Green growth movement gains new grounds at COP17

Abstract

The green growth concept today gained new grounds as one of the overarching development paradigms at the Durban climate change conference, with experts agreeing that failure by the world community to effectively manage climate change would create an environment that would be too hostile for future generations to live in. Spearheaded by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) a side-event on green growth filled the biggest hall of the Africa Pavilion - most of the participants were experts and policy-makers, according to the Information and Communication Service of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, whose Commission has done extensive work on green growth attended the side-event. The last Africa Economic Forum co-organised by the ECA focused on green growth. Senior officials from Brazil, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Republic of Korea used the side-event to share their unique and powerful stories about green growth initiatives that are being undertaken in their respective nations, underlying the fact that GGGI is one of the rare initiatives that is entirely driven by emerging and developing countries. But it is Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the famous Stern Report on the economics of climate change, who encapsulated the vision of GGGI and what it stands for when he told the audience that climate change and environmental protection are inextricably intertwined.