UNECE: Recent Episodes
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UNECE fosters sustainable development by translating the #GlobalGoals into norms and conventions that impact people’s lives every day.
As the complexities of modern economies grow, traditional approaches to industrial policy face increasing scrutiny. For decades, debates have raged about how governments can intervene to foster innovation, address market failures, and create sustainable development paths. Today, industrial policy has undergone a transformation, and now embraces elements of market liberalism. In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Michael Munger from Duke University explores these issues, suggesting that industrial policy often oscillates between two extremes: setting the foundational rules of the game for markets to thrive and directly managing industry outcomes through subsidies, regulations, or nationalization. He highlights the inherent tensions in these approaches, including the risks of rent-seeking, misaligned incentives, and the difficulty of predicting which innovations will succeed.
As the pace of technological change accelerates, the limitations of our existing legal systems are becoming increasingly apparent. Traditional frameworks, designed for a slower and less complex world, struggle to keep up with the challenges posed by globalization, digitalization, and emerging technologies. There is a growing need for innovative approaches to lawmaking that can support both the rapid pace of innovation and the protection of societal values.In this episode, Profesor Gillian Hadfield from the University of Toronto discusses the importance of reimagining legal infrastructure to better align with the demands of our rapidly changing world.
UNECE explores issues around sustainable resource management and intergenerational equity with Jodi-Ann Wang, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics (LSE), member of UNECE's Resource Management Young Member Group (RMYMG).
In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Gillian Hadfield from the University of Toronto, discusses the importance of reimagining legal infrastructure to better align with the demands of our rapidly changing world. She explores the concept of using market mechanisms to drive legal innovation, emphasizing how regulatory markets can help create more responsive and effective legal systems.
In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Chris Berg, an economist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, explores the concept of blockchain as a decentralized database, emphasizing its potential to transform global trade, social media, and even the integration of AI technologies. He delves into current challenges, such as regulatory uncertainties and the complexities of building decentralized networks, while maintaining an optimistic view of the future of the blockchain economy.
From the industrial revolution to the digital era, innovation has redefined economies and societies, offering new opportunities and challenges. However, balancing the promotion of innovation with the need for responsible oversight remains a key issue for governments, businesses, and communities.In this episode of Innovation Matters, Arthur Diamond, Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska Omaha, shares his insights on innovative dynamism — where technological advancements drive significant transformation. We explore the historical evolution of innovation, comparing the more open, dynamic environment of the 19th century with the increasing role of state-led regulation that emerged in the 20th century, particularly after World War II. The discussion examines how regulation and central planning have influenced innovation, the lessons learned from technological breakthroughs, and how societies can find the right balance between encouraging innovation and ensuring responsible governance.
This episode of Innovation Matters explores with Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity how innovation has helped to expand the resource base and improve living standards, even as the global population has grown. The discussion highlights historical and contemporary examples of how innovation can increase resource efficiency and availability, providing an optimistic view of our future and the role of technology in addressing today’s challenges. It also delves into the broader implications for sustainability and future development.
We often see innovation as a linear process – from basic research over invention to innovation. But is that how knowledge develops and how innovation works? Could the concept of evolution help elucidate the dynamics better? How would such a perspective explain how knowledge evolves into, adapts to, and underpins societal and economic transformation? And what does that mean in practice, for entrepreneurship, policy, and how society works? Innovation Matters explores these questions with Prof. Jason Potts of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, who explains the importance of understanding the evolutionary nature of knowledge and how this perspective can inform policies that support more experimentation and learning.
In the past two decades, Open Innovation and its relatives, such as Open Science, have come to the fore as a paradigm contrasting with the view of innovation as something emerging from within firms. Referring to the practice of sourcing ideas from external sources and sharing valuable information widely, Open Innovation is essential to the creation of a broader innovation commons and to understanding a range of emergent phenomena that turn the traditional view on its head. As Prof. Henry Chesbrough, Berg Professor of Open Innovation and Sustainability at LUISS University of Rome, explains in Innovation Matters, this potential is set to continue growing, as we learn more and more about how to make better use of digital and frontier technologies.
