Green Growth: Getting the Policies Right

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Nov 8, 2011) - Ensuring greener paths for economic growth is a top challenge for national governments and global institutions in the years ahead. The Green Economies Dialogue, a new project officially launched today at www.green-dialogue.org, will bring the policy and business communities together for intensive discussion of the best paths forward.

Funded by the United States Council Foundation, the educational and research arm of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), the project will involve a set of global partners with the goal of providing a clear road forward on green growth, green jobs and a host of related issues.

"We expect the Dialogue will inform policy debate in the lead-up to the next year's UN Rio+20 Summit and beyond," said Peter M. Robinson, USCIB's president and CEO. "Industry, government and other actors must work together to make the transition to a global framework where the private sector and the marketplace have bottom-line motivations to drive improvements in technology and business practices."

The Green Economies Dialogue initiative will provide a platform for discussion of key international policy questions, with the goal of ensuring that economic growth and the pursuit of environmental objectives go hand-in-hand. These include:

• How can environmental innovations in such areas as energy use or agriculture best be shared around the world, providing opportunities to promote sustainability while maintaining competitiveness?
• What role should international institutions like the G20, the United Nations and the OECD have in coordinating policies among national governments?
• How can the logjam of trade and climate negotiations be broken, to foster integrated policies that incentivize innovation and mobilize financial resources?
• Are subsidies an effective way to encourage start-ups and investment in new technologies?

Over the next several months, the Green Economies Dialogue will convene regional workshops around the world. The first of these took place in Washington, D.C. on October 12 in a day-long session bringing together more than 50 experts from business, government, academia and the NGO communities, hosted by the environmental research organization Resources for the Future.

The next workshop will take place at the OECD in Paris on November 14, hosted by BIAC, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. Additional workshops are planned for Asia and Latin America during the first quarter of 2012.

As part of the Green Economies Dialogue, academic research is being commissioned for publication in the influential publication Energy Economics ahead of the Rio+20 Summit. Research papers by highly regarded experts will explore a variety of aspects of green growth and green jobs.

The Green Economies Dialogue website will gather an assortment of informative materials from numerous points of view. This will include summaries, statements and papers from the various workshops, as well as abstracts or summaries of the Energy Economics research products.

Support for the Green Economies Dialogue project is being provided by various private-sector sources through the United States Council Foundation.

USCIB promotes open markets, competitiveness and innovation, sustainable development and corporate responsibility, supported by international engagement and prudent regulation. Its members include top U.S.-based global companies and professional services firms from every sector of our economy, with operations in every region of the world. With a unique global network encompassing leading international business organizations, USCIB provides business views to policy makers and regulatory authorities worldwide, and works to facilitate international trade and investment. More at www.uscib.org.