Governments have an important role in fostering green growth by setting framework conditions that stimulate greener production and consumption through economic and other instruments; by encouraging cooperation and sharing of good practices among enterprises; by developing and promoting the use of new technologies and innovations; and by increasing coherence among policies. The main challenge is to harness environmental protection as a source of growth and as a source of international competitiveness, trade and employment. Businesses have an important role in adopting “greener” management approaches; developing and using new technologies; carrying out R&D and spur innovation. Business, governments and civil society also play an important role in providing consumers with the information needed to make purchasing choices that reduce the environmental impact of consumption. The main issues of importance to green growth dealt with in this section are: .. Technology development and innovation that are important for growth and productivity in general and for green growth in particular. They are important for managing natural resources and to minimise the pollution burden. Innovation also contributes to the establishment of new markets and leads to the creation of new jobs; .. Production of environmental goods and services that reflect an important, albeit partial aspect of the economic opportunities that arise in a greener economy; .. International financial flows that are key to the uptake and dissemination of technology and knowledge, foster the cross-country exchange of knowledge and are one important aspect in combining development and environmental objectives; .. Prices and financial transfers that provide important signals to producers and consumers and, along with regulations, are tools to internalise externalities and to influence behaviour of market participants towards more environmentally-friendly patterns. Ideally, indicators on economic instruments should be complemented by indicators on regulations. However, data availability and comparability of regulations across countries hamper the construction of such indicators. These indicators can also be complemented with indicators on international trade as a source of economic opportunities, including green growth opportunities. Since trade in “green” products provides a very partial picture of this role, no specific trade-related indicator has been put forward in this section. General indicators on international trade and competitiveness can be found in the section on the socio-economic context.