Green Industry
Green Industry, the flagship concept of the UNIDO, and its main contribution to the global debate on sustainability in the 21st century, is defined by UNIDO first and foremost as an integral part and a core pillar of a Green Economy. As such, Green Industry enables industries to pursue low-carbon objectives, resource efficiency and greater social and environmental responsibilities for their operations and products, while at the same time saving money and increasing their competitiveness. Furthermore, Green Industry approach stimulates the creation of new jobs (i.e. green jobs), new business ventures and drives technology development and innovation.
It should be noted that while Green Economy offers a macro-economic view of green transition across all the economic systems and sectors, Green Industry zooms in on the productive and tradable goods sectors. In this context, the UNIDO concept of Green Industry offers developing countries some answers to the current questions and concerns with regard to the cost and benefits (but also the opportunities) of the green transition. If developed and presented strategically, Green Industry could receive a lot of support and appreciation from developing countries as the leading approach to the global transition to Green Economy.
As it stands now, UNIDO’s concept of green industry is built on the following two premises:
1. Greening Industry – ensuring that all industries improve their environmental performance and their resource and material efficiency, including water, energy and materials and feedstock.
2. Green Industry – stimulating the development of industries that provide environmental goods and services, and in that context green jobs and technology transfer/technological change.
While this approach is sufficiently broad to include industrial environmental management and green growth issues, it is the view here that the concept needs to be further developed to provide the missing answers to the concerns raised by developing countries regarding the cost of transition and its impact on jobs, growth and market access/international trade. Providing concrete examples of pathways and possibilities that are win-win and supportive for the developmental objectives of developing countries will help to build Green Industry not only as a complementary concept to Green Economy, but as the main driver of the global transition to green growth and sustainable development.
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Green Industry