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Governance for Green Growth?

Neil Gunningham

Climate and Environmental Governance Network

Australian National University

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What is green growth?

"environmentally sustainable economic progress to foster lowcarbon, socially inclusive (UNESCAP)

an emphasis on the economic benefits of green alternatives toconventional growth models: Maximise economic output, while minimisingecological burden

less emphasis on the social (poverty reduction) than underSustainable Development?

Emphasis on- promoting sustainable consumption and production;

- greening the market and business;

- renewable energy supporting further economic growth

- developing sustainable infrastructure; green tax and budget reforms.

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How did it gain traction?

promoted by various international organizations:UNESCAP, UNEP, OECD,

a reframing of SD with a reassuring economic

emphasis For the developing world, growth-biased green

discourse proposed to escape from poverty,

For developed world, the global recession is driving

green growth discourse GG as part of stimuluspackages following GFC

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Green Growth at the national level: South Korea

"growth achieved by saving and using energy and resources

efficiently

securing new growth engines through research and development of

green technology, creating new job opportunities,

achieving harmony between the economy and environment

towards a service based economy,

- economic growth with minimal energy use.

- reducing environmental impact of that energy supply- R&D into green technologies to achieve international

prominence.

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Critiques

fundamental assumption that grown is desirable or even

possible

Does Green Growth necessarily address resource scarcity and

over-consumption might it exacerbate them?

But the aim is not increased consumption but

- creation of new jobs in sustainable energy fields to replace lost

jobs from traditional fossil fuel sectors ,

- to increase living standards, including health, education and

freedoms.

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Ecological Modernisation

ecologically sound capitalism is not only possible, but worthworking towards.

strategies such as eco-efficiency can simultaneously increaseefficiency and minimise pollution and waste

ecological modernization will enable a dissolution of the

conflict between economic progress and responsibleenvironmental management

such an outcome requires government regulation in particularwill need to.

governments role includes:

- nudging firms towards cleaner production,- promote innovation in environmental technology

- Raising environmental awareness and

- providing financial incentives for cleaner production

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Governance of Green Growth

How can the transition to a green growth economy be

achieved?

What roles can governments and other actors play?

Is there a need for international coordination and if so

how?

these are questions of regulation and governance,

concerned with societal steering.

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Green Growth Governance Globally

norm development Stern: green growth as a way to overcome the two defining

and interconnected challenges of our century climate changeand poverty.

Climate change is largely the result of our dependence onfossil fuels and the poverty of 1.5 billion people is exacerbatedby a lack of access to electricity.

Key is investments in energy infrastructure + renewables

What is needed, is radical and co-ordinatedpolicy actionacross all regions. (eg technology development and transfer,intellectual pty regime etc)- an energy revolution.

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UNEP and the Green New Deal

2010 UNEP book "A Global Green New Deal" took the

Green New Deal concept global,

identified global governance as a priority area forinternational action

UNEP advocated for the G20 to be the main global

policy forum to promote global green growth.

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G 20: 2010 Communique

In 2010, under the leadership of South Korea, G20 focus onGreen Growth and environmental issues.

Committed to support country-led green growth policies thatpromote environmentally sustainable global growth,employment creation and energy access for the poor.

Recognised sustainable green growth is inherently a part ofsustainable development, enabling countries to leapfrog oldtechnologies

Committed to take steps to create enabling environmentsconducive to development and deployment of energy efficiency

and clean energy technologies, including technical transfer andcapacity building.

the G20 can facilitate international allocation of aid andmultilateral funding to support the Global Green New Deal.

In 2011 however, France led G20 and green growth and

environmental concerns were sidelined.

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OECD

2009 Declaration on Green Growth at the Meeting of the Councilat Ministerial Level

encouraged domestic policy reform and advocated "closecoordination of green growth measures with labour market andhuman capital formation policies"

towards an actionable policy framework- cross-country comparisons of effective policies, international

benchmarking,

- examples of leading countries and

- performance indicators to help governments overcome political economyconcerns.

- offer a Toolkit with concrete policy recommendations and actions".

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The role of different indicators to guide growth?

what we measure shapes what we collectively strive to pursue

Need to distinguish between an assessment of current well-

being and an assessment of sustainability

an increasing gap between the information contained in

aggregate GDP data and what counts for peoples well-being

need to determine how to re-frame growth beyond GDP in a way

that shifts emphasis from measuring economic production to

measuring peoples well-being

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At Domestic Level:

An effective Green New Deal approach will require a legislative framework backed upby price signals adequate to accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy

green growth fiscal reform, where taxes and charges would be increased on thingsthat are bad, for example resource use and pollution, and reduced on things that

are good, for example employing labour. signals should include rising carbon taxes and a price for traded carbon that is high

enough to cause a dramatic drop in carbon emissions.

traditional energy-saving measures such as insulation through to large-scalecombined heat and power.

greatly accelerated uptake of renewable technology (requiring substantial market-enablement support from the government)

But for developing countries- Difficulties in monitoring environmental performance, collecting green taxes or setting up new

markets

- Reform difficult in countries with large informal economy areas and/or weak capacity inenvironmental policy design or implementation

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neo-Keynesian and neo-liberal perspectives

How far is it legitimate for the state to intervene?

in UK the Green New Deal is underwritten with the conclusion that markets failed andcaused the current financial situation and thus laissez faire theories are flawed.

- the financial crunch: strict regulation of the financial sector;

- the climate crunch: funding infrastructure development of green sector by raising taxes.

- the coming global energy crunch: investment in infrastructure projects and training.

Neo-Keynesian approaches to stimulus spending, with investments in infrastructureand training programs to increase employment and generate business opportunities.

Initially government intervention is required to begin investment in Green areas,once underway however, private investors will realize the economic benefit of themand invest themselves.

green growth in the private sector: Corporate Social Responsibility; public-privatepartnerships etc

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Scope for GG in context of globalization, liberalization and free trade?

Pressure for short term profits vs long term investment

but large capital investments are needed to push towards

breakthrough technologies

Need for government intervention and international

coordination

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Whats new about green growth governance?

How much is it simply a re-badging of sustainabledevelopment?

How much is GG rhetoric rather than action? The case

of South Korea How much is green growth governance or regulation a

repackaging of existing strategies?

Is GG just ecological modernisation by another name?