Multilateral Environmental Agreements and Private Investment: Business Contribution to Addressing Global Environmental Problems

Environmental and investment policies have the potential to reinforce their respective goals while promoting the broader objective of sustainable development. Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) aim at changing the collective behaviour of governments, private investors, and other stakeholders in order to achieve certain environmental goals. They are also an important part of the international context in which investment takes place. Therefore, MEAs promoting investment objectives and investment activity in support of MEA implementation play an important role in making investment and environment policies compatible. The successful implementation of MEAs cannot be achieved by public efforts alone, but also relies on private sector contribution. Therefore, MEAs need to be designed in a way that promotes private sector involvement. Environmentally-friendly investments represent an opportunity for environmental policies and the private sector: while contributing to the goals of MEAs they may lead to enhanced economic returns. The report aims at deepening the understanding of this potential. It examines the main areas of inter-linkage between MEAs and private investment activity focusing on the three Rio Conventions and the Montreal Protocol. Further reading: "Multilateral Environmental Agreements and Private Investment: Workshop Proceedings and Key Messages" published as Document No. 406 in OECD Papers, Vol. 5, Issue 9.