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Environmental policies as an ingredient for growth
| ew research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows how well-designed green policies can secure long-term well-being, while upholding current productivity levels. According to the working paper ‘Empirical Evidence on the Effects of Environmental Policy Stringency on Productivity Growth’, these positive outcomes can be further encouraged if environmental policies offer flexibility for compliance, a reason to favour market-based instruments (such as taxes) over rigid regulations and standards. Read more about this research in the GGKP Insights Blog. |
Pricing carbon in a changing economic climate and examining the impact on regulations on competitiveness
The many opportunities in eco-innovation
| The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the publication ‘The Business Case for Eco-Innovation’. The paper aims to demonstrate how eco-innovation can enable companies to carve out commercially interesting opportunities. It presents examples from companies that have integrated eco-innovation at the core of their business strategy. |
Environmental regulations stringency and its impact on trade in environmental goods
| The OECD working paper ‘The Stringency of Environmental Regulations and Trade in Environmental Goods’, assesses conceptually and empirically the extent to which the stringency of environmental regulations drives international trade in environmental goods. The different indicators of regulatory stringency considered in this report generally support the notion that the stringency of environmental regulations positively affects countries’ specialisation in environmental products, even when considering specific sectors such as solid-waste management or wastewater treatment. |
Exposing the fossil fuel bailout
In the lead up to the recent G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) released the report ‘The fossil fuel bailout: G20 subsidies for oil, gas and coal exploration’. This report documents the scale and structure of fossil fuel exploration subsidies in the G20 countries, highlighting evidence of publicly financed bailouts for carbon-intensive companies.
The OECD released the report ‘Towards Green Growth in Southeast Asia’. The report provides insights for leaders to design their own solutions to move their countries towards green growth in the region. The report presents a broad and deep understanding of the costs, risks and consequences of the region’s booming economy, and offers solutions that are in play in the region and elsewhere.
The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), released a paper ‘Identifying Products with Climate and Development Benefits for an Environmental Goods Agreement’. The paper examines trade among the G14 and non-G14 economies in the 54 product sub-categories included in the APEC environmental goods list. The paper presents a preliminary analysis of trade flows and tariffs and proposes measures for improving the transparency of the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations.
The New Climate Economy Cities Research Programme released a series of papers which show that cities are key to driving economic growth and fighting climate change. These papers include: ‘Accessibility in Cities: Transport and urban form‘; ‘Steering Urban Growth: governance, policy and finance”; ‘What impact can local economic development in cities have on global GHG emissions? Assessing the evidence‘; ‘Path Dependence, Innovation and the Economics of Climate Change‘; ‘Cities and the New Climate Economy: The transformative role of global urban growth‘ and ‘The Economic Case for Low Carbon Cities‘.
The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) released the paper ‘Shifting to a Green Economy: Lock-in, Path Dependence, and Policy Options’. This paper looks at economic aspects of the challenge of escaping carbon lock-in using a “brown-green capital” model. The paper also explores possible macroeconomic consequences of policies to drive a transition to a low-carbon economy and policy responses in the case that macroeconomic imbalances result.
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