Shifting to a Green Economy and Care Society for a Sustainable Future

Shifting to a Green Economy and Care Society for a Sustainable Future

Maryam Adli

Abstract

Over the past 10 years, policy makers have grown more and more attracted to the idea of a green economy.

The term “green economy” refers to a wide range of ideas, and its connections to sustainability are not always evident. This article focuses on defining the “green economy,” discussing associated ideas, and assessing these ideas in light of the strong and weak sustainability criteria. 

The article accomplishes three goals: First, we list and explain the many ideas, notions, methods, and instruments associated with a “green economy.”

Among these are the theories of ecological and environmental economics; waste hierarchy; bioeconomy; industrial ecology; circular economy; nature-based solutions; dematerialization through product-servicizing; and instruments such as cost-benefit analysis and life cycle assessment.

Second, we create a framework that demonstrates how concepts, methods, and instruments of the green economy may aid in the shift to a sustainable future. A framework like this may be used as a guide to include many ideas and methods into a framework for the green economy. 

Thirdly, we touch on certain green economy ideas and how they affect both strong and weak sustainability. Different degrees of substitutability and trade-offs between environmental and economic gains are permitted, and more or less structural adjustments to our ways of life are necessary, depending on the many concepts, techniques, and instruments described in the framework of the green economy.

In order to operationalize the green economy, we want to contribute to the definitions and linkages of associated ideas, techniques, and instruments by addressing the idea of the “green economy.”

Introduction

The Brundtland report’s definition of sustainable development—”development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”—was formally adopted by the United Nations (UN) during its Rio de Janeiro 1992 conference on the environment and development (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

The term “green economy” was first used at the Rio+20 summit twenty years later (Barbier, 2012). International agencies including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2011a) and The World Bank (2012) view this widely accepted idea as a route to sustainability. 

Furthermore, the green economy has been a key component in reaching the climate mitigation objectives established in the Paris summit and has been widely employed to solve the financial and climate change crises (UNEP, 2011a). There is still more research to be done on the relationships between the green economy and reducing global warming, though.

Numerous nations are creating national green economy policies, plans, and initiatives. South Korea is one of the pioneers in Asia. The nation said in 2009 that it will devote 2% of its GDP, or gross domestic product, to green growth each year for a five-year period.1.

A five-year plan (2011–2015) that China has put into effect allocates a significant amount of its investments to green important areas, such as renewable energy and technology (Mathews, 2012). A number of initiatives pertaining to the green economy idea are incorporated into strategy papers like the Resource Efficiency Roadmap and Europe 2020 in the European Union (EU) (Mazza & ten Brink, 2012). 

The idea of the “green economy” has been around for longer in academic circles than the actual implementation of policies pertaining to it. Pearce et al. (1989) established the green economy as a response to the undervaluation of social and environmental costs in the existing pricing structure (Le Blanc, 2011). The idea has since been expanded upon. UNEP (2011a) defines a green economy as one that considerably reduces ecological scarcities and environmental dangers, while simultaneously improving well-being and social fairness.

A “green economy” is essentially one that is resource-efficient, low-carbon, and socially inclusive (UNEP, 2011a). The protection of natural capital, which comprises ecosystems and natural resources, is emphasized by UNEP. The phrase “green growth” is frequently used in addition to, or occasionally used synonymously with, “green economy” (EEA, 2014). “Green growth” was formerly limited to the expansion of the eco-industry.

Currently, nevertheless, the phrase refers to the expansion of the economy as a whole. Green growth is about ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services that are essential to our well-being while promoting economic growth and development.” In order to do this, it has to spur innovation and investment, which will support long-term growth and provide new business possibilities (OECD, 2011).

According to the World Bank (2012), green growth is characterized by its effective use of natural resources, clean approach to minimizing pollution and environmental damages, and robust approach to explaining natural risks.

According to each of these definitions, the “umbrella” term “green economy” refers to a variety of implications about growth and well-being, as well as efficiency and risk reduction in the use of natural resources. It is necessary to provide explanation on how a green economy implementation might facilitate the shift towards sustainability, given these possibly paradoxical effects.

Although the idea of the “green economy” is widely accepted by national and international policy programs and organizations, there are those who doubt its applicability and effectiveness as a means of achieving sustainability. There is currently a lack of operationalization of the green economy idea to facilitate a shift towards sustainability, as well as a framework for its implementation and oversight.

