Low Carbon Development Factsheets

Background

Encouraging developing countries to invest in low carbon growth has had limited success so far. One reason for this is that developing countries are concerned how investments into a more resource efficient economy might impact on their prospects for growth. Even though there is a growing base of evidence outlining the co-benefits of a low-carbon transition, there is a large gap in the data and indicators required for robust assessments of the relationship between low carbon development, climate resilience and overall economic growth in developing countries.

The Study

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) commissioned AEA to develop a set of factsheets synthesising the latest work and evidence from the major economic research institutions, multilateral institutions/ organisations, and leading thinkers and consultancies working on low carbon development.  The following themes were reviewed under the headline of low carbon development: agriculture and fisheries, climate resilience, energy systems, biodiversity, fossil fuel subsidies, domestic finance, manufacturing and industry, new economics, natural resource scarcity, new jobs, poverty reduction, transport, urbanisation and cities, and water.

The summary fact sheets can be downloaded from the AEA website:  http://www.aeat.com/cms/new-low-carbon-factsheets-published-today-by-aea-and-dfid-2/

The research for this project was carried out from November 2010 to February 2011.  The thematic sheets were published in May 2011.