Sustainable investment in Turkey 2010

The main objectives of this report are as follows: 1 To understand and provide a review of the current state of the Sustainable Investment (SI) market in Turkey, 2 To identify the drivers and obstacles for sustainable investments, and assess the commercial feasibility of different approaches and initiatives that may stimulate the SI market in Turkey, 3 To analyze the institutional prerequisites and interventions that will fuel the development of investments, which would, in turn, encourage a betterallocation of local and international capital to sustainable enterprises and hence support sustainable development of the Turkish economy. This study forms part of a series of assessments of Sustainable Investment (SI) in Brazil (2009), India (2009) and China (2009), and draws upon earlier reports published by IFC jointly with the Economist Intelligence Unit: Sustainable Invest ing in Emerging Markets: Unscathed by the Financial Crises (2010) and with Mercer; Gaining Ground, Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Factors into Investment Processes in Emerging Markets (2009)

Creative destruction or mere niche creation? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in policy mixes in innovation studies. While it has long been acknowledged that the stimulation of innovation and technological change involves different types of policy instruments, how such instruments form policy mixes has only recently become of interest. We argue that an area in which policy mixes are particularly important is the field of sustainability transitions. Transitions imply not only the development of disruptive innovations but also of policies aiming for wider change in socio-technical systems. We propose that ideally policy mixes for transitions include elements of ‘creative destruction’, involving both policies aiming for the ‘creation’ of new and for ‘destabilising’ the old. We develop a novel analytical framework including the two policy mix dimensions (‘creation’ and ‘destruction’) by broadening the technological innovation system functions approach, and specifically by expanding the concept of ‘motors of innovation’ to ‘motors of creative destruction’. We test this framework by analysing ‘low energy’ policy mixes in Finland and the UK. We find that both countries have diverse policy mixes to support energy efficiency and reduce energy demand with instruments to cover all functions on the creation side. Despite the demonstrated need for such policies, unsurprisingly, destabilising functions are addressed by fewer policies, but there are empirical examples of such policies in both countries. The concept of ‘motors of creative destruction’ is introduced to expand innovation and technology policy debates to go beyond policy mixes consisting of technology push and demand pull instruments, and to consider a wider range of policy instruments combined in a suitable mix which may contribute to sustainability transitions

Nature conservation and urban development control in the portuguese planning system: a new impetus against old praxis?

Natura 2000 areas bring a new incentive to assess the performance of land-use planning in protecting environmental values from the impacts of development pressures. In the last decades, urban growth and consequent environmental impacts on natural areas have been a major concern for the Portuguese land-use planning system. Sprawl around sensitive areas has been revealed to be a persistent phenomenon in spite of the increasing challenges underlying land-use plans. This article critically analyses the content of three main documents recently adopted by the Portuguese government – the ‘National Strategy for Sustainable Development’, the ‘National Policy Programme for Spatial Planning’ and the ‘Sector Plan for Natura 2000’ – seeking prospects to innovate future plans at lower levels in order to prevent additional pressures on natural areas. First, the article reviews the recent theoretical debate on planning for the protection of natural areas. Results evidenced by recent EU evaluation reports are used to propose a set of guidelines to evaluate planning guidance at national level. Second, it critically analyses the three planning documents, bearing in mind the main features of the planning system and the proposed guidelines. The article is concluded with a discussion of their potential, exploring whether they bring a new impetus to the role of land-use planning against an outdated and persistent praxis, or whether, on the contrary, further efforts to strengthen planning guidance remain to be formulated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

A Political Economy Approach to Resource Taxation: Weak Sustainability, Revenue Recycling and Regional Planning

