February 2018 – Issue 2 Featured Story: Nature-Based Projects Fill Critical Service Gaps in Marginalised Communities
“Pilot projects in South Africa, Indonesia and India demonstrate how nature-based, resource-efficient, community-driven and often improvised solutions can deliver significant social, environmental and economic benefits at the local level,” says Lauren Hermanus, Research Associate at the African Climate and Development Initiative.
“These experimental projects offer major learning opportunities for anyone interested in fostering resilience and green growth. They present new models for business, government and investors to respond to social needs while minimising environmental harm or even restoring critical ecosystems.”
On 20 February (10:00 AM CET), join the GGKP for a webinar to explore practical lessons from key GREEN-WIN projects that have implemented “win-win” solutions for clean energy, sanitation, smart agriculture and green economic development.
New Research\\
Making Better Use of Energy Taxes
How do carbon and energy taxes vary across OECD and G20 countries? What are the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy-related emissions? The OECD report ‘Taxing Energy Use 2018: Companion to the Taxing Energy Use Database’ sheds some light through an assessment of taxes on energy use across 42 OECD and G20 economies, six sectors and five main fuel groups from 2012-2015.
The Business of Planting Trees
Restoring degraded land has the potential to become big business, yet many investors know little about restoration opportunities. ‘The Business of Planting Trees: A Growing Investment Opportunity’, a report released by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Nature Conservancy, highlights four promising investment themes in land restoration – technology, consumer products, project management, and commercial forestry – and spotlights 14 businesses across eight countries that are part of an emerging forest and land restoration economy.
Cleaner, Smarter, Cheaper Network Tariff Design
The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) has released the report, ‘Cleaner, Smarter, Cheaper: Network Tariff Design for a Smart Future’. The report makes the case that fixed network charges impede a clean energy transition and provides a set of recommendations for smart network tariff design that will support the realisation of the European Union’s clean energy vision in a way that is timely, low-cost and equitable.
Aligning Energy and Climate Objectives in NDCs
How can developing countries align their energy sector development goals with their nationally determined contributions (NDCs)? The report ‘Aligning Energy Development and Climate Objectives in Nationally Determined Contributions’, produced by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), looks at best and worst practices in four countries – Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana and Peru.
Making Blended Finance Work for Sustainable Development
The OECD report ‘Making Blended Finance Work for the Sustainable Development Goals’ looks at the blended finance landscape and assesses how blended finance is being used to support sustainable development in developing countries. It describes key concepts and definitions, presents an overview of actors and instruments, and discusses lessons learned from blending approaches, tracking and data, and monitoring and evaluation.
Engaging Private Landowners for Municipal Natural Asset Management
The report ‘Towards a Collaborative Strategy for Municipal Asset Management: Private Lands’, released by the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI), highlights how local governments can include private land and private landowners in a comprehensive municipal natural asset management framework. It provides an overview of the main tools available to local governments for private lands, complementing a traditional asset management toolkit.