Innovation has created huge wealth and opportunities over the past two centuries, and since the mid-20th century in particular. But over the past decades, many point to stagnating productivity. That makes it all the more important to aim for a fundamental reconceptualization and rebirth of innovation for the future.In this episode, Prof. Alex Tabarrok argues that by embracing a culture of growth and significantly reforming education, intellectual property laws, and bureaucratic regulations, societies can reignite the kind of innovation that drives substantial economic advances and improves the standard of living worldwide.Prof. Alex Tabarrok holds the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we delve into the complex interplay between government policies, market dynamics, and transformative innovation with Dr. Anders Kärnä. As we navigate through the nuances of economic development and public policy, Dr. Kärnä offers a critical analysis on how governments can either foster or hinder innovation through industrial policies. Drawing from historical examples and current economic theories, this episode explores the delicate balance between governmental intervention and market freedom that underpins successful innovation ecosystems worldwide.
Sustainability is a pressing concern in the fashion and textile industry.In this episode of “The UN Forest Podcast”, host Samata Pattinson is joined by Åsa Degerman, Ben Selby and Carlo Covini to discuss the transformative role of forests and new technologies in making fashion more sustainable and circular.------------------------------------------------------------------ About the UN Forest PodcastThe UN Forest Podcast is a series produced by the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section to showcase that the potential of forests goes beyond trees. Each episode features special guests and speakers who bring insights on forests as our strongest allies in fighting climate change and creating a sustainable future now and for generations to come.The views expressed in this episode are those of the individuals involved and should not be interpreted as endorsements by the United Nations, its affiliated organizations, its officials or Member States. ------------------------------------------------------------------Credits:Samata Pattinson, CEO of BLACK PEARLÅsa Degerman, Project Manager at OnceMore®Ben Selby, CFO and Deputy CEO of SpinnovaCarlo Covini, Project Manager Marketing Textiles at LenzingNicola Sangs, Editor and Producer Paola Deda, Director, Forests, Land and Housing Division of UNECEAudio credits:“vintage jingle”Licensor: SETUNIMAN Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/156019/“Atmo – Noise” Licensor: SIMBERTOBLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/SimbertoB/sounds/186597/“Chill Background Music” Licensor: ZHRØLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/ZHR%C3%98/sounds/584430/“Chill Background Music” Licensor: Seth_Makes_SoundsLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/Seth_Makes_Sounds/sounds/670039/
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we delve into the relationship between capitalism, innovation, and societal progress with Dr. Rainer Zitelmann. Through a historical lens and contemporary examples, this episode explores how capitalist dynamics have fostered technological breakthroughs, economic development, and contributed to improved standards of living for billions globally.
In this episode, we delve into the question of why certain countries excel in innovation while others, with similar resources, do not achieve the same level of success. In conversation with Dr. Mark Zachary Taylor of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Innovation Matters sheds light on the complex factors beyond institutions and policies that drive national innovation strategies.
In the previous episode of Innovation Matters on the industrial revolution with Professor Emma Griffin, we explored how innovative dynamism changed our word radically in a process still going on today. This second episode explores what life was like for the working class. Often maligned as squalid and dehumanizing, Emma Griffin delves into a range of autobiographies telling a different, much more nuanced story of optimism, perspectives, and dynamism.
In the mid-18th Century, the modern economy started to take shape. While limited to the invention of the factory system and the boom in the textile sector for the first decades, the Industrial Revolution brought unprecedented social and economic changes. Marking, in the words of prominent historian Eric Hobsbawn, “the most fundamental transformation of human life in the history of the world”, the innovative dynamism and legacy the industrial revolution created is alive and well today. In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Emma Griffin explains what prompted and upheld the industrial revolution and the innovative dynamism it paved the way for – and what we can learn from history on how to sustain innovative dynamism today and in the future.Emma Griffin is professor of modern British history at the University of East Anglia and President of the Royal Historical Society.
