The Government has pledged to reduce over 10,000 pages of regulatory guidance, following its 'Red Tape Challenge', to help businesses comply with environmental laws. But the MPs point out that regulations have an important role in safeguarding our health and the environment. The Government's strategy to create a green economy - 'Enabling the Transition to a Green Economy' - is too focused on voluntary action and fails to set a clear trajectory or any time-bound milestones for businesses to achieve. There is concern that introducing mandatory emissions reporting for big business has been delayed and Ministers are urged not to go back on their promise to do so. The recent financial crisis has demonstrated the clear risks from such a market-led approach, particularly when markets do not reflect the value of the services provided by nature - such as clean fresh water, pollination of crops, etc. This report urges the Government to: develop minimum sustainability standards; set out how data on natural capital in the National Accounts will be used; develop targets for improving the state of the environment and establish transparent reporting against such targets; and use the Natural Capital Committee's work on a 'natural asset stock check' as one of the basket of indicators used to measure the green economy. The Government should fully incorporate the principles of 'Enabling the Transition' into future revisions of the 'Plan for Growth'. Expenditure involved in making the transition to a green economy should be seen as an investment, not simply a cost.

While the term ‘green economy’ has been widely used at the international level, very little information exists about what the concept looks like in practice. What are the policies required? What are the challenges of implementation at national level? This book contains case studies from eight small states who have committed publicly to greening their economies: Botswana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mauritius, Nauru, Samoa and Seychelles. It provides insights into the success of various initiatives and highlights how small states themselves are making practical progress on a green economy approach.

A review of the governance measures being trialled to reduce adverse human impacts on the environment in the European region.

This book addresses hot issues pertaining to the manner in which corporate South Africa has engaged the emerging green global economy. Firstly, the book profiles the green and low carbon economy landscape in South Africa and interfaces it with global trends. This way, the book aligns very well in terms of the Rio+20 outcomes on 'The Future We Want' that fully embraces the green global economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The rest of the chapters in the book profile breakthroughs from selected companies. The book also comes as the second in a series that is addressing global and national concerns on the green global economy agenda. The first book entitled 'Green Economy and Climate Mitigation: Topics of Relevance to Africa' was produced as part of the 17th Session of the Conference of Parties' collaborative work carried out by the Institute of Global Dialogue, the Africa Institute of South Africa and Unisa's Institute for Corporate Citizenship. The book 'Breakthrough: Corporate South Africa in the Green Economy' comes in seven parts. Part I focuses on the Green Economy Landscape. This part considers both the international and national perspectives. Parts II-VI present different sector initiatives namely: Mining and Energy (Part II), Banking and Insurance (Part III), Forest and Paper (Part IV), Industrial (Part V) and Retailing and Aviation (Part VI). The last part is made up of a single chapter dealing with Emerging Issues and Way Forward.

Published in 1989, Blueprint for a Green Economy presented, for the first time, practical policy measures for 'greening' modern economies and putting them on a path to sustainable development. This new book, written by two of the Blueprint for a Green Economy authors, revisits and updates its main messages by asking, first, what has been achieved in the past twenty years, and second, what more needs to be done to generate a truly 'green economy' in the twenty-first century? Blueprint for a Green Economy had one over-arching theme. Making economies more sustainable requires urgent progress in three key policy areas: valuing the environment, accounting for the environment and incentives for environmental improvement. Today, with the threat of global warming, the decline in major ecosystems and their services, and fears over energy security, achieving these goals is even more vital. The current book first summarizes the main messages from Blueprint for a Green Economy and explains why, given rapid and widespread global environmental degradation, they are still relevant. The book then examines the progress since Blueprint for a Green Economy in implementing policies and other measures to improve environmental valuation, accounting and incentives. Although much has been accomplished, additional advances are still required to green economies successfully. The book highlights the new policies and approaches needed for economic management of today's environmental concerns. Over twenty years later, A New Blueprint for a Green Economy once again emphasizes practical policies for greening modern economies, and explains why such an economic roadmap to a greener future is essential, if modern economies are to develop successfully and sustainably.

This book treats different themes which are intrinsically linked and of extreme significance for the entire global community such as the necessity to cut emissions and transit toward a more sustainable and green economy. The content extends to the urgency to shape a new multilateralism and reinforce cooperation to achieve global goods, where the environment comes first, to the green finance which will play a fundamental role for the green transition paying particular attention to the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.A particular emphasis is given to the so-called 'Dual Circulation Strategy' (DCS) which is presently becoming the priority not only for China but also for the rest of the global community. Due to the uncertainties caused by the pandemic and other external factors, China has substituted GDP growth with the so-called six guarantees (liù bǎo 六保) which represent the six fundamental aspects of the economy and society that according to the central government must receive priority attention, and protection in economic policy to ensure economic recovery. China also introduced the concept of an 'ecological civilization' (shēngtài wénmíng 生态文明) through green, low-carbon economic development. One of the targets is to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, though the rest of the global community and in particular the European Union with its Green Deal, and the US with its renewed climate policies, are pushing to reach this objective in 2050.In order to grant all these developments, 'green finance' plays a fundamental role for the success of this green transition. Therefore, a substantial part of this book explores the many aspects surrounding this theme. Due to renewables playing a very important role in the green transition, the final part of this book explores investment opportunities related to the development of these alternative sources of energy.

The idea and practice of the ‘green economy’ is gaining momentum, coinciding with financial instability and continued economic woe in the Global North, but generally more positive economic circumstances in the Global South. ‘Green economic initiatives’ in the Global South are multiplying, and include carbon payments, ecotourism, community-based wildlife management, sustainability certification initiatives, and offsets by mining companies exploiting new resources. These initiatives are reallocating resources, redefining inequalities and redistributing the fortune and misfortune of participants of the green economy and those excluded from it. They have also led to resistance – locally, nationally, and transnationally – and to demands for alternatives to market-driven instruments and solutions, which are generally gaining strength and coherence. The articles included in this volume bring together a multi-disciplinary team of scholars from North and South to provide nuanced analyses of green economy experiences in the Global South – analysing the opportunities they provide, but also the redistributions they entail and the kinds of resistances they face. The ultimate aim of the collection is to provide a critical, but balanced, overview of the emerging green economy in the Global South and point the way to possible adjustments, alternatives or radical resistance, depending on different situations. This book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

This book is about the challenges and opportunities for companies realising the need for environmentally concious business decisions. The very diverse, international team of authors tries to get us to realise that successful environmental management pervades all business decisions, and does not limit itself to the technical, single issue approach.