Environment and development

Green growth and development

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Introduction l What we do l Related events l Further reading

Focus 1: Green Growth and Developing Countries

Developing countries face different and more difficult policy choices than developed countries in designing and implementing green growth strategies. For developing countries, green growth will be politically acceptable if and only if it addresses urgent needs, and contributes to the objectives of poverty reduction and other Millennium Development Goals.

Hence, green growth strategies will have to demonstrate their abilities to create new opportunities with respect to economic growth, job creation, environmental improvement and the creation of more equitable societies. OECD DAC aims to further research the development dimension of the green growth agenda and ensure more relevant policy advice is delivered to developing country partners.

What we do

1. Putting Green Growth at the Heart of Development

Putting Green Growth at the Heart of Development: Summary for Policymakers (.pdf, 7Mb)

Developing economies are highly vulnerable to environmental risk partly because their economies are often heavily dependent on natural resources. Green growth policies can deliver a range of development benefits, including more sustainably managed natural resources on which to build growth and well-being; new economic growth opportunities and new sources of domestic public revenues; resilient infrastructure and reduced vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters; and greater access to reliable energy supplies and clean water. Green growth can contribute to poverty reduction and social equity, if policies are also designed to respond to the needs of the poorest. Green growth does not replace sustainable development, but is a means to achieve it.

Putting Green Growth at the Heart of Development, to be published in May 2013, outlines a twin-track agenda for national and international action to help achieve green growth in developing countries. It surveys developing countries’ experiences and draws on extensive consultation with these countries and with international stakeholders to explore the concept of green growth by looking at developing countries’ own practices.

An urgent task will be to manage the difficult trade-offs between short-term demands and longer-term impact, and the need to make choices that will deliver a more stable and sustainable future while also securing immediate gains. At the national level, Putting Green Growth at the Heart of Development identifies as key elements of a good green growth strategy the existence of strong leadership, the establishment of platforms for strong public and private stakeholder engagement, and the integration of green growth into specific policy packages. At the international level, co-operation can provide essential support to developing countries in managing their transition to green growth, through targeted development finance, strengthened international trade in green goods and services, and technological support to boost the pace of green innovation and tailor it to local needs.

2. Green Growth Country Case Studies

The OECD secretariat is also extending its green growth work to the country level by partnering with the Governments of Cambodia and Ethiopia to gather evidence and gain better understanding of country specificities and the implications of more inclusive green growth - a step towards further incorporating the social and inclusive dimension to the existing green growth framework. In partnership with Cambodian Ministry of Environment and Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority, the country case studies aim to engage national and local stakeholders to share experience on each country’s enabling framework and policies targeting green growth and inclusion, to understand the goals and policies in place or planned, as well as trade-offs and opportunities for green growth in a particular national context.

Report on each country case study is currently under preparation, informed through in-country consultations took place in October and November 2012. These report are designed to survey experience and gather views of key stakeholders on green growth and on the interface between social inclusion, green growth and development policy goals in order to facilitate experience sharing within and between countries. The involvement is not be limited to the ministries of environment but extend the participation and ‘ownership’ of the studies to ministries of finance, development and sectors critical to development and poverty reduction, as well as relevant businesses, academics and NGOs.

Focus 2: Green Growth and Poverty Reduction

International support can play a significant role in implementing national-owned Green Growth Strategies. Some of this international support is already in place, some comes in the form of generic efforts to support developing country policy processes and some will require new efforts specific to green growth.

What we do

A Task Team made of DAC environment and poverty reduction experts was established in 2011 to formally join force in identifying good practice of development co-operation agencies to support developing countries’ green growth strategies in order to achieve poverty reduction goal. The key deliverable of this group will consist of good practice notes on the four topics identified by ENVIRONET as being critical for ensuring that green growth is pro-poor, these are:

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