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we expand on the previous conversation with Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow with the R. Street Institute’s technology and innovation team, about the present and future of regulation in an era of unprecedented innovation. In Part 2, our focus is on the contemporary landscape of legislation, and the balance between permissionless innovation and effective governance. As the pace of technological advancement accelerates, we explore the challenge of reconciling rapid change with the traditional pace of legislation, particularly in the context of digitization.
Scientific and technological innovations frequently put the spotlight on the laws that govern them. In this episode of Innovation Matters, Professor Robin Feldman explains why the protection of invention arrangements can cause trouble and, in many ways, end up acting as a disincentive to innovation. The very nature of inventions makes them impossible to describe unambiguously for all time. When something is so new that we do not understand yet how it works, what it can do, or how it could be applied - as is often the case in biotechnology - description is necessarily slippery. Instead of hoping for clear boundaries, Professor Robin Feldman urges lawmakers to focus on what the law can do well: craft rules that anticipate the bargaining that will occur as rights unfold.
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we explore the intricate dynamics of regulation and innovation with Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow with the R. Street Institute’s technology and innovation team. He discusses the evolution of 'permissionless innovation' and its influence on past, present, and future technological progress. Drawing insights from his book "Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom", we embark on a journey to understand how various advancements have flourished without restrictions and impacted the technologies we rely on today.
In this episode, Innovation Matters discusses how converging technologies are transforming business, industries, and our lives, with award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, and Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective, Steven Kotler. Our exploration takes us into the heart of how technologies could reshape our lives fundamentally and drive societal and economic transformative innovation.
Forest fires are an important part of a healthy ecosystem, but have gotten out of control in recent years. Why are wildfires getting bigger, more intense and lasting longer than ever before?In this episode of The UN Forest Podcast, Prof. Jesús San Miguel Ayanz joins Jodi-Ann Wang to dive deep into current and future wildfire trends and the role every one of us has in shaping the way forward.An episode by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)-------------------------------------------------------------------About the UN Forest PodcastThe UN Forest Podcast is a series produced by the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section to showcase that the potential of forests goes beyond trees. Each episode features special guests and speakers who bring insights on forests as our strongest allies in fighting climate change and creating a sustainable future now and for generations to come.-------------------------------------------------------------------Credits Jodi-Ann Wang, Host and leader of the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network Prof. Jesús San Miguel Ayanz, Leader of the European Forest Fire Information System and the Global Wildfire Information SystemNicola Sangs, Editor and Producer Paola Deda, Director of the Forests, Land and Housing Division at UNECEAudio credits"Vintage jingle"Licensor: SETUNIMANLink & creative commons license details: freesound.org/s/156019/"Beautiful ambient melody"Licensor: PATRICK LIEBERKINDLink & creative commons license details: freesound.org/s/341541/"54bpm Lazy Summer Loop A2"Licensor: NLUXLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/622087/"Atmo - Noise"Licensor: SIMBERTOBLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/SimbertoB/sounds/186597/ "Floating In The Midnight Breeze"Licensor: FOOLBOYMEDIALink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/332323/ "Firefighting Helicopter with Siren"Licensor: EMIN YILDRIMLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/536928/ "Fire_Forest_Inferno"Licensor: DYNAMICELLLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/17548/
The future of sustainable building is also one of the oldest construction materials around: wood. In this episode of “The UN Forest Podcast”, Ms. Nyasha Harper-Michon, architect and activist, “archtivist”, and Ms. Sandra Frank, co-founder of Arvet, discuss the advantages of low-carbon, wood construction.
