2019 PAGE Annual Report

The world is in urgent need of a sustainability revolution. Continuing with the current trajectories of our economies is not an option in an era of climate breakdown, increasing environmental risks and scarcities, growing economic uncertainty, unprecedented inequalities and technological innovations. Achieving the SDGs, climate and Post-2020 Biodiversity Targets requires an unprecedented economic transformation in which the growth of jobs, income and prosperity is driven by investments in solutions for global sustainability challenges.

This transformation requires a major reframing of national economic and development planning that is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the climate and biodiversity targets, and global sustainability frameworks. We, the partners of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), have developed a model for supporting partner countries in a just and fair transition to an economy that is low-carbon, resource efficient, and equitable, that is, an inclusive green economy.

The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) was conceived at Rio+20 to support countries in reframing economic policies and development plans for this transition. When PAGE embarked on this journey in 2012 at Rio+20, the path was still an uncertain one.  Since then, it has become clear that concerted efforts by five UN agencies – leveraging their specialized expertise, networks and partners from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia – can catalyse a wave of change that has an impact far greater than the sum of its parts. PAGE has already delivered inspiring results by aligning its engagement with national development aspirations for prosperity, jobs, gender and social equality.

The collective efforts of five United Nations agencies, eight funding partners and 20 partner countries, under the auspices of PAGE, have delivered solid results including assisting partner countries in developing 68 national policies and development plans, training over 6,000 green economy practitioners and inspiring 96 countries to act on greening their economies.

• The year started with the Third PAGE Ministerial Conference, held in Cape Town in January 2019, gathering over 500 innovators and leaders from 50 countries for a unique global forum on green economy.
• The third Global Academy on Green Economy in October 2019 provided a forum to deepen knowledge and initiate South-South Collaboration to 100 participants from 34 countries.
• With PAGE support, new national and cross-sectoral plans integrating green economy objectives were launched in 2019, among others, in Uruguay, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Kyrgyz Republic.
• At the sectoral level, several new policies, strategies and action plans were adopted, e.g. on renewable energy in the State of Mato Grosso, on green industry in Burkina Faso, circular economy in Uruguay, and sustainable public procurement and construction in Mongolia.
• PAGE reached its target of 20 partner countries, with Thailand and Morocco joining the partnership in 2019.
• The first countries to join PAGE in 2013 and 2014 have developed their sustainability strategies to keep the momentum for transformative change as programme support phases out.
• Over 6000 individuals to date have been trained through an array of PAGE global, national and sub-national level trainings, while national universities and civil servant colleges continue to embed green economy into their curricula.
• 2019 saw the launch of the GGKP Green Industry and Green Finance Platforms and a new E-learning Course on Sustainable Finance, all innovative global tools to support policymaking.
• The PAGE 2030 Strategy was agreed among funding partners and agencies, leading the partnership into the next decade. Contributions to PAGE increased to USD 76 million in 2019.

There is an unprecedented opportunity in the sustainability challenges that our world is facing today: to stabilize the ecological foundation of our economies, reform industrial and natural resource sectors, revamp the financial systems and, most importantly, to create an economy and future world that is socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and rich in job opportunities and growth. To complement state-led efforts, civil society and private sector organizations are increasingly rallying behind the global push for a fairer and greener economic model that responds to the needs of formal and informal economies. Regional intergovernmental bodies are contributing to this vision of sustainability and there is a strong market interest in financial products and instruments that can support the transition to an inclusive green economy.

PAGE is proud to be the humble partner of 20 countries on their journey to a truly sustainable and inclusive economy, with many more countries benefiting from inspiration, discussion, exchange, knowledge and capacity building at global level.

Building on this strong foundation, PAGE will enter a new phase: between 2021 and 2030. The Partnership will deepen its engagement with current partner countries, assist new countries in integrated economic policy development and national planning, and widen its alliance with other institutions, initiatives and programmes, including from the private sector and civil society, with special attention to youth and gender movements. The objective is to catalyze and strengthen a fair and green economic transformation. These activities will add to the momentum for a sustainability revolution and create an enabling environment to achieve goals and targets of global sustainability agreements, especially the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement and Post-2020 Biodiversity framework.

PAGE will also widen its alliance with other institutions, initiatives and programmes, including regional actors, the private sector, civil society, and youth and gender movements. To bring the impact to a global scale, PAGE will support South–South and Triangular cooperation, create a Green Economy Challenge Fund, provide global capacity-building services, contribute to global agenda-setting on greening of economies, and raise public awareness.