Brookings: Experts - Katherine Sierra

Climate Policy Across the Globe: Lessons Learned and Key Challenges

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:00:00 -0400

Event Information

April 15, 2013
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036

While global climate negotiations are stalled, a surprising development is underway. In the last decade, regional, national and subnational actions to combat climate change have proliferated. Governments are making it possible to build new, clean sources of energy, regulating industries for greater energy efficiency and encouraging better land-use practices. Their accumulated experience can provide lessons on how to combat climate change faster and more cheaply. Climate Policy Initiative, a global policy effectiveness analysis and advisory organization led by Thomas C. Heller, explores this experience in five key emissions regions—the U.S., China, India, Brazil and Europe—in the inaugural edition of “The Policy Climate” report. Focusing on the most emissions-intensive industry sectors in these regions, the report presents three decades of evidence on emissions trends, economic and industry drivers of emissions, and policy activity.

On April 15, Global Economy and Development at Brookings and Climate Policy Initiative hosted a discussion on “The Policy Climate” and how findings from the report can influence future global climate policy. Climate Policy Initiative Senior Director David Nelson gave a short presentation, followed by a panel discussion. Panelists included Thomas C. Heller, CPI executive director; Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for Energy and Climate Change in the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; and Jennifer Morgan, director the Climate and Energy Program at World Resources Institute. Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierra moderated the discussion.

Green Growth Innovation: New Pathways for International Cooperation

Nathan Hultman, Katherine Sierra, Jason Eis and Allison Shapiro — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:50:00 -0500

INTRODUCTION

We are at a key moment in the evolution of our global approach to the challenges of development, environment and the transition to a green economy. This year marked the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit, and the 40th anniversary of the first international meeting to address environment and development in Stockholm. Despite the ambitious and well-intentioned aspirations of these meetings, over 1.3 billion people still do not have access to electricity; 2.5 billion people live without basic sanitation; and 4 billion people live on less than $9 per day. Furthermore, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are likely to exceed the levels that would be needed to maintain the climate at no more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels and some climate impacts are already being felt, with the greatest vulnerabilities in the developing world.

Innovations in green technology represent transformational approaches to these and others of the world’s thorniest development and environment challenges. Innovation for green growth has the potential to tackle three challenges simultaneously: encouraging widespread development and poverty reduction; creating new and more vibrant economies based on clean technologies; and securing an increasingly greener world. Importantly, this kind of transformational approach to addressing global development goals through green technologies will require support for innovation across all development contexts. Establishing a sufficiently large suite of technological options, suitable to all economies and at the urgent pace required, will involve unprecedented innovation activity not only from developed regions, but also from new clusters and enterprises in emerging economies and least developed countries. Encouragingly, widespread economic development has increased global capacity for research and development, and created a new tier of emerging innovators in developing countries—and through additional action, we argue that these gains might be bolstered, and additional innovation areas can be encouraged in new regions.

Tackling such challenges as climate change, energy access, environmental degradation, sanitation and water availability while achieving economic and development goals will require unusually creative approaches. The engagement of global innovative capacity depends on effective national innovation systems, and in many places these could potentially benefit from international coordination and support. It will require new and profitable business models, novel approaches to financing, and policy innovations within our national and global institutions.

In this analysis, we seek to elucidate the areas for new international partnerships or cooperation that could be most effective in this transformation. We do this first by reviewing the components of a successful innovation “ecosystem.” We then present and analyze a large set of existing international initiatives that aim to support green growth, and identify strengths and gaps in the existing infrastructure. We assess the needs and pragmatic constraints on international institutions, and recommend an integrated, four-part approach to spur innovation partnerships in developing countries. We conclude that, by linking national governments, the private sector, and the international community, a collaborative effort can make concrete improvements in four key green innovation areas:

Cultivating technical knowledge in green technologies;
Facilitating existing entrepreneurial cultures;
Providing new models and opportunities for financing and intellectual property sharing; and
Large scale financing for demonstration and deployment of complex but transformative new technologies.

Downloads

Download the full report

Authors

Nathan Hultman
Katherine Sierra
Jason Eis
Allison Shapiro

Image Source: © Jo Yong hak / Reuters

Harnessing Technology and Innovation in the Fight Against Global Poverty

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:56:00 -0400

This collection of policy briefs was commissioned for the ninth annual Brookings Blum Roundtable on Global Poverty, held in Aspen, Colorado on August 1–3, 2012.