An episode by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
About the UN Forest Podcast The UN Forest Podcast is a series produced by the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section to showcase that the potential of forests goes beyond trees. Each episode features special guests and speakers who bring insights on forests as our strongest allies in fighting climate change and creating a sustainable future now and for generations to come.
Credits
Nyasha Harper-Michon, Architect and activist Sandra Frank, co-founder of Arvet Nicola Sangs, Editor and Producer Florian Steierer, Economic Affairs officer at the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section
Audio credits
"Vintage jingle" Licensor: SETUNIMAN Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/156019/
"Beautiful ambient melody" Licensor: PATRICK LIEBERKIND Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/341541/
"Free Uplifting Music" Licensor: Seth Makes Sounds Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/670819/
"Carpentry - sawing timber with handsaw stereo" Licensor: abcopen Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/164275/
"Carpentry - hammering nail stereo" Licensor: abcopen Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/164208/
"roofhammering04" Licensor: WIM Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/25063/
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we embark on an exploration of "Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work" with Dr. John Danner, senior lecturer in law at the University of Galway, Ireland. As we contemplate questions around human obsolescence in the face of automation, we question the potential for a utopian future. In this thought-provoking discussion, he invites us to envision a world where work as we know it will cease to exist and discusses the implications for humanity.
This episode of Innovation Matters takes a journey in intellectual archeology with Prof. Philip Auerswald of the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government.
Drawing from his books The Coming Prosperity and The Code Economy, and nearly three decades of research relating to entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation on a global scale, Prof. Auerswald shines a light upon the microstructure of long-term societal development.
Prof. Auerswald is the founder and co-editor of Innovations journal, published by MIT Press. He is also the founding board chair and president of the National Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, located in Washington, DC. Previously, he lectured at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where he also acted as assistant director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. Prof. Auerswald holds a PhD in economics from the University of Washington and a BA in political science from Yale University.
Forests are one of the solutions to the climate crisis but are also under pressure from climate change itself. What are the strategies to face this complex reality?
In this episode of The UN Forest Podcast, Michelle Yeoh, 2023 Oscar-winning actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is joined by Professor Almut Arneth, Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on land and climate change, to explore the unique relationship between forests and climate change.
An episode by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
About the UN Forest Podcast The UN Forest Podcast is a series produced by the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section to showcase that the potential of forests goes beyond trees. Each episode features special guests and speakers who bring insights on forests as our strongest allies in fighting climate change and creating a sustainable future now and for generations to come.
Credits: Michelle Yeoh, 2023 Oscar-winning actress and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Prof. Almut Arneth, Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on land and climate change Nicola Sangs, Editor and Producer Roman Michalak, Economic Affairs officer at the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section Illustration by Shuyue Li
Audio credits 'Vintage jingle' Licensor: SETUNIMAN Link & creative commons license details: freesound.org/s/156019/
'Atmo - Noise' Licensor: SIMBERTOB Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/SimbertoB/sounds/186597/
'A MINIMALIST AND EMOTIVE PIANO MELODY FOR RELAXATION' Licensor: KJARTAN ABEL NOIR Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/people/kjartan_abel/sounds/610678/
"Beautiful ambient melody' Licensor: PATRICK LIEBERKIND Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/341541/
In the past decade, there has been a notable rise in government intervention aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. While some governments were successful in adopting innovation policies to support entrepreneurial activity, others have fallen short.
In this episode, Innovation Matters invites Prof. Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and Co-Director of the HBS Private Capital Project, to explore the historical landscape of government policies and critically analyze their impact on promoting innovation, identifying both positive and negative effects along the way.
