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PRADEEP CHINTADA

(1226113112)

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES
GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
SUMMARY:
The concept of green growth offers real opportunities for more inclusive growth in
developing countries while protecting the environment. However, this concept diverting
from more enthusiasm to cautious, reflecting a lack of clarity and experience, and the
different opportunities available to specific countries. This report focuses on concerns
and acknowledges that developing countries face and particular challenges in designing
and implementing green growth strategies. It explores how international trade can
improve socio-economic development and sources of economic growth. Trade
opportunities offered by a global green economy can enhance economic growth and
contribute significantly to national environmental and developmental objectives. This
green growth should be inclusive in building developing countries human and productive
capacities to enable them to participate in a global green economy and thereby stimulate
economic diversification, generate employment for the poor, and increase access of the
poor to basic services such as energy, water, housing, education, communications and
transport.
INTRODUCTION:
The most serious problems facing the world today - water and food supply crises, extreme
volatility in energy and food prices, rising greenhouse gas emissions, severe income disparity,
chronic fiscal imbalances and terrorism either stem from environmental mismanagement or
inequality, or both. Aside from the chronic fiscal imbalances that mostly concern the developed
economies, developing countries are the most vulnerable to all of these risks. Green
Technologies are goods and services that improve the quality of air, water. soil waste and noise
related problems and they vary from extremely complex and expensive advanced technology
high-tech to more simple solutions.


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GREEN GROWTH AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE:
International trade represents a powerful channel for spreading green economy gains
among countries at the global level. By transmitting growing environmental and social
preferences of firms and consumers in world markets, trade plays a central role in the
diffusion of green goods, services, technologies and production methods among
countries. The 1992 Rio Declaration acknowledges that trade can have a positive
environmental impact and therefore make an important contribution towards
sustainable development.
A key focus of Rio+20 will be on achieving green growth through policies that promote
environmentally sustainable economic growth. International trade is a key driver of
economic growth and can have important implications for the environment. The interaction
between international trade, economic growth and the environment was addressed in the
1992 Rio Declaration, which states that trade measures to achieve environmental goals
should not lead to arbitrary and unjustifiable discrimination, and encourages countries to
avoid taking unilateral action to address environmental challenges outside the jurisdiction
of the importing country and to address trans-boundary or global environmental problems
based on international consensus. These principles remain relevant today. But what has
changed is the urgency of the environmental challenges such as climate change, loss of
biodiversity and the un-sustainable exploitation of fish stocks. At the same time progress
towards resolving these issues through multilateral negotiations has become even harder, as
evidenced by the limited movement in the U.N. climate change negotiations and the World
Trade Organization Doha Round. (Joshua Meltzer,2012)
POLICY CONSIDERATIONS ON GREEN GROWTH:
The impact of international trade on the green growth is complex. Trade drives economic
growth, a key element of green growth and sustainable development. Reducing trade
barriers to environmental goods and services has been part of the WTO Doha Round.
Additionally, at the APEC meeting in Hawaii in November 2011, the 21 APEC members
agreed to reduce tariffs on green goods and green technologies. Regional and bilateral free
trade agreements are another opportunity to reduce trade barriers and develop new rules to

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promote green goods and services. Trade and green growth policies also interact when
countries condition or limit access to their markets to achieve environmental goals. This
can arise when a country seeks to ensure that the price of a good reflects its domestic
environmental harms, and adopts border measures to ensure that these costs are also
reflected in the price of imports.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO GREEN GROWTH:
Green growth links the goals of economic growth and development with environmental
protection in sustainable ways. International trade can both drive economic growth and help
countries achieve their environmental goals. Restrictions on international trade can also be
used to incentivize international action on global environmental challenges. Encouraging
international trade as a mechanism of development while recognizing that countries will
use trade restrictions to achieve environmental goals involves a balance that is reflected in
the rules of the World Trade Organization. It provides an opportunity to recognize the ways in
which international trade can contribute to green growth by agreeing some principles such as
,countries should recognize that green growth requires a balance between promoting trade as a
driver of economic growth while recognizing the legitimate use of trade measures to achieve
environmental goals. (Joshua Meltzer,2012)
TRADE AND TRADE POLICIES AS DRIVERS IN THE GREEN ECONOMY:
Trade and the investment that underlies it can be powerful positive drivers of green growth,
opening up possibilities for low carbon development paths that would otherwise be impossible.
But trade policy in the pursuit of such growth can also be contentious, creating both winners and
losers, and potentially providing cover for what are essentially economic measures. This section
looks first at the scope for such green protectionism, asking what it really means and looking at
how it might manifest. Then examines the concept of environmental damage and materials
embodied in traded goods, It means for traditional accounting of trade flows. Finally, it asks
what options there are for addressing the novel challenges that countries might face in
reconciling existing trade law and principles with the pursuit of a green economy. (U N E P, 2011)


