Green growth -

How a low carbon path can

benefit the poor

Christian Au

Munich School of Philosophy, Center for social and development studies

Economic challenge of climate change lies in decoupling growth in carbon emissions and GDP

The Problem:• Global injustice with respect to climate change is reflected on a national level in South Africa• Climate Change mitigaton efforts seem to further harm the poor (e.g., increases in electricity tariffs) and

hamper economic growth• Without economic growth and access to energy the situation of the poor in South Africa will not improve

Key question: how to decouple growth from energy demand?• What has to be done on a domestic level?• What can be done on an international level to support domestic

action?

Green growth allows to reconcile mitigation and developmentComponents of green growth What has to be done on domestic level

Energy mix

▪ Promoting renewable energy, e.g. with subsidies (Feed-In tariffs) for renewables

▪ Supporting decentralised energy infrastructure

Green industries

▪ Boost relevant R&D spending▪ Subsidies for greener Industry structure:

manufacturing, and export of green technologies, materials, equipments, products, and services

Changing behaviour and institutions

▪ Promotion of green awareness and green lifestyle▪ Modernization of public mass transportation

▪ Put a price on carbon (e.g., through a national carbon market)

▪ Improve public and residential housing construction▪ Set energy efficiency standards for industry

Energy efficiency

What‘s in for the poor?

▪ New jobs in emerging industries thereby increase of household income

▪ Access to low-cost electricity thereby decrease in share of pocket of energy costs

▪ Shift to labor-intensive local service industries (e.g., construction sector)

▪ Quality of living through less pollution/improved eco-system

Domestic action should be supported by several international efforts

▪ Technology Transfer▪ Support to compensate incremental costs (offset

markets or grants)

▪ Technology Transfer▪ R&D cooperation▪ Rapid access to funding of investments

▪ „Leading by example“, rolemodelling low-carbon lifestyle

▪ Sharing of local communication and action-plans

▪ Share Best-Practice info▪ capability building (institutions/know-how)▪ integration into a global carbon market▪ Loans/Financing

Support on international level

• Technology/ Knoweldge transfer

• Funding• Building

Institutions

Energy mix

Green industries

Changing behaviour and institutions

Energy efficiency

Five Pillars of a Global Contract on climate change and poverty reduction