Leading ICC member companies and associations from a wide range of sectors are working together in the ICC Green Economy Task Force under the auspices of the ICC Environment and Energy Commission to develop business and industry positions into these policy debates and share experiences and best practices to help build a green economy.
The “green economy” concept has emerged prominently in numerous intergovernmental forums such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Green Growth Strategy and the G20. "Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication" had furthermore been declared a priority theme for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20). Governments around the globe are seeking ways to define and shape this concept into meaningful policy frameworks that advance economic growth while enhancing environmental protection.
Business is a substantive participant to shape and implement this concept at both, the policy and market level. Business plays a critical role in delivering jobs, investments, technologies, products and services that drive the changes and innovations needed to move towards a Green Economy. Although the Green Economy concept is global in scope, it seeks to “green” all elements of the economy, from global to local, in different ways. Part of the challenge and opportunity for business and industry is to understand the concrete possibilities of a “Green Economy” with its opportunities and risks for its many sectors, value chains, and different national contexts.
Leading ICC member companies and associations from a wide range of sectors are working together in the ICC Green Economy Task Force under the auspices of the ICC Environment and Energy Commission to develop business and industry positions into these policy debates and share experiences and best practices to help build a green economy. The task force works across the full range of ICC policy commissions and in consultation with ICC national committees and chambers of commerce in over 120 countries. It works from the principle that a green economy must provide commercially viable products and services while promoting environmental responsibility and enabling progress on social development.
The Green Economy Task Force was launched in October 2010 to prepare, amongst others, ICC business and industry input into the United nations Conference on Sustainable development in 2012 and to develop a business response to the UNEP Green Economy Initiative. The task force currently consists of approximately 90 members from a variety of sectors world wide seeking to advance the Green Economy concept with their respective stakeholder constituencies and national contexts. Whilst global in scope, the actions needed to transition towards “Green Economy” may vary from sector to sector, value chain to value chain, and according to specific national circumstances. The task force takes these multidimensional aspects into account.
Green Economy is a term developed by policy makers and a number of different definitions exist, however, there is no single agreed definition or set of financial measurements on what exactly the “Green Economy” is. As a unifying theme, it seeks to define the “direction” in which the global economy needs to move. The ICC Green Economy Task Force defines “green economy” as follows:
“The business community believes that the term "green economy" is embedded in the broader sustainable development concept. The “green economy” is described as an economy in which economic growth and environmental responsibility work together in a mutually reinforcing fashion while supporting progress on social development. Business and Industry has a crucial role in delivering the economically viable products, processes, technologies, services, and solutions required for the transition to a Green Economy.”
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