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April 2011 Newsletter  prosperity for all within one planet limits

Note from the Conveno r

I have b een in post 1 month now a nd it ha s be en ve ry exciting. Tha nk you for all the e nthusiastic

Coalition contributions and conversations, and my apologies to those I have not yet met. I shallbe c alling you soon!

I set myself the target in my first three months to re-energise the coalition, its membership,

direction, plan and projects, and start raising its profile after the slight lull in activity between

Sally’s de pa rture a nd my a pp ointme nt.

So how are we do ing?  

Oliver Gree nfield, Co nvenor, Green Ec onomy Coa lition  

Covered in this month’s newsletter:1.  Coa lition ga thering, 30 Ma y-1 June 2011, Gene va

2.  Upda te o n ac tivities, and Oliver’s tho ughts on Rio PrepCo m in New York in Ma rch

3.  The Plan, and how to g et involved

4.  GEC expec tations: what do es it me an to b e a Coa lition c ollab orator?

1.  NOTICE. Diaries at the rea dy : Coa lition’s bi-a nnua l ga thering, 30 May-1 June 2011, Geneva

The a genda

We w ill be reviewing p rog ress and p lanning

collaborative next steps

•  Mob ilising - Na tional d ia log ues

•  Building - the four projec t g roup s

•  Influenc ing – Rio 2012, and c orridors of p ow er

Details and pa pe rs to co me

Timing s

30 May : start at midd ay, to a llow for trave l

31 May : full day

1 June: ha lf day, with CEO meeting

We a re g rate ful for IUCN fo r their hosp itality in ho sting

the event

Finally, we want to get chief executives of collaborating organisations together for a half day meeting, probably

on the afternoon on 1 June, so tha t we c an co nsolida te o rga nisa tion ownership of the Coa lition. This idea c ame

from UNEP.

Please conta c t Kate Lines from IIED if you wish to attend.

Coa lition mem be rs plea se inform your Chief Exec utive a nd ad vise Kate o f PA c ontac t deta ils.

Dorothea Seebod e, Philips, on the be nefits of Coa lition mem be rship

Having p a rtic ipa ted in WBCSD Vision2050 projec t it is bec om ing very clea r tha t

“ business as usua l”, thus a lso “ innova tion a s usua l” is ove r. What d oe s tha t mea n?

Chang es are expec ted in terms of:

· What do we innovate?

· How do we innovate?

· In whic h c onte xt (leg a l and reg ula tory) will we innovate ?

Partic ipa ting in the G reen Ec onom y Coa lition is an imp ortant a nd effective wa y to und erstand and c o-shap e the

changing innovation context, and to learn about the perspectives and needs of the many stakeholders who

formerly we re not involved in o ur innova tion p roc ess.

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2.  UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES – Oliver Greenfie ld , GEC Convenor

I joined a numb er of GEC m em bers in Nairob i for the UNEP Gove rning Co unc il eve nt, and presente d GEC th inking

to Comm onwe alth ministers. Then to New York for the Rio PrepCom and our side event on National Dialogues,

(spec ial tha nks to Ge orge Va rughese from Deve lopme nt Alte rnatives, Rubens Born from Vitae Civilis, Tom Bigg

from IIED and Cletus Springe r on beha lf of Ca na ri for the ir exc ellent work rep resent ing the Indian, Brazilian a nd

Ca ribbea n Nat iona l Dialog ues, and tha nks to Anabella Rosem berg o f ITUC fo r cha iring).

As expected, Green Economy was the major agenda item at both these meetings, and the need to work withc ivil soc iety to define a nd enab le it was a ma jor c onc lusion. This p lays well to o ur position a s the world ’ s largest

c ivil soc iety g reen ec onom y group.

Two othe r them es we re c onsistent ac ross these e vents. The lac k of definition ab out ‘ wha t is a green ec ono my?’

and at the same time the concern that, whatever it is, it has been developed in the west (or in the UN) as a

c onstraint to d eveloping c ountry ec onom ic growth a nd is a po tential new trad e b arrier. We are ad dressing b oth

of t hese issues – the d efinition of w ha t w e think green ec ono mies a re in o ur Big Picture p rojec t, an d by ena b ling

c ountries to a nswe r the q uestion them selves of ‘ wha t is a green e c ono my’ through o ur Nationa l Dia logues.

There was anothe r very inte resting d eb a te in New York. This wa s ‘ha s g loba lisa tion o utg rown these UN processes?’

