June

19
2012

8:30 am EDT - 10:00 am EDT

Past Event

Innovation in Green Growth Technology for Developing Countries

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

8:30 am - 10:00 am EDT

Riocentro Convention Center
T-3

Av. Salvador Allende, 6555 - Barra da Tijuca
Rio de Janeiro

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), or Rio+20, will take place in Brazil on June 20-22, 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. The conference will focus on two themes: a green economy in the context of sustainable development poverty eradication; and the institutional framework for sustainable development. The challenge will be to reenergize international will for meaningful progress in addressing climate change, achieving sustainable growth and development, and protecting the environment. Central to the concept of sustainable development is technological innovation, from basic research to commercialization.

To date, the vast majority of clean technology innovation has occurred in developed countries, where strong research universities, publicly- and privately -funded laboratories, and intellectual property regimes have successfully encouraged entrepreneurship for green growth. The challenge for developing countries is to ensure that they – particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – do not miss out on this technological transformation and the opportunity to ‘leap frog’ their own development pathways onto more environmentally -friendly development trajectories.

The Global Economy and Development team at Brookings, with the support of the Global Green Growth Institute, has reviewed existing international green growth capacity-building activities around the world, with an eye toward understanding what type of international mechanism could stimulate R&D innovation in LDCs themselves. The results will include a publicly available listing of existing initiatives, a gap analysis, an options analysis, and finally a proposal for a new international architecture. Please join us for an overview of our research at this side event.

Please note there is no registration for this event. It is an open event held onsite at the Rio+20 conference, from 9:30am to 11:00am BRT.

Agenda