As cities and communities around the world scale up efforts to cut emissions and prevent dangerous climate change impacts, one area that is often overlooked is trees and forests. In this episode of The UN Forest Podcast, urban forester Prof. Cecil Konijnendijk joins Architect Stefano Boeri to help us understand why we need to bring nature back into our cities and how we can do so.About the UN Forest Podcast:We tend to take forests for granted, underestimating how indispensable they are for everyone on the planet. Each episode of The UN Forest Podcast features special guests and speakers who bring you insights on forests as our strongest allies in fighting climate change and creating a sustainable future for ourselves and generations to come.Whether you are a forest expert, city planner, passionate about nature or simply an interested citizen, The UN Forest Podcast will inform, inspire and make you realize that the potential of forests goes beyond trees. We all are rooted in forests.For a deeper dive and additional resources visit: https://unece.org/Forests/UrbanAction#accordion_1_3The UN Forest Podcast is brought to you by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Credits: Architect Stefano Boeri, HostProf. Cecil Konijnendijk, Urban forester Nicola Sangs, Editor and Producer Liliana Annovazzi-Jakab, Chief of the Joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber SectionIllustration by Shuyue LiAudio credits: 'Vintage jingle'Licensor: SETUNIMAN Link & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/156019/'Beautiful ambient melody'Licensor: PATRICK LIEBERKIND Link & license details: https://freesound.org/s/341541/'City ambiance in a residential area'Licensor: FELIX BLUMELink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/667323/'Construction Site'Licensor: KLANGBEELDLink & creative commons license details: https://freesound.org/s/348624/
Cities are primary centres of consumption of energy and materials, but at the same time offer an opportunity to manage resources efficiently and in innovative ways. As such, Cities can play a key role in driving the circular economy agenda forward, and many are doing just that.In this episode of "One World Zero Waste? The Circular Economy Explained", we hear about the role of local governments in experimenting with circular economy approaches, with insights from Sofie Bracke, Deputy Mayor for Economy, Trade, and Port of the city of Ghent in Belgium. UNECE's Gulnara Roll also shares perspectives on cicularity challenges and opportunities in cities across the pan-European region and highlights the role of the United Nations in supporting concrete efforts in urban areas.
How has our life improved though innovation? How has innovation occurred throughout history? How can policies be crafted to encourage innovative entrepreneurs to bring us more innovation? To guide us with these questions, Innovation Matters welcomes Professor Arthur Diamond to discuss his book "Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism". In this podcast, which is the first of 3 episodes, he will start taking us through a narrative of human progress through creative destruction, or innovative dynamism, and its benefits. He demonstrates how such dynamism is far from inevitable, and the factors that, then and now, hold back its potential. Arthur Diamond studied philosophy and economics at the University of Chicago, where he also was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Nobel laureate Gary Becker. After Chicago, he was on the faculty at The Ohio State University and is now Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Professor Arthur Diamond wrote the script for “Frank Knight and the Chicago School” in the Great Economic Thinkers series. His “Innovation Unbound” policy brief from the Mercatus Center argues entrepreneurship flourishes when regulations are few and “Innovative Dynamism Allows All to Flourish” article on Oxford University Press’s blog argues that entrepreneurial capitalism most benefits the poor and unprivileged. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Over the past decades, countries in the Pan-European region and North America have made significant efforts towards strengthening sustainable growth. However, the region is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)by 2030. Innovation is therefore needed to accelerate progress, helping to find solutions to ensure people's wellbeing while managing finite resources and preserving the environment. As a result, there is growing momentum around concepts such as mission orientation, directionality, and the entrepreneurial state - all intended to support a sustainable transformation of our societies. To better understand the nature of transformative innovation and its importance for sustainable development, Innovation Matters shares insights from Barbara Diehl, Chief Partnership Officer at the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND), which was created to look for new answers to the social, ecological, and economic challenges of our time.
Textiles and clothing is an $1.3 trillion industry with more than 300 million employees across the value chain. It is an industry with huge environmental and social impacts.Today less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is currently recycled into new clothing, representing a loss of more than $100 billion worth of materials each year, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. In 'One World, Zero Waste? The Circular Economy Explained', we explore opportunities and challenges to shift to more sustainable and circular approaches in how we produce and consume clothing with model, actor, author and activist Lily Cole, and Katia Vladimirova of the University of Geneva, together with UNECE experts.
