8 November 2010: OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría spoke on policies for promoting green growth at the Global Green Growth Conference 2010, which took place from 7-8 November 2010, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Organized and hosted by the Climate Consortium Denmark, the Conference was supported by the Danish Government. Conference participants discussed political framework conditions, the role of businesses, and financing in connection with the transition to green growth. In his statement, Gurría focused on business-led technological innovation, its role in realizing green growth, and the role of governments in spurring innovation. He underscored the importance of the early set up of government policies for research and development and innovation, stressing that green taxes are an important tool to create incentives for greener growth. He emphasized that this does not mean raising taxes, but only shifting their current composition. He also underlined the importance of predictability of government policy to enable companies to invest over the long term, and of cooperation between governments. Gurría further underlined that fears of leakage when instituting bilateral or multilateral emissions or energy targets are overstated. He closed with a plea to participants to send a strong message to negotiators in Cancun that “Green growth is part of the solution: Green is compatible with growth; it is a source of growth.”

The Climate Consortium Denmark is a public-private partnership set up June 2008 in preparation for Denmark’s hosting of the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 15), to strengthen awareness of the competences and solutions of Danish businesses, industries and universities in the cleantech sector, nationally as well as internationally. [Gurría’s Speech] [Conference Website]