Policy Brief:Transformative narratives for climate action: win-win strategies linking climate and sustainable development goals
This policy brief, Transformative Narratives for Climate Action: Win-win strategies linking climate and sustainable development goals, discusses the key role of Transformative Narratives for catalysing climate action and elaborates some of the empirically-grounded transformative narratives produced in the GREEN-WIN project. In particular, the brief emphasises that win-win strategies that meet climate and economic goals can provide the basis for transformative narratives that are key to catalysing climate action. The brief discusses transformative narratives based on win-win strategies in the areas of rural energy poverty eradication, urban sustainability, and adaptation infrastructure. Additionally, the brief examines policies for scaling up win-win strategies like knowledge sharing, collaboration with domestic and international networks, and capacity building.
Policy Brief:Securing Macro-economic Gains from Decarbonisation Investment: The finance dimension and an Italian case study
The transition to a low carbon economy is a capital-intensive process requiring large-scale finance of suitable low-carbon investment programmes. This policy brief, Securing Macro-economic Gains from Decarbonisation Investment, examines the trends driving long-term investing in low-carbon development. This challenge is linked to the expansion of efficient (e.g. low cost) private finance for capital-intensive low-carbon assets, on both the supply (financial structures) and demand side (energy technologies and policies) of investment decisions. Different policies in place and country risk profiles determine the wide variation of investments’ rate of returns across markets and sectors. In 2016, the range of financing costs in the ‘green and renewables’ sector varies from 3.4 % in Germany to 8 % or more in Greece and many emerging markets, reflecting perceived risks associated with these countries and their relevant energy-climate policies.
Policy Brief:Enhancing Technology Transfer and Diffusion
Technological diffusion is recognized as a key pillar of climate change mitigation in environmental agreements. This policy brief, Enhancing Technology Transfer and Diffusion, published as part of the Green-Win project, finds that enhanced technology transfers within a ‘climate club’ would have sizeable positive effects on GDP in a 2° scenario. Existing international policy measures such as the Clean Development Mechanism only had an impact on north-south diffusion and have mainly been directed to large emerging economies, mostly China, India, and Brazil. There exist major gaps in the network of technological diffusion, between and within developing world regions. Technology diffusion routes are much more influenced by long-term trade relationships existing between countries and by the level of technological development than by sectorial policy measures such as renewable support policy. In order to foster technological diffusion, climate clubs must target a major shift in the structure of international trade and economic integration. In developing countries, the build-up of a supply base of certain low-carbon technologies is as important as the deployment of the technologies.
Policy Brief:Enabling Environments for Green SMEs: Recommendations for action
Green small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent a key win-win strategy and are one of the main drivers of green transformation. Taken together, SMEs have a greater impact on the economy and the environment than large companies; thus the dynamics of green growth very much depend on how small businesses can integrate sustainable practices into their business activities. Green SMEs that are focused on financial profit and dedicated to environmental sustainability can lead the green transformation from the ground up by creating new business models and providing examples of successful sustainable business practices that can be adopted by more and more companies.
More focused measures are needed to support the inception of new green businesses. This policy brief, Enabling Environments for Green SMEs: Recommendations for action, published as part of the Green-Win project finds that policymakers at all levels can play a role in enabling the creation of green SMEs. Policymakers, at international, national and local levels, have a key role to play in enabling the transition of SMEs to the green economy, mainly by adopting clear and coherent regulations, creating enabling market conditions for green products and services and facilitating access to funding and capacity building programmes that support investor-grade green SMEs.
Policy Brief:Leveraging Public Finance for Coastal Adaptation
Coastal adaptation investment presents clear opportunities for social welfare improvements, particularly for densely populated areas with high levels of economic activity. This policy brief, Leveraging Public Finance for Coastal Adaptation, provides insights into several mechanisms for leveraging public finance of coastal adaptation. Leveraging public finance refers to achieving increased outputs with the same amount of public investment. Given constraints on public finance, leveraging public finance is increasingly important for achieving coastal adaptation. Promising mechanisms for leveraging public investments in coastal adaptation include generating market revenues or increasing tax revenue through projects that produce co-benefits such as new land or improved environmental quality. A further mechanism for leveraging public investments is through long-term contracting of the private sector, which can improve the efficiency of adaptation project delivery. Each mechanism is illustrated through an example analysed in the GREEN-WIN project.
Policy Brief:Disruptive Innovation and Win-Win Strategies for the Sharing Mobility Economy
This policy brief, Disruptive Innovation and Win-Win Strategies for the Sharing Mobility Economy, published as part of the Green-Win project provides insights into the disruptive innovation of the sharing economy which is occurring in the urban mobility sector. Sharing mobility promotes win-win strategies that aim to provide short-term socioeconomic benefits and longer-term environmental impacts through mitigation and adaptation gains and therefore to enhance sustainable development in cities. Disruptive innovations, like mobile apps can coordinate on-demand vehicle and ride sharing at unprecedented scales, transforming urban mobility. Although social and technological sharing innovations may address multiple urban problems, there is an ‘adaptive lag’ in governance which is fostering new environmental problems. A collaborative governance regime to support win-win sustainability strategies in the shared mobility sector is needed between mobility companies, users and the public, and city governments. The analysis is illustrated through examples investigated in the Green-Win project.
Policy Brief:Energy Poverty Eradication and Climate Resilient Livelihoods through Win-Win Solutions
Climate change does not only pose increasing risks to local livelihoods and economies, but also provides a large array of opportunities for social innovation and international collaboration. Any attempt at limiting global warming below will require new forms of green businesses and of economic collaboration. This is especially the case in rural and poor areas of the world where there is a major potential for societal-climatic positive transformations.
This policy brief, Energy Poverty Eradication and Climate Resilient Livelihoods through Win-Win Solutions, finds that, despite some identified barriers, many supporting measures can already be implemented fast to accelerate the deployment of win-win solutions in rural and poor contexts of the world. In the absence of strong global governance institutions, and of clear long-term policy and economic signals able to tackle with the climate challenge, the role of non-state, private actors and ‘glocal’ networks is crucial in delivering the required transformations at community and regional levels. In the case of eradicating energy poverty and building climate resilient livelihood many trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation can be overcome and the overall costs of climate action can be reduced by aligning decarbonisation policies and incentives to broader sustainable development goals.