There is growing excitement among governments, international organizations, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and civil society about the potential of technology and innovation to dramatically improve the lives of poor people around the world.

Mobile technology is giving poor people the capacity to transact, borrow and save through their cell phones. Connection technologies such as open source software are allowing people in Haiti and Pakistan to collect and analyze information about, and then respond to, violence, corruption and natural disasters. Myriad ‘green growth’ technological innovations across the globe are expanding access to electricity, increasing agricultural yields while also reducing harmful emissions.

But innovation in the service of development goals is not just about achieving technological breakthroughs. Recent research shows that new business models often matter far more than the technology of a given product when serving poor communities. Moreover, promising technologies do not bring about improvements in the lives of the world’s poorest people unless they are adequately invested in, rigorously evaluated, and then brought to scale, which typically requires the collaboration of many actors, including the private and philanthropic sectors and government.

The following policy briefs explore these issues in detail, lay out the challenges, and offer a range of specific recommendations on what needs to happen and why.

Image Source: © Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Innovation and Technology for Green Growth

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:56:00 -0400

Nathan Hultman, Katherine Sierra and Allison Shapiro categorize the various types of green growth innovations and examine recent R&D and investment trends, before reviewing new approaches that help countries simultaneously realize economic, environmental and development goals.

Publication: Harnessing Technology and Innovation in the Fight Against Global Poverty

The Green Climate Fund's Private Sector Facility: The Case for Private Sector Participation on the Board

Katherine Sierra — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:10:00 -0400

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) Private Sector Facility can enhance the likelihood of achieving its’ goals of scale-up, transformation and leverage by including individual voting members in its board who bring private sector skills and experience. This would build on growing precedent in the boards of other global funds, as well as in national funds in developing countries.

Benefits of this inclusion can include greater balancing of views from both the private and public sectors. This can in turn protect the public interest while enhancing innovation and leverage, greater cost and value consciousness, and speedier decision-making. However there may be risks including; potential conflicts of interest; those which are associated with constituency-based selections; lack of knowledge of developing country conditions; and lack of trust. While these risks can undermine the effectiveness of engagement, they can be managed through careful design and selection processes.

Finally, while private sector engagement in the governance of institutions which manage public funds is becoming more common in a number of multilateral and national settings, this engagement is not alone sufficient to ensure overall fund effectiveness. Broader lessons from fund governance experiences will need to be factored into the operation of the Green Climate Fund as well as its Private Sector Facility.

The GCF Board, in its design of the Private Sector Facility, should:

Create dedicated private sector board seats with full voting authority.
Design rigorous selection criteria and processes to ensure private sector board members are independent and selected on the basis of individual skills and experience, not by constituency.
Design selection criteria that ensure that at least half of the private sector seats are held by individuals who bring deep experience from markets in the developing countries that the facility will be serving and that they have previous experience with companies or organizations which operate principally in a developing country or region.
Encourage governments to nominate public sector board members who have private sector experience and skills.
Balance the number of private sector board seats with those from the public sector, with somewhat more public sector seats to alleviate concerns about adherence to the Facility’s public sector mission.
Manage conflicts of interests by limiting participation on private sector board seats to individuals who bring private sector skills, but are be no longer engaged in transactions or employed by potential users of the funds.
Adopt transparent rules for the disclosure of decisions, and for recusal as needed for all Board members.
Develop a set of complementary measures to broaden private sector engagement. These could include engaging the private sector as fund managers, investment advisors, advisors on technical working groups, technical advisors to funding recipients, and co-financiers.

Downloads

Download the full paper

Authors

Katherine Sierra

Image Source: © Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Web Chat: Climate Change and the Presidential Election

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:30:00 -0400

Event Information

June 13, 2012
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

Online Only
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

As the nation’s economy continues a slow and difficult recovery, climate change has so far received little attention on the presidential campaign trail. With the world’s carbon footprint soaring and America approaching an energy crossroads, however, the next president will be forced to make critical decisions regarding clean energy and the future of fossil fuels in the United States.

How do the climate policies of President Obama and candidate Romney differ? Does political will exist to implement a U.S. carbon tax? On June 13, Brookings expert Katherine Sierra took your questions and comments in a live web chat moderated by Vivyan Tran of POLITICO.

