Blue Economy: Sharing Success Stories to Inspire Change

Blue Economy

Sharing Success Stories to Inspire Change

ThepartnershipestablishedwithUNEP topursue the Green Economy has also been catalytic. The Barbados GESS has spurred a regional Green Economy initiative and the Government of Barbados has already commenced consultations with UNEP, the United Nation Industrial Development Organisation and the International Labour Organization on a follow- up initiative that aims to implement some of the key recommendations contained in the GESS. Enabling Conditions The study identified nine enabling mechanisms critical to the transition to a Green Economy, including. The major mechanisms included • Finance: Leveraging existing financing schemes, such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme and the development of new approaches to financing green investments • Development, access and transfer of clean technology: A strong intellectual property rights framework is critical in facilitating technology transfer via trade, Foreign Direct Investment and technology licensing • Trade, tariffs and investment: Ensuring that trade policies used to facilitate a green transition are consistent with the country’s commitments to CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) • Taxation, incentivesandfiscal reform: Barbados’ fiscal regime focuses on environmental taxes

and green subsidies in an effort to elicit behavioural change TheWay Forwardand Lessons Learned It is important to note that the pursuit of a Green Economy in the Barbadian context requires an integrated approach in relation to its governance, policy and programming processes. Such an approach is particularly relevant in small island open economies, characterised by small-scale domestic markets, high dependence on imports, relatively high unit cost of production and a narrow export base, as well as their vulnerability to natural disasters and external shocks. This notion of ‘integration’ is therefore fundamental to the Barbados definition of a Green economy: system that, at its core, reflects the fragility of our small island ecosystems, as the basis for natural resource protection policy intervention, business and investment choice, human development programming and for the facilitation of export market development strategies.” Barbados Green Economy Scoping Study From a governance standpoint, one of the key features of the GESS process was the establishment of the Green Economy Technical “An integrated production, distribution, consumption and waste assimilation

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