For an overview of the developments in international environment policy that led up to the UNEP Green Economy Report, see Runnals (2011).
[2]
Green Sticker and
ecolabel practices have emerged as consumer facing measurements of sustainability. Many industries are starting to adopting these standards as a viable way to promote their greening practices in a
globalizing economy.
[edit]"Green" economists and economics
Some economists view green economics as a branch or subfield of more established schools. For instance, as
classical economics where the traditional land is generalized to
natural capital and has some attributes in common with labor and physical capital (since natural capital assets like rivers directly substitute for man-made ones such as
canals). Or, as
Marxist economics with nature represented as a form of
lumpen proletariat, an exploited base of non-human workers providing
surplus value to the human economy. Or as a branch of
neoclassical economics in which the
price of lifefor developing vs. developed nations is held steady at a ratio reflecting a balance of power and that of non-human life is very low.
[citation needed]
[edit]Definition of a green economy
Karl Burkart defines a green economy as based on six main sectors:
[4]
- Renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, marine including wave, biogas, and fuel cell)
- Green buildings (green retrofits for energy and water efficiency, residential and commercial assessment; green products and materials, and LEED construction)
- Clean transportation (alternative fuels, public transit, hybrid and electric vehicles, carsharing and carpooling programs)
- Water management (Water reclamation, greywater and rainwater systems, low-water landscaping, water purification, stormwater management)
- Waste management (recycling, municipal solid waste salvage, brownfield land remediation, Superfund cleanup, sustainable packaging)
- Land management (organic agriculture, habitat conservation and restoration; urban forestry and parks, reforestation and afforestation and soil stabilization)
The three pillars of sustainability.
The Global Citizens Center, led by
Kevin Danaher, defines
green economy differently from the use of pricing mechanisms for protecting nature, by using the terms of a "
triple bottom line," an economy concerned with being:
[5]
- Environmentally sustainable, based on the belief that our biosphere is a closed system with finite resources and a limited capacity for self-regulation and self-renewal. We depend on the earth’s natural resources, and therefore we must create an economic system that respects the integrity of ecosystems and ensures the resilience of life supporting systems.
- Socially just, based on the belief that culture and human dignity are precious resources that, like our natural resources, require responsible stewardship to avoid their depletion. We must create a vibrant economic system that ensures all people have access to a decent standard of living and full opportunities for personal and social development.
- Locally rooted, based on the belief that an authentic connection to place is the essential pre-condition to sustainability and justice. The Green Economy is a global aggregate of individual communities meeting the needs of its citizens through the responsible, local production and exchange of goods and services.
The Global Green Economy Index,
[6] published annually by consultancy Dual Citizen Inc., measures and ranks the perception and performance of 27 national green economies. This index looks at 4 primary dimensions defining a national green economy as follows:
- Leadership and the extent to which national leaders are champions for green issues on the local and international stage
- Domestic policies and the success of policy frameworks to successfully promote renewable energy and green growth in home market
- Cleantech Investment and the perceived opportunities and cleantech investment climate in each country
- Green tourism and the level of commitment to promoting sustainable tourism through government[citation needed]
You can take part in a student project to define the Green Economy in the run-up to the Rio+20
[1] conference on the Green Economist website
[2].
[edit]Other issues
Because the
market failure related to
environmental and
climate protection as a result of
external costs, high future commercial rates and associated high initial costs for research, development, and marketing of
green energy sources and green products prevents firms from being voluntarily interested in reducing environment-unfriendly activities (Reinhardt, 1999; King and Lenox, 2002; Wagner, 203; Wagner, et al., 2005), the green economy may need government subsidies as market incentives to motivate firms to invest and produce green products and services. The
German Renewable Energy Act, legislations of many other
member states of the European Union and the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, all provide such market incentives.
[citation needed]
[edit]Criticisms
A number of organisations and individuals have criticised aspects of the 'Green Economy', particularly the mainstream conceptions of it based on using
price mechanisms to protect nature, arguing that this will extend corporate control into new areas from forestry to water. The research organisation ETC Group argues that the corporate emphasis on bio-economy "will spur even greater convergence of corporate power and unleash the most massive resource grab in more than 500 years."
[7] Venezuelan professor Edgardo Lander says that the UNEP's report,
Towards a Green Economy,
[8] while well-intentioned "ignores the fact that the capacity of existing political systems to establish regulations and restrictions to the free operation of the markets – even when a large majority of the population call for them – is seriously limited by the political and financial power of the corporations."
[9] Ulrich Hoffmann, in a paper for
UNCTAD also says that the focus on Green Economy and "green growth" in particular, "based on an evolutionary (and often reductionist) approach will not be sufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change" and "may rather give much false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental that can bring about a U-turn of global
greenhouse gas emissions.
[10] Clive Spash, an ecological economist, has criticised the use of economic growth to address environmental losses,
[11] and argued that the Green Economy, as advocated by the UN, is not a new approach at all and is actually a diversion from the real drivers of environmental crisis.
[12] He has also criticised the UN's project on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity (TEEB),
[13] and the basis for valuing ecosystems services in monetary terms.
[14]