12:29 Vivyan Tran: Welcome everyone, let's get started!

12:30 Comment From Anne: How does the United States regain its status as a leader on climate change?

12:32 Katherine Sierra: The United States can regain its leadership role in climate change if it is ready to take decisive action in setting a price on carbon -- while a cap-and-trade system is off the table politically, a carbon tax, linked to deficit reduction, could hold the key. But unfortunately, this is unlikely in the near term. So, it will be up to states, cities and coalitions of actors (business, civil society and local governments) for the time being. At least we can make movement on showing that through innovation, a new pathway is feasible.

12:32 Comment From Elizabeth, R: Why do you think the American public lacks a real urgency on climate change? Are individuals just preoccupied with other issues like the economy, health care etc?

12:36 Katherine Sierra: The impacts of climate change are long term, but the costs (at least the transition costs) are short term. Our political leaders have not been able to provide a narrative that builds on the science and navigates the trade-offs and opportunities in a compelling way. Indeed, the opposite has happened, climate change has been a polarizing issue. Will the impacts of climate -- more and more costly disasters -- change the dynamic? Will this happen in time to actually allow emission reductions to reverse course?

12:36 Comment From Erica: Will the 2012 presidential election prove a milestone in U.S. climate policy? Do Romney and Obama represent two fundamentally different views on the environment and clean tech?

12:40 Katherine Sierra: While the election will be important, and the two candidates have different approaches and views, climate action in the United States will be constrained in the near term whatever the outcome. A second Obama term will face the same political constraints with a divided electorate. Fiscal constraints and jobs will also reduce the President's ability to take bold action. A Romney presidency will likely move to weaken United States leadership in international negotiations. However, beyond the rhetoric, he may buy into a strategy that focuses on private-sector led innovation, albeit not billed as a climate policy.

12:40 Comment From Erica, D: Given renewed fears about a global recession, can investments in clean tech or green energy support growth in both developed and developing nations?

12:45 Katherine Sierra: Many countries and sub-national governments are thinking through strategies that support a fundamentally different clean- or green-economy paradigm. An example is Korea which used its stimulus policies to drive clean energy investments, and is now focusing on a broader low-carbon, green economy as a way to drive growth and jobs. City leaders are also focusing on how they can harness innovation to improve their competitiveness, locally and globally. For developing countries, international support to help them build innovation systems and to leverage private capital to drive growth should be a priority. In the United States, placing a price on carbon, recycling some of the funds to support research and development, could be an important move.

12:45 Comment From Carmen: Has the Obama administration really progressed on international climate that much more than where we were at the end of the Bush administration?

12:49 Katherine Sierra: The Obama administration has been successful in changing the terms of the international debate in the climate negotiations. Coming from the near debacle at the Copenhagen climate talks through Cancun and Durban, there is now recognition that all parties -- not just historical emitters like the US, but also new, large emitters, like China -- will need to take action if the global problem is to be solved. So, the new approaches, which rely on pledge-and-review mechanisms, are a first start. So is the new language agreed to in Durban that calls for a new agreement with legal force covering all actors. While the large emerging economies still push back on this formulation, the stage has been set. However, returning to the first question in this chat, what is still needed is action on the part of the United States, along with China, to break the log jam.

12:49 Comment From Amos: Do you think that a carbon tax could alleviate some of the economic stress on the US? How so?

12:53 Katherine Sierra: My Brookings colleague Ted Gayer has produced an excellent paper outlining the ways in which a carbon tax could both contribute to deficit reduction and climate and pollution control. He posits a three-pronged strategy: Price environmental externalities (e.g., GHG emissions) through a carbon tax; use the revenue to reduce the deficit; and eliminate redundant and costly environmental regulations that were put in as "second-best" solutions to the emissions problem. Pricing carbon will also send the appropriate signal to innovators and investors, which should help spur technological advances.

12:53 Comment From Chris: Aren't the short-term costs of climate change just as real and important? Sometimes it can be difficult to see the importance of climate change legislation when so many people's livelihoods depend on the energy industry -- including fossil fuels. Are efforts to reduce climate change worth sacrificing people's jobs? Their financial security and well-being?

