Rebuilding a greener world economy after the COVID-19 pandemic requires learning from what worked and what did not from past efforts to adopt green stimulus during the 2008-9 Great Recession. These investments emphasized energy efficiency spending and “shovel-ready” clean energy projects, and almost all green stimulus was in G20 economies. They impacted job creation and expansion of renewables for several years but provided little long-term support for de-carbonizing the world economy. The biggest obstacles have been major market disincentives, especially the underpricing of fossil fuels. Policies for a sustained green recovery amount to much more than just short-term stimulus. They require carefully targeted long-term public infrastructure investments and pricing reforms.
However, the package of reforms will be different for major economies, such as the G20, as opposed to smaller emerging and developing economies, reflecting their different structural conditions and needs. During this talk, the speaker will discuss the potential cost-effective and innovative policy mechanisms that could be considered by emerging and developing countries to yield progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Edward B. Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics, Colorado State University and a Senior Scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability. His main expertise is environmental and resource economics as well as international environmental policy. He has consulted for a variety of national, international and non-governmental agencies, including many UN organizations, the World Bank and the OECD. He has authored over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, written or edited 25 books, and published in popular journals. Barbier is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and is a highly cited scholar on global environmental and sustainability issues.
Carolyn Fischer is a senior fellow with Resources for the Future, and currently holds joint appointments as a professor of environmental economics at the Vrije Universiteit – Amsterdam and as a Canada 150 Research Chair in Climate Economics, Innovation and Policy at the University of Ottawa. She is also a Tinbergen Institute affiliate, a fellow of the CESifo Research Network, and a member of Environment Canada’s Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network. She was the Marks Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University 2017-2018 and an EU Marie Skłodowska–Curie Fellow 2014-2016. She is currently Vice President and Council Member for the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE).
Steven N. Schonberger is a Regional Director for the World Bank Group’s Sustainable Development Department for the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. In his current role, he is responsible – inter alia – for oversight and support of the World Bank’s US$6 billion portfolios of financing and knowledge products for sustainable development programs in climate, agriculture, environment, urban, social, land and water in ECA. In his former position as Global Director for Water, he worked throughout South Asia, East Asia and Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia regions in water supply and sanitation, irrigation, transboundary waters, and watershed management. In addition to the World Bank, Mr. Schonberger has worked with UN organizations, private companies, and international NGOs in Africa, Latin America, and North America.
