Tag: Green transition

Climate change risks Latin America development matters
Green transition, Latin America and the Caribbean

Cascading climate risks are a threat Latin America must take seriously

By Will Nichols, Head of Climate and Resilience Risk, Verisk Maplecroft

Record temperatures, wildfires, storms and floods have all made headlines in 2023 as the world braces for a new climate reality. But the secondary impacts of these climate shocks cannot be ignored.

Governments and business organisations in Latin America must ask difficult questions about the relationships between climate impacts and secondary risks, including:

Continue reading “Cascading climate risks are a threat Latin America must take seriously”
Development Matters
Net zero innovation development matters
Green transition

Mission-oriented innovation: a suitable approach for just net zero transitions in the Global South?

By Benjamin Kumpf, Head of OECD Innovation for Development Facility, Leila Mucarsel, Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer in Transformative Innovation Policy at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina) and Avilia Zavarella, Junior Innovation Specialist at OECD Innovation for Development Facility

In the face of the climate emergency, around 140 countries, which emit close to 90% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, are planning to reduce their emissions to as close to zero as possible (known as net zero) in the upcoming decades. Around a third of these are low and middle-income countries (LMICs),the countries most affected by climate change. So how can countries in the Global South achieve a socially-just transition? One key element is innovation, and potentially mission-oriented innovation.

Continue reading “Mission-oriented innovation: a suitable approach for just net zero transitions in the Global South?”
Development Matters
media trust environment climate development matters
Building resilience, Green transition

The influence of media on trust in government and climate policies

By Dr. Stephen P. Groff, Governor, National Development Fund, Saudi Arabia, former Vice-President for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific at the Asian Development Bank, and former Deputy Director of the OECD’s Development Co-operation Directorate

Last year saw historic floods devastate Pakistan, South Asia and West Africa; massive storms pummel the Philippines and southern United States; and droughts, heatwaves and wildfires rage across Europe, China and the western United States.  Despite the extreme weather events that continue to ravage many regions in the world, public support and trust in many OECD government climate-action plans remains disappointingly low.

What role does media coverage play in building or diminishing this trust, and how can we address this moving forward?

Continue reading “The influence of media on trust in government and climate policies”
Development Matters
Green bank concept
Green transition

Calling for an International Green Bank

By Hafez Ghanem, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Distinguished Fellow at the Paris School of Economics, Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, former Vice President of the World Bank [1]

Humanity is losing the climate battle, and existing international institutions are not delivering on essential environmental action points. We urgently need a new international institution whose sole mission is to develop, finance and support the implementation of green projects in the Global South.

Continue reading “Calling for an International Green Bank”
Development Matters
Making innovation work for the climate-gender nexus
Green transition

Making innovation work for the climate-gender nexus

By Parnika Jhunjhunwala, Junior Innovation Specialist and Benjamin Kumpf, Head of OECD Innovation for Development Facility, Development Co-operation Directorate, OECD

Climate change and biodiversity loss have devastating effects on the planet and on people, especially women and girls. More women die prematurely than men due to environmental degradation. Women face greater economic insecurity due to their reliance on threatened natural resources. And more women than men are displaced because of climate change. Increasingly, governments, development co-operation providers and international organisations are recognising this climate-gender nexus. The OECD Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) new declaration on climate recognises the “urgent need to support investments in adaptation and resilience that are nature positive, locally-led, inclusive, transparent and gender-responsive”.

Continue reading “Making innovation work for the climate-gender nexus”
Development Matters
Green transition

Why investing in intermediary cities should be a priority for a green recovery

By Michael Lindfield, Senior Consultant, former Senior Specialist at the ADB

Although the COVID-19 pandemic will change the context for investment decisions – including for climate investment in intermediary cities in emerging markets and developing countries – little has been done to detail these consequences. In general, consequences for financing institutions and cities may include lower inflows to institutions like pension funds and insurance companies, and increased pressure to buy government bonds and lower revenue base, thus reducing cities’ and other urban institutions’ ability to service debt and/or provide availability payments to concessions. Additional consequences include potentially lower emerging market and developing economy sovereign and sub-sovereign credit ratings (increasing the cost of debt), and curbed economic growth, thus curtailing the potential for cost recovery in relation to green projects.    

Continue reading “Why investing in intermediary cities should be a priority for a green recovery”
Development Matters
Green transition

Green windows of opportunity for latecomer development in renewable energies

By Xiaolan Fu, University of Oxford, Rasmus Lema, University of Aalborg and Roberta Rabellotti, University of Pavia

There is increasing recognition that policies aimed at meeting environmental targets may open new economic development paths, especially for emerging economies, given the green transformation and related techno-economic paradigm changes across institutional, market and technological domains. Looking at China, a recent article highlights the importance of institutional transformation to create “green windows of opportunity” (GWOs) for economic structural change associated with the green economy. Green windows of opportunity represent a set of favourable, temporary conditions for “latecomers” to catch-up in the long run in sectors central to the green economy. 

Continue reading “Green windows of opportunity for latecomer development in renewable energies”
Development Matters
Green transition

The IMF’s turn on climate change

By Kevin P. Gallagher, Professor and Director of the Global Development Policy Centre at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies, and Co-Chair of the ‘Think 20’ Task Force on International Finance to the G20

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently pledged to put climate change at the heart of its work. A laggard to date, the IMF has to catch up fast to ensure that the world community can meet its climate change and development goals in a manner that doesn’t bring havoc to the global financial system. The IMF’s first test on climate change will be the extent to which it incorporates climate risk into this year’s reform of IMF surveillance activities. Given that these reforms will lock in for close to a decade, if the IMF doesn’t act now the consequences for prosperity and the planet will be grave.

Continue reading “The IMF’s turn on climate change”
Development Matters
Africa, Green transition

Are African countries heading for a carbon lock-in or leapfrogging to renewables?

By Galina Alova, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford

Non-hydro renewables are likely to account for less than 10% of Africa’s power generation by the end of this decade. My recent co-authored study predicts fossil fuels to continue to dominate the electricity mix in many African countries, and the continent as a whole.

Continue reading “Are African countries heading for a carbon lock-in or leapfrogging to renewables?”
Development Matters
Green transition

Getting more durable deals in extractives: knowledge is a power best shared

By Iain Steel, Research Associate, ODI & Founding Director, Econias

“It’s a high-risk country, there’s no infrastructure, and the resources are low quality.” I have heard these arguments countless times over the years from investors in extractives projects. And in every single negotiation I have advised governments on, across Africa and Asia-Pacific, investors have asked for tax incentives that they claim are necessary for financial viability. But how are governments to judge these claims when investors don’t share the underlying data?

Continue reading “Getting more durable deals in extractives: knowledge is a power best shared”
Development Matters