14 June 2013: The Third Annual Global Green Growth Summit (GGGS), which addressed the theme ‘The Future of Green Growth: Finance, Innovation and Policy,’ resulted in several outcomes, including official development assistance (ODA) eligibility status for the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the GGGI and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the water-energy nexus.
The Summit, which was held in Incheon, the Republic of Korea, from 10-11 June, included plenary and parallel sessions on delivering green growth, green financing, energy, technology and innovation and an address on green growth to 2052. Participants discussed, inter alia: investment requirements to ensure green growth and energy, water and food security; innovative financial approaches, including the Green Climate Fund; and transformative fiscal instruments, such as shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to renewables. On the eve of the GGGS, Mongolia and Rwanda became the 19th and 20th signatories of the Establishment Agreement of the GGGI.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) granted the GGGI ODA eligibility status, which is anticipated to increase GGGI’s ability to assist developing and emerging economies in planning and implementing green growth. Bharrat Jagdeo, President, Assembly of GGGI and former President of Guyana, said “a worldwide shift to inclusive green growth is the key to eliminating extreme poverty and improving human well-being” and ODA eligibility will enable GGGI to tackle these challenges “at a greater scale than was possible before.”
GGGI and the IFC, as the implementing entity for the 2030 Water Resources Group, signed an MoU to create a joint water-energy nexus program in countries where GGGI is conducting green growth planning projects. GGGI and the 2030 Water Resources Group anticipate cooperating on additional joint activities and information sharing throughout the two-year MoU. [GGGS Website] [GGGI Press Release on ODA Status] [GGGI Press Release on MoU]