LONDON – October 1, 2013 – Some of the world’s leading economists and experts in the field of green growth and sustainable development convened at the Economics of Green Growth conference, supported and organized by The Global Green Growth Institute, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy. Held at the Royal Society of Arts in London, participants discussed a wide range of pressing topics, such as carbon pricing, industrial policy, global economic policy coordination.  Regional issues and concerns about the potential for green growth in China and India were also addressed.

Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute and GGGI Council Member, opened the Conference with GGGI Director General, Howard Bamsey.  They stressed the importance of empirical research in providing the evidence base necessary for the transition to a green economy. Direcor-General Bamsey noted that this research base can provide GGGI and other green growth practitioners with the theoretical foundations needed to advise Governments on the most effective means to simultaneously achieve economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion.

Papers were then presented for discussion across a broad range of topics around Green Growth including a paper by Justin Yifu Lin and Jintao Xu on ‘Green Growth and Structural Transformation [in China]’, Ottmar Edenhofer  and Michael Jakob on ‘Green Growth, Degrowth and the Commons’, Kermal Dervis and Claire Langley on ‘Economic Policy and Climate Change: a Reference Price for Carbon’ and Philippe Aghion, Daron Acemoglu and David Hemous on ‘Global environmental externalities and policy coordination’. 

Following the Conference, a number of papers will be selected for publication in a special edition of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

A program of the day’s events can be found here