The third annual conference of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform was held on 29 to 30 January 2015 with the theme Fiscal Policies and the Green Economy Transition: Generating Knowledge – Creating Impact”. Topics discussed at the conference included overcoming obstacles to fiscal reform; creating incentives for investment in clean energy; pricing for sustainable water management; fiscal measures for climate action; and environmental taxes in developing countries.

The Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) is a network of international associations that come together to encourage collaboration and research, offering policy guidance, good practices, data and tools for implementing the transition to an environmentally sustainable policy. The GGKP was set up in January 2012 by the OECD, UN Environment Programme and World Bank. Various institutions and organizations in areas related to the green economy work together as knowledge partners.

The aim of the conference is to stimulate new research and to encourage the development of research results into practical policy recommendations. The results of the conference will be used to drive a worldwide research agenda. The meeting therefore represents both an academic and a policy conference. The conference explores the newest research, looks at the lessons learned in practice, encourages new thinking and identifies gaps in knowledge where new research is needed. The introduction and implementation of green fiscal measures is considered in the context of various national laws.

Fiscal instruments should include incentives or disincentives in the form of taxes, subsidies or other instruments but there should also be a reform of fiscal decision-making processes to ensure that environmental sustainability becomes an integral part of development policy and encourages the implementation of initiatives for green growth. The conference is designed to give direction to policy makers on the type of fiscal instruments that should be employed.