Document: Framework and Tools for Assessing and Understanding the Green Economy at the Local Level

Considerable attention is being given to the development of a green economy and the creation of green jobs. At the global and national levels, this attention has been prompted by growing concerns about climate change and the projected inability of the world economies to sustain into the future the growth rates that they have enjoyed in the past without irreversible environmental consequences. Many countries are committed to fostering the development of a green economy, that is, a clean and energyefficient economy.

Administrations of several countries see investing in a green economy as a way of helping their economies to recover. The OECD, for example, asserts that the financial and economic crisis creates room for public policies aimed at encouraging recovery and renewed growth on more environmentally and socially sustainable grounds. Countries, such as the United States, included the development of new energy-saving technologies and other green activities as major components of their stimulus packages to help pull their economies out of the Great Recession. In the longer run, net oilconsuming countries perceive the emphasis on a green economy as a way of balancing trade accounts through reducing oil imports and thus reducing the flow of domestic wealth to other countries.