Are mo re dec isions now ma de in Davos, where po licy a nd c ivil soc iety a re p oo rly rep resente d? And if Rio 2012 isprinc ipa lly ab out g reen e c onom y – (rea d globa l ec onom ic transforma tion) – then a re w e g oing to ge t the right

level of debate, commitment and action if business doesn’t turn up in force and governments only send their

environment ministers?

Let us be c lea r, the Green Ec ono my Coa lition is firmly com mitted to a succ essful Rio 2012 and therefore, pe rhaps,

our first Rio policy ask should b e:

‘National governments, given the state o f the planet and that large sc ale po verty and inequa lities pe rsist, we insist

you send heads of government, financ e m inisters and environment m inisters to Rio 2012, and enc ourage your

business leade rs to c om e a lso.’ I wo uld we lcom e c oa lition thoug hts on this po tent ia l GEC p olic y ask.

In addition, we have received detailed feedback from coalition members on Rio and we will be using it to

deve lop our Rio 2012 strateg y, the d raft of w hich w ill be sha red soon.

Then it was off t o Birmingha m, UK, to g ive the G EC response to the European Commission’s flagship resource

effic ienc y and ec o-innova tion programm e (green ec onomy b y another name).

Here the most interesting snippet was that the EC are having difficulty defining ‘what is a resource?’, because

ea c h Europ ea n na tion a sked had a d ifferent response (e.g. for Croatia , their mo st p rec ious resource is c oa stline – 

for tourism a nd fisheries). This aga in see ms to support the p rincip le that g reen ec ono my need s to g row from its

c ultural and e c ologica l c ontext, rathe r than b e ma nda ted . Of co urse we ne ed international polic y, but it need s

to e nab le loc a l ec ono mic resilience ra ther than force it to c om p ly with external sta ndards and d efinitions.

We have also resp ond ed to OECD’s gree n g rowth strateg y, where m ore emp hasis wa s need ed on the timesc ale

for ac tion, and to the UN Globa l Susta inab ility Panel’ s Civil Soc iety c onsultat ion.

I have used the many trips to draft our work plan (see below), which was agreed by my first steering group

mee ting. We have set a time and loc ation for the next Coa lition ga thering, 30 May-1 June, Geneva , set up a ne w

GEC office (thanks to IIED for providing the space) and recruited two interns (Andrea Demurtas and Janna

Tenzing) to he lp with our p lans and fund ra ising. I ha ve a lso ha d d isc ussions w ith the o rganisa tions lea d ing the four

p rojec t a rea s (GRI, IISD, WWF, ITUC) a nd am p lea sed how they are ta king sha pe (m ore b elow ).

I do hop e tha t the summa rised plan a nd c oa lition c ollab orat ion p iec e he lps you think how you c ould c ontributeto the Coalition’s work. Please contact me if you w ould like to g et involved or have q uestions. I sha ll be p utting

the m in full on the G EC web site (one o f next mo nth’ s re-energising p riorities).

I look forward to a n equa lly exciting sec ond m onth. Your c om me nts are most welc om e.

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3.  The Plan (ava ilab le on our website soon)

The c urrent Coa lition stee ring group is ma de up of Juan

Ma rco Alva rez (IUCN), Steve Bass (IIED), Dorothea See bod e

(Philips), Oliver Greenfield (GEC Convenor), Sa lly Jea nrena ud

(previous GEC director), George Varughese (Development

Alternatives) and Ana bella Rosem berg (ITUC). They me t

virtua lly this mo nth to agree our next yea r’ s p lan for the GEC.

The p lan ha s three m ain interc onne c ted ac tivity stream s: 

mobilising, building and influencing .

Within mobilising , opp ortunities for Coa lition c ollab oration a re

princ ipally w ith our d istinctive nat iona l dialogues.

If you are thinking of running a dialogue on your

organisational issues, perhaps you would like to do this in

partnership with the Coalition and its partners, and expand

your agenda to cover the questions: What does greenec onom y mea n in this national c ontext? What is hap pe ning

now? What cha nge w ould help do more? What national and

international change should the Coalition be advocating in

Rio 2012 and beyond? 

We are currently developing priority countries for National

d ia log ues, and looking for interested parties and new funding

source s. Conta c t Oliver Greenfield

Under building we have four main projec ts:

1.  Big Picture – the why, what a nd how of green ec onomy

(lea d WWF and GEC – c onta c t Oliver Greenfield) 

2.  Eco nomic governance – in a world where no-one is in

charge (lead GRI Pietro Bertazzi)

3.  Green job s – (lead ITUC, Ana bella Rosem berg)

4.  Sustainab le pub lic p rocureme nt (lead IISD, Oshani

Perera).

