The Green Economy and Sustainable Development: An Uneasy Balance?

By O. Bina. 2013

364 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio+20) was conceived at a time of great concern for the health of the world economy. In this atmosphere ‘green economy’ was chosen as one of two central themes for the conference, building on a burgeoning body of literature on the green economy and growth. This research examines the relationship and influence between the double crisis and the rise of ‘greening’ as part of the solution. The aim is to understand what defines and distinguishes the proposals contained in twenty-four sources on the green economy (including policy documents by international agencies and think tanks, and research papers), and what is the meaning and implication of the rising greening agenda for sustainable development as it enters the 21st century. Through a systematic qualitative analysis of textual material, three categories of discourse that can illuminate the meaning and implication of greening are identified: ‘almost business as usual’, ‘greening’, and ‘all change’. An analysis of their relationship with Dryzek's classification of environmental discourse leads to the identification of three interrelated patterns: (1) scarcity and limits, (2) means and ends, and (3) reductionism and unity—which deepen our understanding of the tensions between emerging propositions. The patterns help explain the meaning and implications of greening for sustainable development, revealing an economisation and polarisation of discourses, the persisting weak interpretation of sustainable development, and a tension between the fixing or shifting of dominant socioeconomic paradigms that underpin its conceptualisation.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/356a4389453a6645705b87cea56015ef04c3244a

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Citations in the corpus

An alternative policy approach to rural development in regions facing population decline (2018, background): “This assessment chimes with the recognition of great obstacles for societal transition in the sphere of environmental effectiveness and reduction of growth aspirations and tendencies (c.f. Bina, 2013).”
A socioecological fix to capitalist crisis and climate change? The possibilities and limits of renewable energy (2015, background): “Multiple and quite divergent versions of such a fix have been proposed by a wide variety of authors and actors (see, e.g. Block, 2010; see Bina, 2013 for citations and a review), and to be sure some call for far deeper changes than others.”
Green growth or degrowth? Assessing the normative justifications for environmental sustainability and economic growth through critical social theory (2019, background): “Green growth does not require substantial changes in consumption patterns and levels (Bina, 2013) but mainly relies on technological innovations, such as electric cars or improved production processes that, for instance, use less water to reduce the use of natural resources.”
Building a green economy? Sustainability transitions in the UK building sector (2015, background): “For the most part, more radical conceptualisations of what might constitute a ‘green economy’ remain marginal (Bina, 2013).”
Future green economies and regional development: a research agenda (2017, neutral): “…green economies often emerges as a thinly veiled version of business as usual, rather than a radical shift to a more sustainable economy where social and environmental aspects have parity with economic aspects, epitomizing a process of paradigm fixing rather than paradigm shifting (Bina, 2013).”