12:57 Katherine Sierra: Agree that the short-term costs are real and important. This is so not just here in the United States, but also in developing countries where leaders are concerned first and foremost about meeting the poverty alleviation and growth objectives of their people. But, we also know that many of the elements of a climate strategy (improvements in energy efficiency, new forms of transportation) are cost effective and will bring benefits now that outweigh the costs...so these should be implemented now. To build a climate consensus in this country, there will need to be strategies that recognize the transition costs to those industries and people that will be impacted in the short run.

12:57 Comment From Sarah: Could innovations in climate change policy come from the states, rather than federal mandates from above?

1:00 Katherine Sierra: Innovations are coming from the states, and from the cities. But, as mayors from the U.S. and abroad who met in Chicago in May stated: The greener the national policy framework, the easier it will be for cities to meet their own challenges. Over the next few years I expect that we will see important, real-time innovations coming from the bottom up....but ultimately, there will need to be a national (and international) policy framework if these are to be scaled up to the level needed to confront the climate challenge.

1:00 Vivyan Tran: Thanks for the questions everyone. See you next week!

Participants

Panelists

Vivyan Tran

World Leadership for an International Problem

Katherine Sierra — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Follow @BICampaign2012
Editor's Note: For Campaign 2012, Ted Gayer wrote a policy brief proposing ideas for the next president on climate change. The following paper is a response to Gayer’s piece from Katherine Sierra. Charles Ebinger and Govinda Avasarala also prepared a response identifying five critical challenges the next president must address to help secure the nation’s energy future.

Ted Gayer presents a compelling analysis of the derailment of a comprehensive climate policy after 2008. While acknowledging that revisiting the issue in the next administration is a long shot, he provides an appealing pathway that couples a price on carbon with fiscal and environmental reform. While I agree with much of his analysis, I would add a note of caution: there will be significant transition costs; some industries and communities will be losers, at least in the short term.

Many of the elements of previous attempts at a comprehensive climate policy that Gayer decries as inefficient were included precisely because of the political imperative to address these costs, and this imperative will not go away. For instance, a carbon price is regressive, and reducing marginal tax rates will not address the impact of these costs on low-income earners. Gayer also points to U.S. industry concerns about the competitiveness impacts of the proposed cap-and-trade bill on the so-called trade-exposed industry. These same concerns will arise from a carbon tax. Instead of demanding free allowances, however, these industries will seek tax exemptions.

I also agree that setting a price on carbon—in Gayer’s formula, through a carbon tax—is the best way to spur action on climate change. However, non-price barriers and market failures will still arise and could stall the introduction of new technologies that may founder in the well-recognized “valley of death” between research and development and full commercialization. Government policy and public-private partnerships to address these market failures may still be needed, as will public investment in research and development.

Setting a price on carbon will not only make U.S. action on climate change stronger and more effective, but it will also allow the country to regain some of its leadership role in the international arena of climate change. The United States will be in a stronger position to get concrete results from the new formulas for international cooperation that have evolved over the past few international conferences on climate change. These new formulas aim to spur deeper action by all major greenhouse gas emitters, including those from rapidly industrializing countries like China, which is now the largest source of new emissions.

While negotiations from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have advanced at a glacial pace, there has been movement in recasting the global response so as to recognize that the world is no longer strictly divided between historical emitters and developing countries. The climate change meetings in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancun in 2010 resulted in voluntary commitments to reduce emissions from the advanced and rapidly industrializing countries now responsible for the majority of emissions growth. However, these pledges do not go far enough to ensure the internationally agreed-upon goal of maintaining the global temperature rise at no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels.

This was reconfirmed at the 2011 climate change talks in Durban. But in an unexpected move, international climate negotiators agreed to a process to move beyond the voluntary approach agreed to in Cancun to some type of agreement with legal force. The agreed language is intentionally vague, stating that countries should “launch a process to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the [UNFCCC] applicable to all parties.” For the United States, the key phrase is that the outcome should be “applicable to all parties.” While this is sure to be disputed in future discussions, the language is another “thin edge of the wedge” toward including China and other new emitters in future agreements. China must be included both to reach the climate goal and to get political support for more aggressive levels of emission reductions in the United States. Strong action from the next administration would allow it to call for deeper emission reduction pledges by all major emitters, while also joining Europe and countries like Australia that have been carrying the leadership banner in the absence of the United States.

