On October 14, 2024, the annual Global Green Growth Week 2024 started its 8th hybrid conference in
Seoul City, South Korea, bringing together policymakers, investors, innovators, thought leaders, and
delivery agents from the public and private sectors to offer insights and learnings about solutions,
innovations that can achieve the needed green growth transformation, especially in times of uncertainty.
It is hosted by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) based in Seoul- a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization- with 45 members and over 22 countries and regional integration organizations in the process of accession – dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. With operations in over 30 countries, GGGI serves the role of an enabler and facilitator of members’ transition into a low-carbon green economy, providing policy advice and technical support in the development of green growth plans, policies and regulations, mobilization of green investments, implementation of green growth projects, and development of local capacities and knowledge sharing.
According to the organizers, Global Green Growth Week 2024, GGGI’s premier knowledge-sharing
conference, is set to convene for the eighth time. This year, the conference theme is “Green Growth In
Times of Uncertainty”. The Opening Session serves as a platform for GGGI’s Director General and the GGGI Team to share insights, reflect on past achievements, and elucidate their role in advancing green growth transitions. This session sets the tone for a week of knowledge exchange and collaboration
aimed at propelling the world towards a greener, more sustainable future.
In his video message on GGGWeek2024, the President of the Assembly and Chair of the Council of
the Institute, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean politician and diplomat, who served as the eighth
secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016, said that our world today is
surrounded by uncertainty. In times like this, we must come together, navigate the complexities, and
harness the opportunities before us to drive our green growth agenda. The urgency is undeniable. We
must act swiftly with a clear vision to achieve green growth and sustainable development for all.
One of the conference participants was Nigerian Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, GGGI’s Country
Representative in Ethiopia. Before he joined the Ethiopian office as a representative, he worked in South
Korea and studied at Yonsei and Korea University in international development cooperation, and has
been researching climate change adaptation. He told Pressenza press that it’s already a concluded
fact that if we don’t move in a green growth pathway, then we will be affected. Already, we are seeing
the impacts of climate change, and there is no doubt an alternative to growth needs to be put in place.
“In Ethiopia, we have our office embedded within the government. We work with different government
institutions. We support the government in moving its green growth pathway forward. Ethiopia has been
a foundational member of GGGI from the beginning. The GGGI was instrumental in the development of
the Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy in Ethiopia, which happened to be one of the flagship
climate strategies, not in the continent, but in the wider region. That’s because back in 2011 at the Durban COP 17, (United Nations Climate Conference), the Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy was launched to the admiration of the global community on Ethiopia’s plan to pursue a green growth
pathway.
And that’s thanks to the collaboration between GZGI and Ethiopia. “Currently, we’ve moved so fast to
work with the government at the sectoral level. Last year, we looked beyond the mid-term to the
longer-term by working with the government to develop a long-term emission development strategy,
which looks at different sectors. This will help Ethiopia to meet its commitments as a net zero emitter,
which is what they have committed within the UNFCCC. The biggest portfolio we do have currently in
our work is on forestry, landscape, and biodiversity. Together with climate-smart agriculture. we work in many regions in Ethiopia.”
Mr. Daniel is highly hopeful that a green growth pathway is progressing. “There are already lots of
results coming, for example in terms of job creation, but also that capacity to understand that if you get
it right now, you have fewer challenges tomorrow. When it comes to the speed at which we are, green
growth could bring better livelihood.”, he concluded.
For Korean Juhern Kim, GGGI’s Country Representative in Vietnam, creating jobs and livelihood for
youth in least-developed countries is a way forward in green growth. He has been leading an initiative
called Greenpreneurs, funded by the Qatar Fund for Development and implemented by GGGI globally.
“ Greenpreneurs is a platform, an initiative dedicated to startups and entrepreneurs. We provide
incubation and acceleration services to these kinds of startups working on climate issues. Now I’m trying
to focus on more tech-based initiatives, climate technology-based initiatives, especially for the countries
with high emission potentials in our member countries like Southeast Asia. If you look at Indonesia,
Vietnam, and Philippines, there is a growing emission because of manufacturing, offshoring businesses,
etc…, those countries need more climate technologies to be utilized.
If you look at the International Energy Agency, IEA data, if we want to achieve net zero by 2050, the
expectation is only 30% to 35%, according to the current scenario, only 30% to 35% will be managed by the current technologies. This means that with the existing technologies, you can only reduce 30% to 35% of the emissions required to achieve net zero. But what about the rest 65%? So that will, under the scenario, be reduced through the technologies that are currently in the early adoption, prototype, or demonstration phase. We need more entrepreneurs and startups to make this kind of potential into reality. This is where startups and entrepreneurs could play a role in making these technologies more commercialized, and thus mainstream.”
He asserted that we need to have new technologies to optimize, to manage peak loads through AI-based, machine learning-based software technologies. these kinds of startups are beginning to emerge in markets. Such new climate technologies are related to that. They are very important.
The hybrid conference will continue discussing green growth until this week, 18 October, in Seoul and
on 22 October 2004, in Cali City, Colombia.
For further information please visit www.gggi.org
Photos by Bereket Alemayeehu, taken 14 October
1. Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya, GGGI’s Country Representative in Ethiopia
