A guide to international green economy initiatives

Cameron Allen, former Associate Expert with the UN Division for Sustainable Development, introduces the new UNDESA Guidebook to the Green Economy: Issue 4, which provides a global overview of the various international initiatives that are supporting countries and stakeholders to implement the green economy worldwide.

At the Rio+20 Conference in June last year, following lengthy and challenging negotiations, governments agreed that the green economy is an important tool for achieving sustainable development. Unlike some of the headline outcomes from the Conference, such as the sustainable development goals, high level political forum for sustainable development, and the financing strategy for sustainable development, governments did not establish any formal commitments or intergovernmental processes to support implementation of the green economy decision.

Rather, the Conference acknowledged the importance of international cooperation to support green economy implementation and recognised that the efforts of developing countries that wish to implement green economy policies should be supported through technical and technological assistance.  The outcome encouraged the United Nations and international organisations, partners and governments to share their experiences, exchange knowledge and help to build capacity in green economy policy design and implementation.  It also underscored the important role that finance and technology will play in implementation.

Now, almost a year later, there are a multitude of international initiatives and actors involved in supporting the global transition to greener economies.  Of course, the origins of many of these initiatives stem back to before the Rio+20 Conference and have their roots in global efforts to respond to climate change and environmental decline. Nevertheless, a number of new international initiatives have been launched over the past 12 months specifically to target green growth and green economy. Such initiatives create a complex landscape of platforms, partnerships, programs, funds and other mechanisms that are providing a range of green economy services.

Over the past year, the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development has been researching and publishing a series of Guidebooks to the Green Economy, with the aim of providing useful resource guides to help clarify key concepts, map out the range of publications, principles and policies for green economy, and help practitioners in their efforts to interpret and implement green economy as a tool for sustainable development.  They have become a popular resource with practitioners, stakeholders and the broader public as they help to provide an overview of current global understanding on green economy and demystify what has become a controversial concept.

In this latest Guidebook to the Green Economy: Issue 4, the focus turns to providing a global overview of the various international initiatives that are supporting countries and stakeholders to implement the green economy worldwide.  In doing so, it provides a resource guide to nearly 60 different international green economy initiatives along with an initial mapping of the international green economy landscape, the various actors involved, the support services that they provide, and the geographical reach of these initiatives which are now spreading green economy policies and practices across the globe. The intent is to provide useful information to practitioners, countries and stakeholders which may assist with coordination and coherence and help countries to find the support that they need. As with the previous guidebooks, the review focuses on green economy and the related concepts of green growth and low-carbon development.  

The guidebook highlights that a plethora of interrelated platforms, programs, partnerships, funds and other mechanisms for green economy are underway, supporting green economy efforts in over 160 countries worldwide through a variety of support services from information exchange, to capacity building, to finance and technology assistance. In doing so, it paints an initial map of a global green economy landscape that involves multiple actors – including government, the UN system, international organisations, NGOs and the private sector – and that covers almost all corners of the globe.

Through the efforts of these organisations, partnerships and donors, substantial progress has already been made in implementing green economy policies and projects.  Most initiatives target the developing world and many developing countries are benefiting from multiple initiatives and establishing mechanisms to leverage assistance from these initiatives and enhance coordination and coherence at the national level. This picture contrasts with the scepticism on green economy expressed by a number of countries in the intergovernmental debates leading to Rio+20. In practice, green economy, broadly defined, is already being implemented to some degree by the vast majority of countries worldwide. The transition to greener economies has well and truly begun.

With such a multitude of actors involved in supporting green economy initiatives worldwide, one of the challenges post-Rio+20 will be to ensure that the various initiatives are complementary and coordinated wherever possible to maximise their effectiveness and avoid duplication and redundancy. By mapping out the key initiatives, actors, donors and services available, this fourth guidebook to the green economy hopes to provide a useful contribution to enhance coordination and help countries to find the services that they need to green their economies.