The next administration will also need to lead on policies that help developing countries meet their own emission reduction pledges. It should, in addition, support the costs of adapting to a new climate reality. As part of the agreements at Copenhagen and Cancun, the developed countries pledged $100 billion a year in funding by 2020 to support efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change in developing countries. Some of the funding would likely be channeled through the Green Climate Fund, which was also agreed upon in Durban.

The sources of this financing are still unclear. While most of the proceeds from a carbon tax would, under Gayer’s strategy, be recycled to fund deficit reduction or a reduction in marginal tax rates in the United States, some should go toward U.S. obligations to fund part of the $100 billion global pledge. Given the deep fiscal challenges in the United States, this will of course be resisted, and public funding will likely be tight. This means that finding ways of using public funds to leverage private sector finance, particularly for mitigation, will be critical for the next administration. The Green Climate Fund may be one vehicle to move this agenda forward, but it will not be in place for some time. In addition, developing countries have only a weak appetite for using some money from the Green Climate Fund to catalyze private investment. So the next administration should try to leverage private finance through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and multilateral vehicles such as the multilateral development banks, which will be more adept at testing new modalities for this purpose.

Finally, the next administration can project leadership even beyond the formal setting of the UNFCCC negotiations through technology partnerships. Partnerships on technology development and deployment—such as those developed under the Clean Energy Ministerial, which brings together ministers from over twenty industrial and rapidly industrializing nations—should continue and broaden out to a wider set of countries, focusing not just on mitigation but also on adaptation.

Downloads

Download Paper

Authors

Katherine Sierra

Image Source: © Stringer Shanghai / Reuters

Campaign 2012: Climate Change and Energy

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:00:00 -0400

Event Information

June 11, 2012
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

As the struggling economy and demand for jobs consume the American public’s attention, climate policy has become a second-tier political issue. Although most economists advocate for putting a price on greenhouse gases through a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program, there is little political appetite to do so. Will the next president be able to make climate and energy policy a national priority, perhaps as a component of fiscal reform, or will he seek alternative energy policies? In the context of increasing global energy needs, how can the United States ensure its energy independence?

On June 11, the Campaign 2012 project at Brookings held a discussion on climate change and energy, the seventh in a series of forums that identify and address the 12 most critical issues facing the next president. Darren Samuelsohn of POLITICO moderated a panel discussion with Brookings experts Ted Gayer, Katherine Sierra and Charles Ebinger, who presented recommendations to the next president.

After the program, panelists took questions from the audience.

You can follow the conversation on this event on Twitter using the hashtag #BIClimate or on our @BICampaign2012 Twitter feed.

Download papers from the event:

Linking Climate Policy to Fiscal and Environmental Reform, by Ted Gayer
Five Major Energy Problems the Next President Has to Face, by Charles Ebinger and Govinda Avasarala
World Leadership for an International Problem, by Katherine Sierra

Campaign 2012: Twelve Independent Ideas for Improving American Public Policy is an indispensable guide to the key questions facing White House hopefuls in 2012.

Video

Audio

Campaign 2012: Climate Change and Energy

Transcript

Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf)

Event Materials

20120611_climate_change_transcript_uncorrected

Participants

Panelists

Darren Samuelsohn

Senior Energy and Environment Reporter

The G-20 Los Cabos Summit 2012: Bolstering the World Economy Amid Growing Fears of Recession

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:48:00 -0400

Leaders will head to the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, among renewed serious concern about the world economy. The turmoil that started with the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis has resulted in now almost five years of ongoing instability. The emerging market economies fared much better than the advanced economies and pulled out of the crisis already in 2009, but the slowdown we are now facing in 2012 is again global, demonstrating the interdependence in the world economy. The emerging market economies have stronger underlying trend growth rates, but they remain vulnerable to a downturn in the advanced economies. The center of concern is now squarely on Europe, with a recession threatening most European countries, even those that had reasonably good performances so far. After an encouraging start in 2012, the U.S. economy, while not close to a recession, is also showing signs of a slowdown rather than the hoped for steady acceleration of growth. And the slowdown is spreading across the globe.

At a time like this it would be desirable and necessary that the G-20 show real initiative and cohesion. The essays in this collection look at the challenge from various angles. There is concern that the G-20 is losing its sense of purpose, that cohesion is decreasing rather than increasing, and that policy initiatives are reactive to events rather than proactive. Let us hope that at this moment of great difficulty, the G-20 will succeed in giving the world economy a new sense of direction and confidence. It is much needed.

