Climate Change

The green economy is being put forward as a model to solve ecological and economic crises. But can it really deliver? 

An interview with the Co-President of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung on rethinking the concept of growth.

The United Nations has declared 2015 to be the International Year of Soils, and April 19-23 marks this year’s Global Soil Week. Such events, though not exactly glamorous, do not receive nearly the amount of attention they deserve. Intact soils are an invaluable and irreplaceable resource, one that performs myriad functions in achieving the international community’s main development and environmental goals. And now they are in urgent need of protection.  

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals, to be established in 2015, will seek to protect ecosystems, conserve resources, and lift millions of people out of poverty. Unfortunately, the Sustainable Development Goals negotiations reflect the relatively little that is currently possible in a multilateral framework  

As rate of emissions grows at alarming rates, a future of dangerous climate conditions is looming, Nevertheless, too often proposed “solutions” are designed on wishful thinking, political agendas, or unfeasible technologies, rather than addressing climate change root causes. “net-zero emissions”, one of the latest faulty “solutions”, suggests that the world can continue producing emissions as long as there is a way to offset them.

In the wake of declining political will for environmental protection, many in the environmental community are advocating for the monetization of nature. Some argue that monetization, by revealing the economic contribution of nature and its services, can heighten public awareness and bolster conservation efforts. Others go beyond such broad conceptual calculations and seek to establish tradable prices for ecosystem services, claiming that markets can achieve what politics has not. However, such an approach collapses nature’s complex functions into a set of commodities stripped from their social, cultural, and ecological context and can pose a threat to the poor and indigenous communities who depend on the land for their livelihood. Although the path from valuation to commodification is not inevitable, it is indeed a slippery slope. Avoiding this pitfall requires a reaffirmation of the precautionary principle and a commitment to democratic decision-making and social justice as the foundations of a sound environmental policy for the twenty-first century.

The bioeconomy above all focuses on technological innovation to make better use of available resources. In principle, this is not a bad idea, says Barbara Unmüßig. The question though is for the benefit of whom and at whose expense these innovations are implemented, and also what the undesirable side-effects are like. This is a plea against focusing on growth.