Understanding theme 1 of the Rio+20: “A green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication”

Rio+20 marks the 20thanniversary of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio 1992) and the 25th anniversary of the Brundtland Report. Sustainable development has been the overarching goal of the international community since Rio 1992. However, two decades on, the world is far from realizing the vision of Rio. The upcoming UNCSD is therefore, an opportunity for world leaders to address the economic, social and environmental crisis gripping the world today. Theme 1 of the conference is as follows:
“A green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication”
The concept of green economy has moved into the mainstream of policy discussions, however, it is not a concept that enjoys widespread agreement and there is substantial ambiguity in its definition. The following definitions of green economy/ green growth exist in the literature:

“The green economy approach is an attempt to unite under one banner a broad suite of economic instruments relevant to sustainable development. (UNCSD, 2010)”

“A green economy is one that results in “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. (UNEP, 2011)”

“Green growth is environmentally sustainable economic progress to foster low-carbon, socially inclusive development. (UNESCAP )”

In a nutshell, the concept of green economy amalgamates several existing concepts such as durable economic activity, reduced environmental impact, sustained growth in high quality jobs and reduced poverty.However, it is not clear how the green economy approach adds value to the sustainable development paradigm. Discarding sustainable development without a proper understanding of what the green economy approach entails might stall the progress on sustainable development particularly in the developing world where the achievements have not been impressive on many dimensions of sustainable development.

The critiques of this concept imply that the social pillar of sustainable development receives inadequate attention and that the environmental protection agenda, which is dominant, could negatively impact economic growth. As such, recognising the different stages of development of nations and the differences in environmental endowments and challenges, each country would need to define its own strategy for achieving a ‘green economy, and identify both the opportunities, challenges and needs in doing so.

The green economy approach presumes a higher rate of growth, poverty alleviation and social equity. However, some of the difficult but important questions that need to be answered are: how the green economy approach would contribute to poverty alleviation and achievement of millennium development goals: what would be the impact on economic growth in developing countries; how to identify and deal with trade off; how to garner resources for the transition to a green economy; how to handle the transition from the present to the greener economy; what are the elements that should be incorporated in the green economy concept so that it adequately addresses the issues of poverty and equity?