Download » (PDF)

Image Source: Andrea Comas / Reuters

Green Growth: G-20 Leaders Can Set the Stage for Rio+20

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:48:00 -0400

With green growth also a key priority for the G-20 meeting in Los Cabos, Katherine Sierra asserts that G-20 leaders should reaffirm the importance of the green growth agenda. Also, with the Mexico Summit coming just days before leaders gather in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Sierra contends the G-20 must send a strong signal of support that investment in green growth can be good for both economic growth and the environment.

Publication: The G-20 Los Cabos Summit 2012: Bolstering the World Economy Amid Growing Fears of Recession

Rio+20: Coalitions Driving Bottom-Up Change

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:32:00 -0400

Representatives from world governments, civil society and the private sector will gather in Rio de Janeiro on June 20-22 to address the many environmental challenges facing the global community. The Rio+20 Summit will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and although many gains have been achieved over the past two decades, the climate change agenda continues to move at a glacial pace while at the same time climate risks are increasing. As the Rio+20 approaches, the challenge will be to reenergize international will for meaningful progress in addressing climate change, achieving sustainable growth and development, and protecting the environment.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), or Rio+20, has identified seven key priority areas for discussion: decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness. Green growth as a pathway for sustainable development has been proposed as an element to integrate these priorities. Other issues to be discussed include establishing a new development agenda to replace the Millennium Development Goals (set to expire in 2015) with the Sustainable Development Goals, and finding new sources for climate and sustainable development financing.

Joining the debate on the challenges and expectations for the Rio+20 Summit, experts from the Brookings Institution explore the critical issues and offer policy recommendations for leaders to consider in order to promote sustainable growth in both the developed and developing world.

Download » (PDF)

Image Source: © Stringer China / Reuters

Twenty Years Later: Will Green Growth be the Game Changer Needed for Sustainable Development?

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:32:00 -0400

Katherine Sierra outlines why green growth is important and how it can be leveraged by the international community to bolster the global growth, but explains how the outcomes from Rio+20 will be driven by bottom-up initiatives and organizations, often ahead of national governments or international consensus.

Publication: Rio+20: Coalitions Driving Bottom-Up Change

The G-20’s Development and Climate Goals: Innovations in Shipping

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:30:00 -0400

Event Information

May 24, 2012
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

In 2009, President Barack Obama and leaders of other developed countries committed to mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries confront climate change. However, in an era of fiscal austerity, it is clear that national contributions will need to be supplemented by innovative sources of finance to meet this goal. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund recently released a report on how the shipping industry could be one of these innovative sources of financing. The Mexican government is also expected to engage other governments on innovative, long-term sources of climate finance at the upcoming G-20 summit in June, offering a real opportunity for achieving this goal.

On May 24, Global Economy and Development at Brookings, Oxfam America, World Wildlife Fund and ActionAid will host a discussion on how mechanisms in the shipping industry can be designed to mobilize new public resources to help developing countries confront the climate crisis while reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Panelists will include Ambassador Charles Rudolph Paul, Embassy of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the United States of America; Michael Keen, deputy director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund; Nigel Purvis, president and CEO of Climate Advisers; and Heather Coleman, senior policy advisor at Oxfam America. Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierrawill moderate the discussion.

After the program, the panelists will take audience questions.

Audio

The G-20’s Development and Climate Goals

Transcript

Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf)

Event Materials

20120524_shipping_innovations_transcript_uncorrected

Participants

Panelists

Katherine Sierra

Ambassador Charles Rudolph Paul

Nigel Purvis

Michael Keen

Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department

Heather Coleman

Oxfam America

Green Growth Innovation: Toward a New Architecture for Developing Countries

Katherine Sierra, Nathan Hultman and Allison Shapiro — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:30:00 -0400

INTRODUCTION

We are at a key moment in the development of international policy for green growth and innovation. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit, and the 40th anniversary of the first international meeting to address environment and development in Stockholm. Despite the ambitious and well-intentioned aspirations of these meetings, over one billion people still do not have access to electricity; water availability and sanitation is improved but not close to universal; and four billion people live at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) on less than $9 per day. Furthermore, the world is not on a pathway to arrest the climate crisis. It is projected that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will exceed the levels needed to maintain the average global temperature at no more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Climate impacts are already being felt, with the greatest vulnerabilities in the developing world. At the same time, the extended global economic recession has brought fiscal austerity in OECD countries, which has limited the public sector’s ability to respond.

