Green fiscal policies are a critical part of the efforts to address the economic and environmental crisis together by facilitating a financial and economic transformation in public finance. By aligning government investment agendas and NDCs with environmental goals, reflecting externalities in prices, raising revenues, creating fiscal space for green investment and broader fiscal reform - such policies can support several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), The Kunming Montreal Biodiversity Framework, and the Paris Climate Agreement.
UN Environment work on fiscal policies
UN Environment's work on green fiscal policies consists of three main areas. It cuts across different sectors and themes, including energy, climate change, agriculture, water, pollution, and extractives.
- Policy analysis and country support on green fiscal reforms
- Policy dialogue on green fiscal policies
- Training, learning and capacity building on green fiscal policies
- Building Back Better: The Role of Green Fiscal Policies
What are green fiscal policies?
Partnerships and collaboration on fiscal policies
We work, partner, and collaborate with key stakeholders of sustainable development to contribute to the community of practice on green fiscal policy. At the national level, we work closely with Ministries of Finance and domestic institutions that affect fiscal policy (like financial and real sector regulators) to mobilise sustainable public finance.
Our partnerships with prominent coalitions and institutions like UNDP, Global Environment Facility, Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action (CFMCA), UNEP Finance Initiative (FI), UNEP World Conservation and Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and International Financial Institutions (World Bank, ADB and CAF) serves to support fiscal policy that unlocks other private and development finance for positive change.
As a founding member of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) and the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), UN Environment also reaches out to the larger green growth policy community and engages with countries to support their green fiscal policy reforms in the green economy transition.
Through the Green Fiscal Policy Network - a joint initiative launched together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ), UN Environment facilitates knowledge sharing and dialogue on green fiscal reform, working with associated partners such as think tanks, research institutes, international and intergovernmental organizations.
