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This report is about Romanis's Green growth benchmarking, which is a country-level diagnostic that helps define a country’s strengths and vulnerabilities in adopting a path to greener growth. The process of defining a country’s green growth path starts with an analysis aimed at mapping the country’s current position on a multi-dimensional green-growth chart, with each dimension defined by an indicator of green growth. A framework to define a list of questions key to understanding how Romania or any country compares in an international context is constructed with three considerations: “how green?,” “going green,” and “riding a green wave.” This framework is used to guide a benchmarking exercise that maps Romania against comparator countries and country groups using a dataset of more than 100 indicators for 69 countries. The following were the key findings: (i) Romania is well-endowed with natural resources, which, if used productively, can support strong and sustained economic growth; (ii) despite drastic improvements since the early 1990s, Romania’s economy has high intensity greenhouse gas emissions and high energy intensity. However, as a member of the European Union (EU) the country already faces obligations to reduce its emissions; (iii) making adaptations to protect tomorrow’s output from climate damage is also important for Romania, a country more vulnerable to climate change than others in the EU; and (iv) a greener world will require economic transition, and successful transformation will depend on the flexibility of the country’s economy--its ability to absorb shocks—and its readiness to take advantage of new opportunities. Romania does not appear ready to take advantage of new green opportunities: in research and development indicators and the innovation and knowledge economy, Romania lags far behind the EU. The following were the conclusions and recommendations: (i) this benchmarking exercise identified a selected set of issues within the broad green growth agenda which Romania should focus on as it considers how to move onto a greener growth path; and (ii) a country pursuing green growth might find regular benchmarking analysis of value in identifying emerging green issues.