From this turbulence, however, have arisen new approaches to sustainable development —approaches that take advantage of new technologies to meet social and environmental goals while also creating new national competencies and jobs. Innovation is key to this new green growth pathway. The challenge of transitioning onto cleaner and more resilient development models is particularly difficult but also potentially rewarding for developing countries, whose need for rapid economic growth contrasts severely with the high up-front costs of some new approaches and technologies, often obscuring the opportunities to transition onto cleaner development trajectories. Despite these transition costs, developing countries are beginning to turn to more sustainable practices and approaches. These range from investing in geothermal renewable power in Indonesia to implementing new urban transport systems in Latin America and Asia.

Stakeholders at the Rio+20 meeting will be debating how best to build capacity for environmental innovation into both international and national educational, industrial, governance, and fiscal infrastructures. Success in this effort will require improved international cooperation to support developing countries as they design and implement their own green growth strategies while building the capacity to self-innovate.

While there are many initiatives underway to support this goal, they have not yet achieved scale nor have they expanded at the rate that natural resource limits and poverty alleviation targets require. A notable start has been made with the Technology Mechanism, which was agreed upon at the climate negotiations in Cancun in 2010 and implemented after Durban in 2011. As a new initiative under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Technology Mechanism is charged with facilitating knowledge and technology transfer for GHG mitigation and adaptation. A UNFCCC Green Climate Fund was also agreed upon and will be implemented in 2012. This fund will aim to support the transition to cleaner pathways and will include a private sector facility to leverage private capital. The contours of the facility are very uncertain, however, as is the level of finance that the GCF will be able to attract.

These initiatives, while promising, stop short of a more ambitious goal of supporting the development and deepening of innovation systems in developing countries, which are critical to meeting the promise of green growth. A new international architecture to coordinate and scale-up the myriad initiatives already underway could be one important component in achieving this goal. Such an architecture would build on existing research networks and science foundations to conduct applied research and development (R&D); introduce mechanisms utilized by the private sector to stimulate entrepreneurship; leverage financial products to encourage investment; and experiment with a range of intellectual property (IP) diffusion tools.

Downloads

Download Full Paper

Authors

Image Source: Max Rossi / Reuters

Green Growth Innovation for Developing Countries

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:00 -0400

Event Information

May 17, 2012
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

The capacity for clean technology innovation and technological expertise is spreading across the developing world. Technology innovation and diffusion have shifted away from a unidirectional north-south flow and the majority of scalable clean technology innovation is taking place in emerging economies, with very little taking place elsewhere. The challenge is to ensure that least developed countries do not miss out on this technological transformation.

On May 17, Global Economy and Development at Brookings hosted a discussion on how international organizations can help fill capacity building and financing gaps in clean technology innovation in developing and least developed countries. Panelists included Tim Richards, managing director for International Energy Policy at General Electric Company; Alfred Watkins, executive chairman of the Global Innovation Summit; Dr. Romain Murenzi, executive director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World; and Brookings Nonresident Fellow Nathan Hultman, director of the Environmental Policy Program at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierra moderated the discussion.

Audio

Green Growth Innovation for Developing Countries

Transcript

Uncorrected Transcript (.pdf)

Event Materials

20120522_green_growth_transcript_uncorrected

Participants

Panelists

Executive Director

Managing Director, International Energy Policy

Alfred Watkins

Executive Chairman

Advancing Green Trade Against the Backdrop of the Euro Crisis

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:30:00 -0400

Event Information

April 26, 2012
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

A key challenge for the international trade agenda is how to liberalize green trade without stifling growth. As the eurozone crisis continues, European leaders must find the best way to move this agenda forward without adversely affecting economic recovery. European Union trade ministers will meet in late May to discuss the options for tackling these challenges at the international level, including reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers to green goods and services.

