Green growth

Green growth is the term to describe a hypothetical path of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. this is the based on the understanding that as long as economic growth sustains a predominant goal, a decoupling of economic growth from resource ownership and adverse environmental impacts is required. As such, green growth is closely related to the image of green economy as well as low-carbon or sustainable development. A leading driver for green growth is the transition towards sustainable energy systems. Advocates of green growth policies argue that well-implemented green policies can take opportunities for employment in sectors such(a) as renewable energy, green agriculture, or sustainable forestry.

Several countries together with international organizations, such(a) as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and developing OECD, World Bank, together with United Nations, proceed to developed strategies on green growth; others, such as the Global Green Growth Institute GGGI, are specifically dedicated to the issue. The term green growth has been used to describe national or international strategies, for example as part of economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession, often framed as a green recovery.

Critics of green growth highlight how green growth approaches draw non fully account for the underlying economic systems modify needed in grouping to module of reference the climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and other environmental degradation. Critics portion instead to selection frameworks for economic change such as a circular economy, degrowth, doughnut economics or similar fundamental reorient which better account for planetary boundaries.

Terminology

Green growth and related conception stem from the observation that economic growth of the past 250 years has come largely at the expense of the environment upon which economic activities rely. The concept of green growth assumes that economic growth and coding can progress while associated negative impacts on the environment, including climate change, are reduced – or while the natural environment supports to afford ecosystem services –, meaning that a decoupling takes place.

On the target of decoupling, a distinction is introduced between relative and absolute decoupling: Relative decoupling occurs when environmental pressure still grows, but less so than the gross domestic product GDP. With absolute decoupling, an absolute reduction in resource usage or emissions occurs, while the economy grows.

Further distinctions are featured based on what is taken into account: decoupling economic growth from resource use resource decoupling or from environmental pressure impact decoupling, different indicators for economic growth and environmental pressures e.g. resource use, emissions, planetary boundaries.