Green Economies in Global Markets:
Opportunities for Developing Countries To Innovate and Benefit
For green economy to be a sustainable and workable, it must function in synergy with global markets and it must deliver benefits for developing countries. This timely side event highlighted opportunities and challenges in greening economic development and growth in developing countries, with a special focus on Africa. It:
- considered next steps to advance greener economic policy and implementation in global markets, reflecting on outcomes of Rio+20 and UNEP’s active green policy economy agenda.
- Presented findings of the Green Economies Dialogues project, highlighting priority areas in greener development and enabling frameworks for investment and public private partnership.
- Provided perspectives by governments on where UNEP can work with business to advance and accelerate priorities for greener growth most relevant to developing countries.
In conjunction with the UNEP Governing Council, the GED project held its first 
side event in Africa on February 21 at UNEP Headquarters. The side event, Green Economies in Global Markets: Opportunities for Developing Countries to Innovate and Benefit, highlighted opportunities and challenges in greening economic development and growth in developing countries, with a special focus on Africa.
The side event highlighted priority areas in greener development and enabling frameworks for investment and public private partnership. It provided perspectives on where UNEP can work with business to advance and accelerate priorities for greener growth most relevant to developing countries.
It featured a presentation by Micael Da Costa on CleanStar Mozambique, an integrated food, energy and forest protection business. The CleanStar business model offers economic, environmental and social benefits, providing connections between small and large companies and offering tangible improvements in health and development in Africa. Micael’s presentation is available here.
Speakers included:
Micael da Costa, CleanStar Ventures LLC
Robert Dixon, the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Norine Kennedy, US Council for International Business (USCIB)
Dr. Brian Flannery, Chair, Green Economy Dialogues project
John Matuszak, U.S. State Department
Asad Naqvi, UNEP’s Green Economy initiative
Below: John Matuszak, US Department of State and Norine Kennedy, USCIB at the GED side-event in Nairobi, Kenya 
About the Green Economies Dialogue project
Founded in 2011, this project provides business perspectives into the international policy debate on ways to promote greener economic, social and environmental progress through:
- Dialogue meetings with national governments and the OECD in Washington, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo. Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro;
- Peer-reviewed Perspectives papers by respected academic authors, on green economy topics of interest to business, published last year in a special Green Perspectives volume of Energy Economics.
For questions regarding this event, please contact Kira Yevtukhova (kyevtukhova@uscib.org).