Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on the Green Economy: Trade and Sustainable Development Implications

The green economy within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication is one of the themes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), to be held in Brazil in 2012.

At the first session of the Preparatory Committee, held 17-19 May in New York, UNCTAD, serving as the sustainable trade focal point for Rio+20, was invited to convene an expert meeting to address the trade and sustainable development implications of the green economy.

At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), UNCTAD played an active role in drafting and facilitating negotiations on Chapter 2 of Agenda 21, a comprehensive global plan of action for sustainable development. Chapter 2 proposes that trade, environment and development policies should be mutually supportive. In the face of current pressing needs in addressing poverty reduction, human development and climate change, new impetus is needed for the concept of inclusive sustainable development, while enhancing the sense of ownership by developed and developing countries and the role of multilateral cooperative action.

The green economy has emerged as a new paradigm and an enabling component of sustainable development. In that regard, it may have the potential to provide new trade and investment impetus to developing-country economies, especially if anchored in a mutually supportive approach to sustainable development.

The Ad Hoc Expert Meeting is being organized in close collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Environment Programme. It aims to explore ways in which the green economy, through trade-led growth, could become a pro-development income-generating instrument that will directly contribute to meeting the sustainable development imperative universally adopted at Rio in 1992. The outcome of the meeting will be submitted as a direct input to the Rio+20 preparatory process.

Objectives of the meeting:

• Enhance clarity on the main elements of a "transition to a green economy" in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, including actions to tilt market incentives as well as investment and growth strategies.
  
  
• Identify key conditions for the green economy to become fully supportive of sustainable development.
  
  
• Define the role of trade and trade policy in moving towards a green economy.
  
  
• Initiate an open discussion of the fears that actions to tilt market signals towards a green economy may lead to green protectionism as well as aid and financial conditionalities.
  
  
• Identify mechanisms to ensure that the process of a green economy is broad and inclusive of all countries, especially LDCs.
  
  
• Identify areas in which global action could support a transition towards the green economy while pursuing poverty alleviation and promoting sustainable development at the same time.
  
  
• Provide substantive inputs into the preparations for UNCSD 2012.