Moving Towards Integrated Policy Formulation and Evaluation: The Green Economy Model

The mainstreaming of concepts related to the Green Economy, an action-oriented approach to reach sustainable development, has increased demands for integrated models that can shed light on the complex relations existing across social, economic and environmental indicators. A gap exists, whereby our thinking is rapidly evolving, but the tools available are still in the vast majority of cases sectorial, leading to planning processes taking place in silos. To avoid the emergence of side effects, and anticipate future threats and opportunities, a more systemic approach is needed. The Green Economy Model (GEM) was created taking into account four main capitals and their interconnections: physical capital, human capital, social capital and natural capital. The application of GEM in 10 countries has shown its capability to coherently represent reality and generate results that can more effectively inform decision making.