We present conceptual and empirical insights on the issue of resource taxation, an intrinsic regional environmental policy. It deals with the implementation of environmental taxes and environmental planning at regional level, as tools aimed at achieving weak sustainability for non renewable resources like aggregates, extracted for a diverse set of economic aims. We frame the discussion in the spirit of refreshing the need of ecological and resource tax reforms at national and regional level-. We do note and discuss the intrinsic peculiarities of resource taxes with respect to emission taxes, namely the integration with regional planning, the use of revenue for weak sustainability objectives, the different role by played technology and efficiency. Factors that are to be taken into account in any specific implementation. We empirically investigate resource taxation issues by focusing on aggregate extraction management and policy of two large Northern Italian regions, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. We conclude that the possible effects of extraction charges for the aggregate market development in Italy can be very limited. The level of charges is generally too low to be expected to have an effect on demand (through aggregate prices) and supply of aggregates. The environmental objectives of planning are, at least for the moment, other than reducing extraction, and they generally consist of minimising external impacts, to support sustainable management of landscapes, and to provide multi-value public goods within the local area. The evidence shows that even more for resource taxes a political economy analysis that encompasses institutional and planning issues is needed to effectively shape environmental policies. The complementarity of land use planning and economic instruments is a key driver of sustainability performances and witness reciprocal influences. The unintended effects of economic instruments are also a crucial thing for evaluating effectiveness and efficiency. Those include positive effects of ‘institutional kind’ on the governance and organizational performance of the integrated policy-planning framework.Resource tax reforms; aggregates; environmental charges; regional planning; sustainability; ex post compensations; Political economy; unintended effects; environmental federalism

From eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness: The policy-performance paradox

The internalisation level of sustainability issues varies among topics and among countries. Companies give up less internalised issues for more internalised ones. Discrepancies between legal, market and cultural internalisation lead to different escape strategies: firms develop a high level environmental management system and they have nice sustainability policy and reports. These achievements cover the fact that their total emission keeps increasing and they do not proceed in solving the most crucial global community or corporate governance problems. ‘Escaper’ firms are often qualified as ‘leading’ ones, as a current stream of research is also ‘escapist’: it puts too much emphasis on sustainability efforts as compared to sustainability performance. Genuine strategies focus on hardcore sustainability issues and absolute effects rather than on issues easily solved and having high PR effects. They allow for growth in innovative firms, if they crowd out less efficient or more polluting ones. They produce positive environmental value added when sector average eco-efficiency is used as benchmark and do not accelerate market expansion and consumerism

Sustainable mining, local communities and environmental regulation

Sustainable mining is an objective as well as a tool for balancing economic, social, and environmental considerations. Each of these three dimensions of mining – and sustainable development – has many components, some of which were chosen for closer study in the SUMILCERE project. While there is no single component that in itself provides a definitive argument for or against sustainable mining, the research reveals some that have proven valuable in the process of balancing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the SUMILCERE project, comparative studies enabled us to identify factors such as the following, which are essential when discussing the balancing in practice of the three dimensions of sustainable mining cited above: the framework and functionality of environmental regulation to protect the environment (environmental sustainability); the competitiveness of the mining industry in light of environmental regulation and its enforcement (economic sustainability); public participation and the opportunities local communities have to influence their surroundings, as well as communities’ acceptance of projects (social sustainability) before and during operations; and the protection of Sámi cultural rights in mining projects (social and cultural sustainability). Although each of the three dimensions of sustainability leaves room for discretion in the weight assigned to it, ecological sustainability, protected by smart environmental regulation and minimum standards, sets essential boundaries that leave no room for compromises. Economic and social sustainability are possible only within these limits. Details of the analyses in the Kolarctic area and accounts of the methods used can be found in the cited SUMILCERE articles.publishedVersio

Strengthening financial innovations in energy supply projects for rural exploitations in developing countries

Sustainable energy supply models are needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations for 2015. On the other hand, sustainability of agricultural exploitations in rural areas is a pre-requisite to achieve the objective of halving the proportion of people that lives in poverty, and productivity of such exploitations is closely related to energy supply. This article analyses the results of a survey of experts, suggesting that there may be good chances to innovate in the financing of agricultural electrification projects in developing countries. The experts’ opinion suggests that new sources of financing could be mobilised and oriented towards the promotion of sustainable initiatives in developing countries. Financial mechanisms should be adapted to the characteristics of decentralised systems of energy production with renewable sources or with mixed technologies, in order to overcome the barriers derived from the high initial price of the applications, and to the specific conditions of the agricultural sector. The participation of funds from the beneficiaries and the incorporation of the beneficiaries in the initial phases of project organisation would allow for the development of productive solutions with a higher potential to generate resources and to articulate sustainable proposals. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Public policies, environmental health, sustainability and social inclusion in developed countries

The paper discusses the range of public policies, concerned with environment health, sustainability and social inclusion, recently introduced by governments in developed countries