Tracing Sustainability Transformations and Drivers of Green Economy Approaches in the Global South

• Author: Linda Wallbott,Markus Lederer,Steffen Bauer
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1070496517747661
• Subject Matter: Introduction

Introduction

Tracing Sustainability

Transformations and

Drivers of Green

Economy Approaches

in the Global South

Markus Lederer

1

, Linda Wallbott

1

, and

Steffen Bauer

2

Abstract

This article provides the introduction to a special issue on Green Economies in the

Global South, that sheds light on the causes, complexities, consequences, and differ-

ent practices of state engagement regarding national-level transitions from business

as usual toward integrated economic, ecological, and social policies. Empirically, the

special issue comprises four additional papers that open the black box of the state

with a focus on state-society relations and the management of trade-offs in the fields

of energy and land use politics in developing countries. This introduction guides these

country cases with an analytical outline that builds on two specific sets of research

questions: (a) Which change agents do have an impact on national politics, and why?

What is the particular role of the state in developing and implementing Green

Economy policies? (b) Which trade-offs and tensions occur between and within

the economic, ecological, and social dimensions of a Green Economy approach?

How are they addressed, by whom, and with which consequences?

Keywords

green economy, sustainable development, green state, state–society relations,

transformation, energy policy, land use policy

Journal of Environment & Development

2018, Vol. 27(1) 3–25

!The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496517747661

journals.sagepub.com/home/jed

1

Technische Universita

¨t Darmstadt, Germany

2

German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut fu¨r Entwicklungspolitik, Bonn, Germany

Corresponding Author:

Steffen Bauer, German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut fu¨r Entwicklungspolitik, Tulpenfeld 6,

Bonn 53113, Germany.

Email: steffen.bauer@die-gdi.de

Introduction

In a time of growing awareness for the ecological boundaries of global develop-

ment, anthropogenic climate change, and increasinginequalities across and within

societies, the quest for a global transformation toward sustainable development

(SD) has become a universal challenge.

1

This special issue addresses the causes,

complexities,consequences, andpractices of state engagement regardingtransitions

from business as usual towardintegrated economic, ecological, andsocial policies.

Empirically, it analyzes developments in countries of the Global South with indi-

vidual contributions opening the black box of the state. More specif‌ically, the issue

focuses on state–society relations in advancing a Green Economy (GE), particu-

larly through initial changes in the f‌ields of energy and land use, as well as on the

management of resulting inter- and intrasectoral trade-of‌fs.

The international community has relied on the concept of SD since the early

1990s with the aim to integrate economic, social, and environmental concerns.

Thus, natural resources and ecosystem services should be protected alongside

poverty reduction and the advancement of inter- and intragenerational equity.

However, this paradigm was challenged when, in the run-up to the Rio + 20

conference in 2012, the notion of a GE gained prominence (see also Fiorino,

2017)—especially but not only with industrialized countries—to guide poten-

tially transformative action at the intersection of environmental, economic,

and social politics.

The idea of a GE originally goes back to the publication ‘‘Blueprint for a

Green Economy’’ (Pearce, Markandya, & Barbier, 1989). It has since been

revisited by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and others

in response to the global f‌inancial crisis of 2007/2008, hence shaping the discus-

sions leading toward Rio + 20 (Gasparatos & Stevens, 2015, p. 9). According to

UNEP (2011), a GE can be understood as an economy, ‘‘that results ‘in

improved human well-being and social equity, while signif‌icantly reducing envir-

onmental risks and ecological scarcities’ [...] In its simplest expression, a GE is

low carbon, resource ef‌f‌icient, and socially inclusive’’ (p. 10). With the GE

concept featuring prominently, albeit ‘‘in the context of sustainable development

and poverty eradication,’’ in the of‌f‌icial outcome declaration of the Summit

(‘‘The Future We Want’’; United Nations [UN], 2012), the question arises

whether it could indeed evolve into a new paradigm to guide also action in

environmental and development discourses (Brand, 2012b, p. 29; see also

Cle

´menc¸ on, 2012).

GE shares with SD the emphasis on the triangle approach to relating social,

economic, and environmental politics. But it dif‌fers in that GE emphasizes an

ef‌f‌icient, functioning economy as a precondition for achieving progress and is, in

this context, also characterized by an optimist stance concerning the potential of

technological innovation and market instruments to green economic sectors

(Gasparatos & Stevens, 2015, p. 10; Bina, 2013; see also Pegels, Lu

¨tkenhorst,

4Journal of Environment & Development 27(1)