Harnessing Public Trade Finance to Foster a Green Economy in Developing Countries: Current State of Play and Way Forward

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential to harness trade finance to foster the development of a green economy in developing countries.The world is facing multiple crises of sustainability: global financial crisis, climate change, and the overuse of natural resources. Many developing countries are additionally destabilized by poverty, disease, corruption, and failures in democratic governance and education.The transition to a green economy is recognized by a variety of organizations and experts as a ground-breaking way forward, combining economic development, social welfare and environmental protection. In order to shift to a green economy, changes in production and consumption practices, and therefore also in trade patterns, are crucial. This makes the leverage power of leading export credit agencies, which totaled an exposure of USD 1.7 trillion in 2011, colossal.