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GREEN TECHNOLOGIES COMPONENT FOR BUSINESS PLANS:
The creation of working technology that is applied either to conventional processes to make them
more environmentally-friendly or to substitute for existing processes is already being driven
forward in developed countries through a variety of mechanisms. Well-established existing
companies are deciding to adopt green technology practices to supplement their production
techniques for both goods and services. For example, IBM recently declared in Project Big
Green11 that they would spend $1 billion annually to research ways to make computing more
environmentally friendly, which it predicts would yield IT enterprises an average savings of
42%.12 Additionally, IBM has found that two-thirds of consumers are willing to pay more for
green energy options if it is shown to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Michael Hasper,2011)
STIMULATING THE GREEN ECONOMY TRANSITION:
From 1990 to 2010, many countries achieved higher income levels, especially in Asia and
Latin America. Regions which were already wealthy in 1990, such as Europe, saw their
economies become less-carbon intensive and move into the central area overlapping the
three dimensions of the chart. Many African countries, however, lagged behind. Although
many have less-carbon intensive economies - often brought by energy and material poverty
few are among the set of countries with high HDI and/or income.
Importantly, green is not just about environment. It is also about social responsibility. A
growing number of firms now integrate social concerns into their business operations and
interactions with stakeholders. Over 2,000 corporations in over 90 countries now practice
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); a figure up from virtually zero at the time of the
1992 Rio Summit. A green economy also advances ethical trade through Fair Trade
production chains which ensure that small developing country producers receive fairer
terms of trade and better prices.
FAIR TRADE PRODUCTS:
Sales of Fair Trade products are on the rise around the world. In 2008, consumers
worldwide spent $ 5 billion on Fair-trade certified products, a major Fair Trade label,
almost double the figure of the previous year and directly benefiting over 7 million people -

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farmers, workers and their families in 58 developing countries. In 2010, $211 billion was
invested in renewable energy supply, more than 5 times the amount invested in 2004.As an
examples ,the global market for organic food and beverage products is projected to reach
$60 billion on year 2010 (UNCTAD,2011)
THE CENTRAL ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY:
With technological progress as the motor of a green economy, prompt and effective technology
transfer will be critical in promoting a global green economy transition. Significant advances
have already been achieved in renewable energy systems and fuels such as solar, wind and bio-
fuels. Current renewable energy technologies allow for increases in energy supply in developing
countries, since in many rural applications distributed renewable energy is less costly than any
conventional energy supply. But the diffusion of less sophisticated green technologies is also
very important; the transition from firewood burning to solar cookers, energy-efficient
woodstoves, biogas and ethanol stoves can also produce significant economic, social and
environmental benefits. (OECD,2012)
SUPPORT TO GREEN GROWTH FROM OTHER ORGANIZATIONS:
Solar and wind energy systems can also be effectively commercialized in poor rural communities
to provide jobs in manufacturing-related hardware and distribution, installation and maintenance.
There are now numerous programme's supported by international organizations, donor agencies
and NGOs to bring low-cost and efficient renewable energy systems to the rural poor in
developing countries. For example, supporting 250 independent local retailers in Africa, the
Rural Energy Foundation has successfully commercialized solar home systems in Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal, Mozambique and Zambia. In
Bangladesh, the Grameen Shakti organization has successfully introduced a market-based
approach that has sold over 500,000 solar home systems in the country over the past decade. In
these and other countries, renewable energy systems are bringing power, light, water,
refrigeration, information and communications to homes, schools and small businesses,
improving the quality of life and opening new business opportunities for the rural poor while
boosting economic productivity in their communities. (UNCTAD,2011)


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REFRENCES:
1. UNCTAD,2011, TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IMPLICATIONS
http.//unctad.org/en/docs/ditcted2011d5en.pdf
2. Joshua Meltzer,2011,GREEN GROWTH AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2012/06/rio20/green-growth-innovation
3. Michael Hasper,2011, Green Technology in Developing Countries: Creating Accessibility
Through a Global Exchange Forum
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1185&context=dltr
4. OECD,2012,Policy Frameworks for Green Growth in Developing Countries
http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/page_attachments/ii-3-1-oecd-presentation-on-
green-growth-at-ccda-ii_clean.pdf
5. UNEP, 2011,Natural Resource use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth
http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/portals/88/documents/ger/GER_synthesis_en.pdf











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