This is the engine room of o ur co nsensus and intelligenc e

build ing. Eac h projec t is keen to have mo re pa rtners,

thinking about questions being asked and the intelligence

created. We are building online workspaces for each, so

they a re transparent a nd e asier for co alition collaborato rs to

c ontribute , in the mea ntime p lea se c onta c t the lea d p artner

directly.

The third strea m of a c tivity is influencing : It is here that we

take what we have enabled and learnt from national

dialogues, from the coalition projects, and debates and

create effective advocacy.

Going forward, we shall be much more proactive about

giving the Coalition opportunities to contribute to our policy

c rea tion and c onsulta tion responses. Currently, due to time

and resource constraints this is mostly achieved through

Stee ring Group me mb ers.

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4.  GEC expec tation of Coalition c ollabo rators

We are enthusiastic a bout the num ber of new organisa tions who ha ve expressed an inte rest in joining. So, it

seems sensible to clarify the membership process and our expectations.

We d ec ided tha t this Coa lition ha s a fixed term, two mo re yea rs. Its em phasis is abo ut mutual op p ortunity, help ing

to share and learn about green economy, and act together, adding value to organisations that could not

eng ag e on international advoc ac y, or did not ha ve the resourc es to ta c kle this ag end a a lone. In the co ntext of

fixed term we did not want to put lots of resources into managing admission and bureaucratic governanceprocesses. Therefore a dmission c riteria and p rocess is simp le and light.

Criteria - Being able to answer “how will you contribute?” (on content and/ or process: National dialogues, big

picture intelligence, governance, green jobs, public procurement or other key green economy leadership, or

influenc ing skills. Are you giving financ ial resources? Or c ont ribution in kind? Both are welc om e, but one or othe r is

essential.) The o nly other req uirem ent is tha t w e use yo ur brand on the c oa lition c ollaborato rs’ p resenta tion slide,

and c rea te a link from our web site to yours.

The proc ess is then one shee t o f p ap er, whic h is submitted to the stee ring g roup for disc ussion and approva l.

The b ene fits a re many – intelligenc e b uild ing and grea ter influenc ing to na me a fe w – but perhap s we should

c ove r the b ene fits from interview ing c oa lition me mb ers.

One bene fit is the o pportunity to a ttend our twice yea rly ga therings. Another rem inder - the ne xt is ga thering is

30 May –1 June at IUCN’s head quarters in Geneva .

Calling all Coa lition c ollabo rators: a p ractic al c ollabo ration reque st for the Sustainab le Public Procurement p roject

 – Oshani Perera , IISD

GEC p relimina ry pilot p rojec t on susta inab le pub lic p rocureme nt (SPP)

IISD is lead ing the G EC w ork strea m on SPP and wo uld like to enq uire into GEC inte rest in help ing to launc h a

p relimina ry pilot p rojec t on p romo ting SPP in Vietna m.

In 2009, IISD wo rked w ith the Vietname se Ministry of Ag ric ulture and Forestry (MARD), and t he M inistry of

Environme nt a nd Natural Resourc es (MO NRE) to a ssess green p roc ureme nt p rep aredness in Vietna m. In follow up ,

MO NRE ha ve invited IISD to work with the m, to :

·  review the p reva iling law o n proc ureme nt and ide ntify what a mend ments wo uld b e nee de d t o ena ble SPP

·  conduct a feasibility study and linked parliamentary submission on integrating environmental and social

dimensions into procurement law, and to make the case for MARD and the Ministry of Planning and

Investment to d esign and roll out a na tional SPP ac tion p lan.

IISD plans to b eg in wo rking on th is p rojec t in Ma y 2011 and w ould w elcom e support from the G EC. As suc h, thep rojec t c ould the n be pa c kag ed as a p reliminary GEC p ilot o n Susta inab le Pub lic Proc urem ent.

Do you ha ve c ontac ts or work in Vietnam that co uld co ntribute? If so c ontac t Oshani, directly.

Oshani Perera, operera@iisd.org and Fabrice Ressicaud, fressicaud @iisd .org

GEC sec retariat c ontac t de tails

The GEC is supported by a sec reta ria t ho sted by IIED in Lond on . Inte rnat iona l Institute of Environm ent a nd

Developmen t, 4 End sleigh Stree t, London WC1H 0DD, UK

Oliver Greenfield , Conveno r, oliver.greenfield@greenec ono myc oa ltion.org

Ka te Lines, IIED Partne rships Offic er, kate.lines@iied.org