Transcript Plenary Session

Key Issues: Plenary Sessions
Presentation Outline
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Official Opening
International Perspective
Finance and Investment
Industrial Perspective
Green Jobs
Sustainable Development
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Key Issues
What is the challenge
What works/ opportunities
What must be done now
Official Opening
Key Issues
Definition:
A Green Economy offers a double dividend- more green jobs
and less carbon emissions & impact on resources.
 Plan/Strategy must respond to development challenges and
priorities.
Must address interdependencies between economic growth,
social protection & preservation of natural ecosystems
As a development path, it is a good vehicle for dealing with
climate change
Challenges: The is a need to remove policy
barriers to creation of a viable green economy
and coordination of government policy and
institutions towards achieving the goals of a
green economy.
What
Works:
Collaborative
efforts,
investment in green industry development,
innovation and science.
Recommendation
• Enhance local content in government procurement
• redesign existing jobs and workers skills or re-skill with green
skills.
• stimulate investment in green industries & leverage on
international support
• implement renewable energy target and specific plan for
expanding our capacity in renewable energy
• ambitious targets for boosting electricity generation through
alternative and clean energy
• Build partnership between business and labour
• Ensure adequate investment in R,D&I
• Need for a definitive target for the number of jobs that can be
created in the green economy
• Explore green growth opportunities outside of energy generation
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Definition :Green Economy approach is
• a guaranteed “win-win” for environment and
economic growth
• A direct path to new markets and economic
opportunities
• An assured solution to problems of poverty
reduction and social equity
• Probably the most dynamic & promising
growth model of the 21st centuary
Challenges
• Subsidizing some green investment can be costly,
especially if not well targeted e.g Tax breaks can
reduce fiscal space
 Industrial policy to develop green markets and
technologies has worked only for certain countries in
certain circumstances. Each case has its own unique
circumstances
 It is important to rely on comparative advantages for
managing market and regulatory uncertainties
Key Issues
• We need stronger and clearer economic incentives
• We need price signals reflecting social costs of
resource & environmental impacts
• We need to start with most available, low-cost and
labor-intensive opportunities e.g
– Solar water heating
– Green building retrofits
– Off-grid power for more remote areas
– Installation of efficient water using devices
INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE
Key Issues
• High expectations around green economy:
– High potential of creating Green job
– Economic crisis imperative – one of the main solutions
– Potential in determining future competitiveness
– Sustainable Management of Resources.
Challenges includes, capital cost, markets and regulations
 Tracking Business progress to a low carbon economy
through Carbon Disclosure Program
 Tracking Business progress through Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy activities
Recommendations
• Fixing Market Failure: Tax (enviro-) & Tariff (feed-in), Standard
Offer, Beyond GDP (assists coordination)
• Creating Markets: Standards (Portfolio & Performance),
Preferential Procurement, Voluntary Markets (RE+EE)
• Innovation & Competitiveness: International Standards,
International & Regional Cooperation, Investment in Strategic
Pre-commercial Technologies (Demonstration)
• Industry Development: Public Company Spin-offs,
Development Zones, Industrial Finance, Market Information
• Strategies that promote Behavioral Change
• Align, co-ordinate and integrate all policy or strategies that are
currently under development e.g. IRP, Carbon Tax etc.
• Measurements and data collections
FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
• Definition
– Economic implication of a green economy
– Poverty and Inequality must be addressed in the context
of the management of natural resources
• Challenges
– Regulations and policies
– A Green economy can be expensive
– Institutional barriers to green technology policies
– Only proven to work with certain conditions
Financing and Investments
• What works
– There are some successful financed projects
– Increase in infrastructure lending
• Recommendations
– Take opportunities in green innovation, new
market development and employment.
– Clearer economic incentives
– Consideration of the conditions of the poor
GREEN JOBS
GREEN JOBS
• Definition
– Green jobs can be defined as jobs aimed at
ensuring environmental sustainability and
protection in different sectors of the economy.
• Challenges
 A green Job is not necessarily a decent job
 Lack of clear strategy on social security and antipoverty schemes
 Failure to create sustainable jobs through EPWP
What works
• The energy revolution has the potential to create more
employment in the energy sector than continuing with
Business As Usual, whether this is defined as the IEA
reference scenario or the LTMS
• Investment in renewable energy on a large-scale, along
with active support for local renewable technology
manufacturing presents an opportunity for sustainable
economic development and has significant job creation
potential.
Recommendations
• There needs to be a substantial reduction in South Africa’s reliance
on coal and nuclear energy must be phased out.
• SA needs proactive investment in renewable power generation and
energy efficiency by the government on a large scale.
• SA should aim to obtain 36% of its electricity from renewable
energy by 2030.
• The Industrial Policy Action Plan must include the creation of
increased capacity for large-scale renewable energy manufacturing
in RSA.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• Key issues
– South Africa has adopted a broader definition to
sustainable development with the assertion that
social, economic and ecosystem factors are
embedded within each other and that a sound green
economy strategy should be contextualized within
this understanding
– Decoupling resource/environmental impact from
economic activities and growth is a key element of a
green economy approach
• Challenges
• Sustainable development plan must include
consideration about the worrying increasing gap
between the rich and poor populations of SA,
• Delinking economic growth and environmental
degradation through improving efficiency and
sustainability in the use of resources and
production processes and reducing resource
degradation, pollution and waste
• Recommendations
- Ensure integration of Green Economy plan into
the national strategy on sustainable
development
- Immediate implementation of green economy
interventions will ensure relative decoupling
(decouple economic growth from resource use)
THANK YOU