ABSTRACT
The green economy has gained prominence in recent decades. This chapter examines aspects of the green economy discourse and practice in order to assess its transformational potential. Most green economy conceptualisations emphasise the importance of better integrating the value of ecosystem services into decision-making, giving a special role to financially driven markets and the private sector (a critical issue covered in Chapter 8). They also assume a need for continuous economic growth, supported by decoupling environmental impacts from economic activity. This latter key assumption lacks strong empirical support. A number of indicators have been developed to evaluate the progress towards green economy goals. However, although these are a step in the right direction, they do not provide a measure of the aggregate impact of economic activity on the environment. As regards green investment, socially responsible investment (SRI) has grown considerably in recent decades. Despite this apparent progress, corporations and institutional investors have a narrow focus on maximising financial returns, which may hinder long-term sustainability goals. Given the scale of current sustainability challenges, we conclude that the green economy is not sufficiently transformational in that it fails to recognise limits to economic growth and excludes strong sustainability approaches. We propose four policy areas that could jumpstart the process of green innovation that is required for a more sustainable societal path.
