Research Project (Ongoing)

Enhancing Human Security and Promoting Growth and Development through a Just Green Transition (Sixth Joint Research Project with Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University)

The Green Transition is becoming increasingly important as global warming continues. The term “green transition” refers to efforts to shift from an industrial and social structure based on fossil energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas to one based on clean energy sources such as solar and wind power. Although the green transition is not inherently opposed to growth, it is not always easy to reconcile them, due to the existence of market failures and the absence of appropriate capital and risk exchange markets, based on traditional market-oriented thinking.

JICA Ogata Research Institute and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University will examine this issue and clarify how green development that respects the global environment can complement the rapid development of developing countries, including Africa. Working with a range of experts, we will explore issues such as how green transitions can change the conventional concept of comparative advantage and how development policies should be changed; what green industrial policies should be; what can be learned from the experience of East Asia and the new industrial policies currently being implemented in the United States; and what are the implications of the new world and the trade framework within it for Africa and other developing countries.