Humanity is confronted with profound man-made environmental crises. At the same time, poverty is still widespread. Therefore, we need to tackle a dual challenge: to pursue economic development, particularly solving the problems of deprived segments of societies, while keeping resource consumption and pollution in accordance with the Earth’s biocapacity.
In the report ‘Green Industrial Policy - Concept, Policies, Country Experiences’, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) in partnership with the German Development Institute (DIE) within the framework of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), policy options for managing structural change that accounts for both challenges in a harmonised way are explored.
The report aims to provide guidance to policymakers and practitioners as well as to contribute to the academic debate on green transformation strategies. It provides an up-to-date overview of the debate on green industrial policy, explores what countries can gain economically from pursuing environmental integrity, and what policy options are available to accelerate the transformation in ways that enhance well-being and environmental sustainability together.
About the speakers:
Tilman Altenburg is Head of the Department “Sustainable Economic and Social Development” at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), the government-funded think tank for development policy in Germany. He received his doctorate in Economic Geography in 1991. Since 1986, Mr. Altenburg has done empirical research on economic development in Latin America, Asia and Africa, with a focus on competitiveness, industrial and innovation policy. He has published about 100 papers on these issues, and he is regularly advising German government and international agencies.
Anna Pegels is Senior Researcher at the German Development Institute. She received her doctorate in economics in 2007 and has since then focused on the interconnections between economic development and climate change mitigation. At DIE, Anna has led several research projects on ecologically sustainable development. Her current research focuses on the economic and political aspects of climate change mitigation, in particular the transition to clean energy.