When it comes to innovation development, the opinion often gravitates towards a macro-level government-focused perspective. Yet, as we discuss in the next episode of the Innovation Matters podcast, innovation does not only come from the national institutions but also from regional governments and even city-level programmes. It is cities that overwhelmingly provide the elements, systems, and dynamism driving innovation. They serve as test-beds, or laboratories, for trying out ideas for entrepreneurship, policies, and partnerships to see what works and what does not. Yet, in the words of today’s guest, “cities are places where the problems are really visible” and where we can address real challenges through small-scale pilots. Considering the importance of cities in fostering innovation, today’s episode analyses their potential impact in solving the most pressing social challenges ranging from pollution to sustainable energy transition. To guide us in this discussion, we welcome Susana Borrás, a Professor at the Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Susana researches the design of innovation policy and its instruments, the governance of change, scale-up processes in socio-technical systems, the organizational strategies of legitimation in science and technology regulatory areas, and the organizational capacity and processes related to social learning and policy learning. In addition to her research activities, Susana Borrás also advises governments and institutions at international and national levels on matters of science, technology and innovation policy. She is currently a member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV) and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for European Studies, Sciences-Po Paris, France.
In this episode of Innovation Matters, we explore the concept of the commons as applied to innovation and knowledge rather than, in the way we are familiar with the term, to natural resources and land.
Our Guest, Dr. Jason Potts, Distinguished Professor of Economics at RMIT University in Australia and Co-director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub, argues that what holds back innovation is access to relevant information, and that the innovation commons, a system able to share and enable cooperation around inputs, ideas, and opportunities, should be nurtured to overcome such obstacles.
Currently a third of all food produced is lost or wasted - around 14% between harvest and retail, and another 17% at household, food service and retail levels.
This means that the resources used to produce it - water, land, energy resources, and labour – go wasted. Food loss and waste also account for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to FAO estimates, the food that is lost and wasted could feed 1.26 billion hungry people every year.
In a world with finite resources yet a rapidly growing population, enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of agriculture, and making the best use of the resources produced, can generate a triple-win for food security, environment, and the economy. Applying a circular economy approach can link these goals together.
In One World, Zero Waste? we hear from Shane Ward, Professor of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin, and Maria Chiara Femiano, Senior Policy Officer, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, about the challenges and opportunities of food in the circular economy, and the role of different actors, from producers to retailers and big brands (known as Fast-moving consumer goods companies)and consumers.
We also hear insights on the importance of international and multistakeholder cooperation, tools and standards to accelerate the sector's circularity shift from Elisabeth Tuerk, Director, Economic Cooperation and Trade Division at UNECE.
Globally, experts observe drastically different patterns of innovation-driven growth. Unsurprisingly, such diversity of outcomes can be largely attributed to the differences in national innovation systems. Even in the era of globalisation, national policies continue shaping development paths, experimentation opportunities, and transformative capacity of enterprises. Yet formulating effective national (and regional) innovation policies is not an easy task and requires complex considerations. From local-based preconditions to regional specificities, policymakers have a lot of factors to balance.
In this episode of UNECE’s Innovation Matters podcast, we welcome Prof. Cristina Chaminade, the Director of the Master’s program in Innovation and Global Sustainable Development at Lund University.
We explore how policymakers can establish regional and local hubs of innovation. Cristina’s main area of expertise lies within the nexus of innovation, sustainable development and nature conservation. Her research focuses on system transformation in developing countries; Cristina explores how emerging economies can accumulate the competencies that would allow them to upgrade and diversify. Previously, Cristina has researched a diversity of countries including China, India, South Africa, Thailand, Costa Rica, Brazil, Italy and Sweden. She has also worked as an expert consultant for international organizations including the European Commission, UNCTAD, OECD and UN-ECLAC and conservation NGOs.
