driven by ambitious yet achievable visions with high level and broad government and stakeholder support. They should pursue both near and long-term opportunities for dynamic shifts in resource management, technology use, community development, industrial practices and competitiveness, education and worker training, and other factors.
Sam Bickersteth, Chief Executive of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) notes that “This report shows that green growth works.  It provides a valuable resource for governments and their advisers who are looking to make climate mitigation commitments while sustaining economic growth, employment and welfare. The scientific argument on climate change has been conclusively won: climate change is happening and global emissions of greenhouse gases are largely the cause. Now, this report presents convincing evidence that tackling climate change – when planned carefully to manage the consequences for different stakeholder groups – can achieve many of society’s development goals.”
The release of the report will be followed by an online resource with additional case studies. Read the Green Growth in Practice: Lessons from Country Experiences here: www.ggbp.org.
(Source: Green Growth Best Practice)