[Guest Report] Global Green Growth Week to focus on renewables
GGGW will focus on renewable energy and aims to gather stakeholders from the public and private sector, international organizations and the wider society to accelerate efforts to achieve sustainable development goals and nationally determined contributions to the 2016 Paris Agreement.
The event is hosted by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), in cooperation with LG Chemical, REN21, the Korea International Renewable Energy Conference (Kirec), the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP), Incheon Global Campus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
GGGW 2019 will be held alongside Kirec — organized by REN21 and the Korea Energy Agency — and will also include the seventh GGKP Annual Conference and the launch of GGGI’s State of Green Growth Report and Green Growth Index.
GGGI is an intergovernmental treaty-based organization that supports the transition to an environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive model of economic growth.
GGGI provides programs in over 30 partnering countries to support green investment projects and policies.
On its first day, GGGW will start off with the GGKP Annual Conference 2019, where policymakers and experts will gather to exchange knowledge on the green growth agenda.
In 2016, GGGI organized the fourth GGKP Annual Conference and will again host the seventh conference this year.
During the conference, a range of research papers on subjects related to sustainable energy will be presented to help boost knowledge sharing and learning.
The following day, on Oct. 22, another event on “inclusive renewable energy transition and generation of jobs” will be held along with two GGKP sessions — Session A, “Making the transition to renewable energy inclusive” and Session B, “Assessing the co-benefits and creation of jobs of renewable energy in low- and middle-income countries”.
Energy is a key factor to sustained growth and a core element of both sustainable development and climate action.
The main significance of renewable energy and its job potential creation in implementing nationally determined contributions is the main issue to be highlighted through the event.
The socioeconomic benefits of closing the gender gap in the renewable energy sector along with the employment effects of the transition to low-carbon energy in developing countries are to be discussed by panelists after reviewing case studies.
It is expected that through these sessions, GGGI and its partners will be able to assess the findings of a GGGI research project on the creation of green jobs in Mexico, Indonesia and Rwanda in the renewable energy sector and weigh its benefits.
On Oct. 23, an event on the applications of GGGI’s Green Growth Index will be held, followed by the launch of the index and the introduction of a report on the current state of green growth.
GGGI developed the Green Growth Index through its Green Growth Performance Measurement program to provide policymakers with a guideline to inform their decisions.
The 2019 Green Growth Index covers 115 countries and builds on 36 indicators for four elements of green growth — efficient and sustainable resource use, natural capital protection, green economic opportunities and social inclusion.
The session will also highlight how GGGI’s collaboration with other international organizations enhance the relevance of the index framework at the regional level.
There have been no uniform indicators and sub-components when it comes to measuring green growth due to uncertainty over the definition, which has led to different indices such as the African Development Bank’s African Green Growth Index, the UN’s Green Economy Progress Index, the Asian Development Bank’s Inclusive Green Growth and the Dual Citizen Institute’s Global Green Economy Index.
What is so important about the Green Growth Index is that it is the first comprehensive index designed specifically to track and assess the green growth performance of 115 countries worldwide.
It integrates sustainability metrics and assesses performance by comparing the current state with target values for each component indicator.
The indicators are aligned with the key elements of GGGI’s six strategic outcomes, which provide key summary information related to the transition toward a green growth development model that promotes poverty reduction, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and economic growth.
With more countries willing to achieve the promise of green growth, measuring such performance is becoming an important priority.
The index intends to help people discover the opportunities green growth offers for achieving socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable economic development.
From next year, GGGI plans to pilot its policy simulation tool for governments to explore policy and investment actions to improve its green growth development.
On Oct. 23, the Global Policy Dialogue will be held to help strengthen global support for ongoing official reform efforts from within the multilateral system of governance.
Ban Ki-Moon, GGGI’s president and chair, will deliver the keynote address at the opening session, followed by three working groups where participants discuss ways to contribute to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, bringing climate action across global economic and development organizations into the mainstream, enhancing climate governance, global security and global justice.
The Global Policy Dialogue has its importance in that participants are expected to bring fresh perspectives to achieve critical global governance reforms by 2020, the UN’s 75th anniversary, which coincides with the five-year review of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Throughout the five-day sessions at GGGW 2019, participants will be able to collaborate to exchange knowledge and ideas on how to achieve greater green growth.
Individuals gathering to share collective intelligence throughout the event are expected to bring an optimistic outlook when it comes to policy changes that realistically consider the consequences of future development and to better respond to the threats of climate change that mankind is facing.
By Kim Seung-jun [kim.seungjun@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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