While the use of fossil fuels is inherently linear, renewable energy solutions, such as solar and wind, provide an immense opportunity for transitioning to a circular economy.
As countries strive to decarbonize their economies – with many adopting targets to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century - and meet commitments under the Paris Agreement, among the main approaches adopted is the scaling up of renewable energy in electricity production through targeted policy support schemes.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), renewable energy technologies like solar and wind are fundamental to reducing emissions in the electricity sector, which is today the single largest source of CO2 emissions. In the IEA’s pathway to net zero, almost 90% of global electricity generation in 2050 would come from renewable sources, with solar PV and wind together accounting for nearly 70%.
Moving to a circular economy - through recycling materials, extending their use as much as possible – can reduce both the cost for renewable energy generation and its environmental impact. But it also brings significant challenges. Batteries, for example, show the problem of scarcity of resources and the pressing need to recycle resources and materials in a sustainable economic system. Renewable energy needs to be produced and used in a circular manner, including the way in which renewable energy equipment and infrastructure is designed, manufactured, built and managed, during and after its use.
But what are the main challenges and opportunities to scale up the use of renewables as part of a circular economy transition? In "One World, Zero Waste?", we hear insights from Rana Adib, Executive Director at the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) and Wolfgang Gründinger, Chief Evangelist of Enpal GmbH, a photovoltaics leasing firm that provides solar power systems.
As the economist Paul Krugman once said, “productivity is not everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything”. Productivity is among the most important sources of social and economic welfare, but innovation is also the most important source of productivity growth. The difficulty with the innovation processes is that they are evolutionary; we do not know exactly where they are going, and we cannot predict them.
To understand how innovation works, the Systems of Innovation approach has emerged – a perspective with strong roots in the Schumpeterian and Austrian schools of economics. Putting this approach into practice, however, has been difficult. One of the most recognised experts in this field, Dr. Charles Edquist from Lund University, has worked on a model that could provide guidance: the holistic view of the innovation policy. In this podcast, we ask Charles about how this approach to innovation can enable us to understand innovation better, what are the determinants of innovation processes and how they can strengthen innovation systems, especially as the basis for good policymaking.
Nigeria’s planned accession to the UN Water Convention could be a tipping point for cross-border water cooperation, contributing to security, climate change adaptation and sustainable development in the Lake Chad and Niger basins.
Find out why with these expert insights from Abuja, and learn more at https://unece.org/media/press/369572
Every day, billions of people connect with others, purchase services from businesses – all within a click of a button from their electronic devices. These new, rapidly unfolding processes and forms of content, distributed in a variety of digital formats, offer salient opportunities and scope for innovation. What is the government’s role in supporting the evolution and promotion of the digital economy?
In this episode of "Innovation Matters", Professor Carin Holroyd and Professor Ken Coates, both from the University of Saskatchewan, explore the nature, implications, potential and risks of government policy on the digital economy. According to their publication "The Global Digital Economy: A Comparative Policy Analysis", governments still tend to underestimate and misunderstand the economic potential of the digital content sector due to old mindsets about the traditional industrial economy. Governments still may not know how to support digital content companies – although this is changing in the light of the successes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, and the like. As our guests show, experiences from the frontrunners in East Asia – most notably from Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore – provide fascinating opportunities to take a closer look at the public use of digital technologies and to consider government policies and efforts to expand the sector. The episode includes success stories of the rising stars of the digital economy, particularly valuable for countries in transition, and ends with key 3 tips for policymakers in the region in devising the most effective digital economy strategy.
Given that the potential returns of innovation in developing and catch-up economies is large, why there is so little investment into innovation? This “innovation paradox” is at the centre of this episode. Despite the enormous potential that innovation, especially gradual innovation building on ideas and technologies that have proven their mettle elsewhere, and despite, in many countries, strong political commitment, UNECE transition economies struggle to innovate in ways that drive productivity growth and sustainable development.