On April 26, Global Economy and Development at Brookings hosted a discussion on the possibilities for cooperation between the EU, U.S. and the business sector for green trade liberalization. Danish Minister of Trade Pia Olsen Dyhr delivered keynote remarks, followed by a panel discussion with Jennifer Hillman, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Brookings Fellow Joshua Meltzer. Brookings Vice President Kemal Derviş introduced the event and Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierra will moderate the discussion.

Audio

Advancing Green Trade Against the Backdrop of the Euro Crisis

Participants

Moderator

Panelists

Pia Olsen Dyhr

Minister of Trade
Government of Denmark

Jennifer Hillman

Senior Transatlantic Fellow
The German Marshall Fund of the United States

The Challenges of Climate Change and Natural Disasters in Central America

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0400

Event Information

March 29, 2012
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

In recent years, Central America has suffered several large-scale natural disasters that have left behind a legacy of death and destruction. The disruption of economic activity and costly reconstruction efforts create a heavy burden of social exclusion and debt. Given the region’s propensity for natural disasters—which are likely to increase due to changing climate patterns— there is a need for better regional cooperation in risk management.

On March 29, the Latin America Initiative at Brookings and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration hosted a discussion on the challenges and implications of climate change for the Central American isthmus and the role that the public and private sectors can play in mitigating and adapting to risks. A panel of experts examined these issues, followed by a keynote address by José María Figueres, former president of Costa Rica. Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierra moderated the discussion.

After the program, panelists took audience questions.

Participants

Moderator

Panelists

José E. Deras

Interim Chief Economist
Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI)

The Honorable José María Figueres

Chief Executive Officer, Concordia21
Former President of Costa Rica

Juan José Daboub

Founding Chief Executive Officer
Global Adaptation Institute

Luis Alberto Ferraté

Senior Advisor
Instituto Privado de Investigación del Cambio Climático – Guatemala

Pascal Girot

Senior Climate Change Advisor, Latin America and the Caribbean
CARE International

Walter Wintzer

Coordinator, Preparedness and Response Program
Center for Natural Disaster Prevention in Central America

Green Growth and International Cooperation

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:30:00 -0400

Event Information

March 27, 2012
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM EDT

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

As the world grapples with global environmental concerns, such as climate change and sustainable development, countries are finding ways to pursue green growth. Green growth pathways would combine sustainable resource use with the pursuit of economic growth, job creation and poverty alleviation, through expanding green innovation, technologies and markets. However, the environmental challenges facing the international community cannot be addressed without cooperation among global actors. In order for real green growth and sustainable development to be achieved, both international and domestic action must support it.

On March 27, Global Economy and Development at Brookings will host a discussion on the intersection of green growth and international cooperation. Panelists included: Rachel Kyte, vice president of Sustainable Development at the World Bank; Robert Orr, assistant secretary-general for Planning and Policy Coordination at the United Nations; and Andrés Flores Montalvo, general director of Environmental Policy and Economics in Mexico's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. Brookings Senior Fellow Katherine Sierra will moderate the discussion.

After the program, the panelists will take audience questions.

Audio

Green Growth and International Cooperation

Transcript

Transcript (.pdf)

Event Materials

20120327_green_cooperation

Participants

Moderator

Panelists

Rachel Kyte

Vice President, Sustainable Development
The World Bank

Andrés Flores Montalvo

General Director of Environmental Policy and Economics
National Institute of Ecology, Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, Government of Mexico

Robert Orr

Assistant Secretary-General, Planning and Policy Coordination
United Nations

International Women's Day: Women in Development

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:10:00 -0500

Thursday, March 8 is International Women's Day and this year's UN theme for the day is "Empower Rural Women—End Hunger and Poverty."

At the Brookings Global Economy and Development program, my colleagues and I analyze different aspects of development and the fight to end global poverty. Empowering women and girls by providing them access to good quality education and learning opportunities is a critical part of my research and the broader challenge to end poverty in developing countries.

In honor of International Women's Day, we have put together a few short videos on the theme of "Women in Development." We will be posting one video a day until International Women's Day on March 8.

In each video, a different Brookings scholar discusses how issues of gender impact global development and poverty. We also answer some personal questions, such as "what woman has inspired us most" and "what has been the biggest challenge we have faced related to our gender."

We hope that you will find these videos as useful contributions to this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day.

– Rebecca Winthrop

Anne Kamau:

Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera:

Mwangi Kimenyi:

Katherine Sierra:

Rebecca Winthrop: