Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations-IDDRI
with the support of

International Institute for Sustainable Development-IISD
Center for Strategic Studies and Management -CGEE

Efforts to advance the green economy face tremendous challenges. They have to receive the sustained support from citizen and hence work within national economic systems to meet specific constraints and needs. They also have to be coordinated at global level to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts and increase the net benefits to ?turn green? for any country. Budding initiatives for greening the economy demonstrate that every green economy will be unique. They also suggest that their public policy content and the specific policy and measures used can turn conflicting in the current context of lingering crisis in some OECD countries and exacerbated power relations induced by fast convergence across developing and developed economies. How best harness globalization for the green economy is the issue at stake we intend to address in this side-event.

Efforts to advance the green economy face tremendous challenges. They have to receive the sustained support from citizen and hence work within national economic systems to meet specific constraints and needs. They also have to be coordinated at global level to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts and increase the net benefits to ?turn green? for any country. Budding initiatives for greening the economy demonstrate that every green economy will be unique and that there is no one-size fits all solution to the myriad contexts and realities that will emerge. They also suggest that their public policy content and the specific policy and measures used can turn conflicting in the current context of lingering crisis in some OECD countries and exacerbated power relations induced by fast convergence across developing and developed economies. Globalization and the green economy relationships need to be governed to propel green economy in a positive-sum game across countries. How best harness globalization for the green economy is the issue at stake we intend to address in this side-event.

To debate it, high level presenters from different communities and countries will be convened to exchange their view on the policy content of the green economy agenda, the specific role international trade is expected to play, and the governance needs on these two intertwined issues. Initiatives to rethink globalization in the light of the green economy and sustainable development will be discussed in the second part of the side-event. Practical implications for Rio+20 and beyond will be sketched out in conclusion.


Speakers: François Moisan (Environment and Energy Saving Agency ADEME), Marcelo Poppe (Center for Strategic Studies and Management, CGEE), Mark Halle (International Institute for Sustainable Development IISD), Qi Ye (Tsinghua University), Mohanty Brahmanand (Asian Institute of Technology), Laurence Tubiana (Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations IDDRI)