Why do good ideas not necessarily translate into innovation, and what can developing countries do about it? We decided to ask this and many other questions to Dr. Xavier Cirera and Professor William Maloney, the economists from the World Bank. In their book called “The Innovation Paradox: Developing-Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Promise of Technological Catch-up”, they examine the nature of innovation in developing countries, the innovation paradox, and what governments can do to resolve the innovation policy dilemma. In this podcast, the authors dissect these elements of why countries do not get the expected rate returns from follower countries to catch up, and what developing countries can do to boost innovation.
The environmental footprint of transport is subject to much attention, given its impact on health, the environment, climate change, and the extraction of natural resources. Could a circular economy approach help address these challenges?
In the circular economy, it’s the whole process of manufacturing, using, and then what happens to the materials afterwards that needs to be considered. In One World Zero Waste? The Circular Economy Explained, we explore with guests Maya Ben Dror from the World Economic Forum and Duncan Kay, Vice chair of the Group of Rapporteurs on Pollution and Energy of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, why we need solutions to make the entire life cycle of vehicles as efficient as possible, reducing waste and pollution at all stages and to minimize resource intensity for any given trip. We learn how such an approach also impacts the choice of which mode of transport we use, vehicle use and distances covered.
The shift to a more resource-efficient and circular economy can create jobs and business opportunities, improve wellbeing, and protect the environment at the same time. But with the world’s economy only 8.6% circular according to the Circularity Gap Report 2022, what's holding us back?
In “One World Zero Waste? The Circular Economy Explained”, we explore with Dr. Kees Baldé, Senior Scientific Specialist at the Sustainable Cycles Programme at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, why the societal and environmental benefits of a circular economy can only be reached through the proper policy environment with clear objectives, regulations, incentives and measurement. We also hear from Greg Peterson, Assistant Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada, why robust statistics are needed to manage and monitor the transition towards a circular economy, and discover some of the challenges and priorities in doing so – including why international cooperation is so important.
UNECE podcast Innovation Matters releases its second episode on “Post-Communist Transition 30 Years on: the Importance of Furthering Broad Innovation to Progress Towards Agenda 2030”.
30 years later, since the fall of the Soviet Union, UNECE countries have varied success in reaching the increasingly market economy, bringing interesting findings of how economic development for sustainable development, and innovation policy, in particular, is dependent upon the foundation and the ongoing transition process. The guest for this episode is Dr. Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan from St. John’s University in New York. Based on his book “Economic transformation, development and society in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union” (2018), Alec traces the economic development process, assessing these countries based on the socialist path they have had, the nature of institutional and structural change affecting the countries in transition before and after the fall of communism. In this podcast, we further discuss how these countries historically evolved in their economic policies and development, the role of central planning and its impact on innovation, the reform efforts and the role of institutions throughout this process.
Could the use of the "platform economy" to enable sharing, renting, and digitizing – rather than owning – a wide range of physical assets support progress towards the circular economy and sustainable development?
Digital platforms can aggregate supply and demand, instill trust, and guarantee transactions. These platforms can open convenient options to access what we need when we need it - from power drills to cars. As the guest in the first episode of the "Innovation Matters" podcast, Professor Michael Munger of Duke University, points out, we may be witnessing the beginning of a development that will fundamentally transform how we consume, produce, and interact.
Innovation Matters is a UNECE podcast series that explores how innovation, or experimentation with ideas to create value, is changing our world and could drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in the region and beyond.
The idea of a ‘circular economy’ is increasingly being embraced by political leaders, businesses, and citizens. But what does it mean in practice? In "One World, Zero Waste? The Circular Economy Explained", we explore some of the key challenges and opportunities across sectors - from energy to transport to clothing, food and beyond.
In episode 1, host Nicki Chadwick asks Lotta Lyrå, CEO of Södra, Sweden's largest forest owners association and an international forest industry group, about how forests can support the circular economy.