Many
economists and policy makers now advocate a fundamental shift towards ‘green
growth’ as the new, qualitatively-different growth paradigm, based on enhanced
material/resource/energy efficiency and drastic changes in the energy mix. But challengers
say it is a reductionist approach that needs to look at broader issues. But a number
of global initiatives and discussions on advancing green growth are already
underway targeting rich, middle income and developing countries alike.
The
Green Growth and
Sustainable Development (GG-SD) Forum is a new initiative by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) aimed at providing a
dedicated space for multi-disciplinary dialogue on green growth and sustainable
development. This year’s event focused on ‘Encouraging the Efficient and Sustainable
Use of Natural Resources: Policy Instruments and Social Acceptability. It took
place November 23, 2012 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris and brought together
experts from different policy fields and disciplines working in these areas.
Why Green growth?
According
to OECD, green growth means fostering economic growth and development, while
ensuring that natural resource assets continue to provide the resources and
environmental services on which our well-being relies. Green growth can
therefore open up new sources of growth through incentives for greater efficiency
in use of natural resources and natural assets, open up opportunities for
innovation, spurred by policies and framework conditions that allow for new
ways of creating value and addressing environmental problems, creation of new
markets by stimulating demand for green technologies, good and services;
boosting investor confidence through greater predictability and continuity
around how governments deal with major environmental issues; and securing a
more balanced macroeconomic conditions, reduced resource price volatility and
supporting fiscal consolidation
According
to OECD, the global economic crisis
convinced many countries that a different kind of economic growth is needed. In
response, many governments are putting in place measures aimed at a green
recovery. Together with innovation, going green can be a long-term driver
for economic growth, through, for example, investing in renewable energy and
improved efficiency in the use of energy and materials.
Green growth: A reductionist approach?
According
to the Food
and Climate Change Network, “Green growth” may work well in creating new
growth impulses with reduced environmental load and facilitating related
technological and structural change. But growth, technological,
population-expansion and governance constraints as well as some key systemic
issues cast a very long shadow on the “green growth” hopes. One should not
deceive oneself into believing that such evolutionary (and often reductionist)
approach will be sufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change. It
may rather give much false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental
that can bring about a U-turn of global GHG emissions.
Hence,
the Food and Climate Change Network cautions on the need to realize that the
required transformation goes beyond innovation and structural changes to
include democratization of the economy and cultural change. Climate change
calls into question the global equality of opportunity for prosperity (i.e.
ecological justice and development space) and is thus a huge developmental
challenge for the South and a question of life and death for some developing
countries (who increasingly resist the framing of climate protection versus
equity).
Green growth: Address deprivation
and manage trends in Africa
During
the Green Growth and Sustainable Development (GG-SD) Forum 2012, Frank Sperling
(Chief Climate Change Specialist) from the Africa Development Bank noted that
there is still scepticism whenever green growth discussions take place in
Africa, due to the perception that it will constrain growth by creating conditionality.
He
noted that Africa’s ecological footprint is increasing, coupled with many
pressing development needs including addressing energy access, water and
sanitation and issues around urbanization. Moreover the continent is vulnerable
to climate change, which is compounding local environmental challenges that
affects land, water, fisheries and livelihoods.
Frank
notes that on one side, green growth in Africa means addressing deprivation
(uneven economic growth, lack of energy access, lack of access to markets, lack
of education, air and water pollution, depletion of natural resources and land
degradation. On the other side, is the need to manage trends including the
rapid population growth; urbanization; globalization, economic volatility abs
shifting consumption patterns; and disaster risk and climate change.
Frank
concluded that the level of intervention will require both programmatic
(country/regional) as well as project level. For programmatic level, there is
need for high level vision / buy-in with Development Plans / Country level
roadmaps as possible entry points. Project level interventions require upfront
options analysis and cross-sectoral approach and skillset; as well as focus on
enhancing efficiency, sustainability and resilience of project interventions.
Key green growth focal areas that will need to be tailored to national
circumstances include provision of sustainable infrastructure, efficient /
sustainable management of natural assets, and building resilience of
livelihoods and economic sectors.
Civil society call for inclusive
green growth processes, focus on environmental limits and wellbeing
Ten
Civil Society Organisations were represented at the GG-SD Forum: Caribbean
Natural Resources Institute, Friends of the Earth Germany, Global Footprint
Network, Green Economy Coalition, Institute for European Environmental Policy, Uganda
Coalition for Sustainable Development, Vitae Civilis Institute, WWF Europe, WWF
Indonesia, and WWF Zambia
On
behalf of these civil society representatives, Aron Belinky, from Vitae Civilis
Institute and Green Economy Coalition, highlighted the importance of an inclusive
process, environmental limits and wellbeing.
With
regard to an inclusive process, CSOs asked the OECD and all Governments to make
explicit opportunities for effective civil society engagement in green economy,
green growth and related processes. Stakeholder engagement and societal buy-in
are fundamental for such processes, and goes beyond participation in meetings,
but as helping civil society become equal partners for development and
implementation. ‘We ask specifically that in future versions of this Forum
civil society representatives are given an equal opportunity to participate in
the stakeholder engagement process and also to contribute with their own
presentations on green economy perspectives’, the statement emphasized.
On
environmental limits, CSOs want green growth processes to acknowledge environmental
limits and to actively pursue policies that improve natural systems. They added
that while current inequalities between and within countries makes the case for
economic development, we must accept the fact that there are environmental
limits. Public policies, governance and economic frameworks must acknowledge
this, steering action so we can actively improve the state of our natural
systems.
On
wellbeing CSOs want green growth to be explicit in its ambitions for societal
development and poverty eradication taking into full account the institutional
and contextual analysis, importantly in respect of land and resource tenure,
among others. Therefore they asked OECD & Governments to have policies on
wellbeing and link that to the process of developing Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).
‘Though
there are still serious gaps in the
models, indicators and strategies on what value green growth makes to societal
development today’s presentations, this
lack of agreed methodologies (as evidenced in the forum presentations) should
not constrain OECD and nation states making clear their ambitions to use green
growth to explicitly secure societal development and, on-going, to further define improvements on
how it does this’, the CSO statement concluded.