This study aims to delineate and explicate the principal theories and notions associated with a green economy, while demonstrating their connections to sustainability. A heuristic framework incorporating several notions of a green economy may be applied to evaluate the examples, experiments, and practices of the green economy as it exists now.

Specifically, we expound on the fundamental presumptions concerning the interchangeability of productive inputs and the consequences of the concepts of feeble and robust sustainability. In two follow-up studies, the framework was tested in a variety of European cases and experiments using a broad cross-sectoral approach of different geographical and temporal scales: Pitkänen et al. (2016) examined the critical success factors, and the assessment of institutional conditions that support their transition towards a green economy.

There are six primary sections in the paper. A bibliometric analysis is carried out in Section 2, which comes after the introduction, to determine and classify the primary ideas, concepts, useful techniques, and instruments that are employed in the literature as green economy strategies.

Section 3 provides a brief description and sustainability-related characterization of these various components.

In Section 4, we offer a conceptual mapping heuristic to illustrate the extent of a green economy, based on the relationships between these ideas, concepts, methods, and instruments in the context of a green economy. The implications of various theoretical and practical viewpoints for the potential of the green economy idea to promote the transition towards sustainability are discussed in Section 5 using this general framework. 

Section 6 concludes with some concluding observations.

Main Key Words associated with the green economy 

To find the primary keywords associated with the phrase “green economy” in the scientific literature published since 1990, we performed a bibliometric analysis. We chose the bibliographic database Scopus to do this since, in comparison to other databases, it has a greater subject and journal range, making it perhaps the greatest tool currently available for electronic literature search, especially for publications published after 1995 (Falagas et al., 2008). It also makes keyword research possible. 

Ecology and economics 

Neoclassical economists contend that undervaluing natural capital and inefficient exploitation of natural resources are the root causes of environmental problems (Borel-Saladin and Turok, 2013). The fundamental premise is the substitutability of natural and man-made capital (Bina and La Camera, 2011). This perspective’s basic tenet is that sustainable resource usage and economic growth are achievable at the same time. We should pay particular attention to this so-called Porter hypothesis. 

Charting ideas, theories, methods, and resources: a heuristic framework for the green economy 

The notion of a green economy is interconnected with several economic theories, ideas, pragmatic methodologies, and evaluation instruments. All the most obvious corresponding components were combined into a multi-layered framework in order to make these connections clear Explicating these ideas and their connections is intended to enable the framework to function as a “green economy heuristic.” First, there is a connection between ecological and environmental economics ideas and a green economy.

Discussions: Concerns about sustainability and their impact on policy

Our generic framework has several consequences, from which we select two main viewpoints. We first examine how the ideas, concepts, methods, and instruments addressed relate to weak or strong sustainability. Second, we talk about the political and economic implications of this for implementing a green economy. When putting the green economy into reality, there are a number of important economic.

Conclusion

The idea of a “green economy” is widely accepted in politics and can be found in many international organizations’ policy objectives. Its application in politics, however, may be hampered by potential misunderstandings of the idea and a dearth of appropriate science-based decision-support tools. The existing rules frequently serve special interests that produce nebulous documents and speculative schemes that postpone meaningful change until far into the future. 

References:

1. . P. Ekins et al. A framework for the practical application of the concepts of critical natural capital and strong sustainability. Ecol. Econ (2003)
2. . S. Dietz et al. Weak and strong sustainability in the SEEA: concepts and measurement Ecol. Econ (2007)

• 3. O. Bina et al. Promise and shortcomings of a green turn in recent policy responses to the “double crisis” Ecol. Econ. (2011)
• 4. R. Hoogmartens et al. Bridging the gap between LCA, LCC and CBA as sustainability assessment tools. Environ. Impact Assess. Rev (2014)
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• 6. Barbier E. How is the global new green deal going? Nature. 2010; 464:832–3.
• 7. European Environment Agency (EEA). Circular by design. Copenhagen: Products in the Circular Economy; 2017.
• 8. https://www.unep.org/regions/asia-and-pacific/regional-initiatives/supporting-resource-efficiency/green-economy

Author: Maryam Adli, Ph.D. Researcher (Department of Economics & Management); Khazar University, Baku, Azerbaijan; e-mail Maryam.adli@khazar.org ; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4031-0164 [ Maryam Adli also connected with MAHABAHU for Azerbaijan as a correspondent]

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