The global transition to green and fair economies

The document argues that while there are signs of a transition to green economies—such as accelerating renewable energy deployment in China and India and the adoption of wellbeing budgets in New Zealand—the 'brown economy' still dominates. It highlights that fossil fuel subsidies (US$ 5.2 trillion) nearly equal the investment needed for Sustainable Development Goals (US$ 5-7 trillion). The report calls for a systemic shift from extraction to restoration and from GDP-centric measures to wellbeing and natural capital accounting, providing specific recommendations for governments, businesses, and civil society to accelerate a just transition.

• There are emerging signs of deep economic reform, including an accelerating energy transition where China is on track to provide over 40% of the global clean energy mix by 2022 and India is expected to more than double its renewable capacity by 2020.
• Some nations are moving away from GDP as the primary measure of progress by implementing wellbeing budgets, specifically New Zealand, Iceland, and Scotland.
• The 'brown economy' remains dominant, evidenced by the fact that governments spend US$ 5.2 trillion subsidising fossil fuels, a figure nearly equal to the US$ 5-7 trillion annual investment required to deliver the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Current global efforts in circularity and net-zero targets are insufficient; to meet mid-century decarbonisation goals, global energy intensity must decline by 4% to 10% annually, but it is currently declining at only 0.4% per year.
• Financial markets lack a regulatory system to preserve nature, and mainstream economic analysis continues to ignore the dependency of economies on nature and its services.
• Global tax systems are skewed toward powerful countries and large corporations, with 40% of the profits of multinationals being artificially shifted to tax havens.
• Public demand for sustainable change is high, with 66% of consumers in a 60-country survey stating they would pay more for sustainable goods and services, and 71% of middle-class consumers in China increasing spending on green products in the last year.

APA

Green Economy Coalition (2020). The global transition to green and fair economies. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GEC-Barometer-2020-WEB-EXECSUM.pdf

Chicago

Green Economy Coalition. The global transition to green and fair economies. 2020. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GEC-Barometer-2020-WEB-EXECSUM.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Economy Coalition |title=The global transition to green and fair economies |date=2020 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GEC-Barometer-2020-WEB-EXECSUM.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneconomycoalition2020global, author = {{Green Economy Coalition}}, title = {{The global transition to green and fair economies}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2020}, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GEC-Barometer-2020-WEB-EXECSUM.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }