September 2011 newsletter
Contents
With the launch of our new website, which we invite you to use as an open platform for discussion, debate and knowledge-sharing on a green economy, my role now shifts to convening the debate.
I would like to do this by inviting you to challenge and contribute to our evolving big picture narrative and our policy creation. We have not got all the answers and it is only by working in an ever expanding social movement that we can create the scale of transformation necessary to build a fairer, safer and greener world.
A quick snapshot of events around world for me only confirms the deep flaws of our current economic model. We are faced with debt, low growth and looming economic crises. The USA has now been downgraded; European countries teeter on the edge of debt default; and low economic growth, high debt ratios, rising unemployment and social unrest proliferate.
Last month in the UK we saw an unprecedented level of social unrest on our city streets. Is this the product of a disaffected youth with few employment prospects, or yet another symptom of warped consumerism? These vivid pictures are set to a backdrop of the Murdoch media empire bullying politicians and bribing the police; politicians stealing from the public through false expense claims and bankers pocketing millions as their institutions plunge us into economic turmoil.
All of these events have resulted in prosecutions, albeit with one major exception. Those who caused the financial 'crisis' have been let off the hook. Are we to believe that there were not prosecutions in the finance sector because no laws were broken? The absence of law in finance suggests that it is in the City, not the ghettos, that our legal institutions most fear to tread.
When I look around I see a moral crisis; a crisis of leadership, and a crisis of responsibility. 'Grab what you can' could be the phrase that runs across all of these events.
Difficulties will continue. Commodity and energy prices are on an inexorable rise as demand grows and supply falls. Economies risk stagnating, pushing more into poverty and making us all feel more insecure. Then there is the growing cloud of climate change with its increasingly visible consequences.
Against this rather bleak picture, the Green Economy offers an alternative vision. It is one that is illuminated by rational thought and the principle of fairness.
Rational thought is guided by science. It tells us we must do a much better job of looking after the natural world. Fairness is a principle of a civilised society and the evidence tells us that inequality is growing with negative consequences for all.
So a green economy should be created to deliver prosperity for all within one planet limits.
The policies that support this transition are in development, and we in the coalition welcome others to join us in making them better and to bring them to life. The green economy coalition is growing and we are taking action for a fairer, safer and greener world.
You are invited to help and to invite others to join in. Please do visit our new website. Thank you
Oliver Greenfield
Convenor
Green Economy Coalition
Rio 2012 – opening up the debate
If you are at the UNDPI Conference in Bonn next week please do join us for our side event. The event is focused on the role of a green economy in the context of poverty eradication, a central theme our own work.
Oliver will be joined by other coalition members Sheng Fulai, Head, Research and Partnerships Unit, Economics and Trade Branch, UNEP; Lora Verheecke, Policy Assistant, OHS-Environment-Sustainable Development, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Aron Belinky, International Processes Coordinator, Vitae Civilis Institute, Brazil. They will be tackling some key questions on the role of a green economy to developing countries:
- In what ways might a green economy contribute to enhancing human wellbeing?
- What does a green economy mean for developing countries and the world's poorest communities?
- How might a green economy address ecological scarcities and environmental risks?
We would like to use this opportunity to introduce some of the GEC's policy thinking for Rio 2012. Our Bonn 4 pager highlights some early policy agreement within the coalition:
- Driving investment: Sustainable Public Procurement
- Generating new funds: Financial Transaction Tax (FTT)
- Accounting for the environment: quantifying the value that natural systems bring to our economies
- Redefining progress: beyond GDP
- Protecting the most vulnerable through the transition
- Holding corporations to account
- Catalysing a transformation in the poorest countries
These form the basis of ongoing policy work and we welcome your comments.
With less than two months until the submission of the Zero Draft text, both Bonn and our event offer a very good opportunity for some wide ranging discussion on the policy dimensions for accelerating a transition to a green economy.
So do join us if you can. For those unable to make the conference, we will provide a full update from the discussion in next month's newsletter.
On a different note, we also wanted to thank everyone who took the time to comment on our response to the EC's communication on a green economy. Your input has contributed to a much stronger draft. We will be working on it over the coming weeks and will circulate the final version in next month's newsletter.
Big picture
For us, the concept of a green economy is not one that has emerged from a void. It is founded on forty years of thinking and practice on sustainable development; and from the results of scientific investigation into the state of our ecosystems and biodiversity.
Part of our mission as a coalition is to contextualise a green economy within this much wider thinking and debate. We call this our big picture.
With the launch of our new website we're beginning to put together that big picture. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We need your comments, your suggestions and your analysis to start building up this bigger picture into layers of understanding. So, please do take a journey through the what, the why and the how of a green economy. If you disagree, if you've got something to add, then we want to hear from you.
As part of our big picture development we're building an online knowledge bank of practical ideas, analysis and suggestions for how to accelerate the transformation towards a more green and fair future.
There are two entries this month that we would like to draw your attention to.
The first, written by Tom Bigg (IIED), tackles the big question of how international governance can best help to support countries to transition to a green economy. With Rio 2012 firmly in all our sights, the question is certainly one that resonates amongst many of us. The article posits three elements that would support an effective transition to a green economy.
Do also check out Hazel Henderson's feature on the inadequacies of GDP as a measurement of progress and human welfare. The article surveys all of the indexes that have emerged in an attempt to redefine and revalue what matters. It notes that history is now on the side of OECD's Better Life Index as a set of indicators. We would like to get your input on whether the OECD's index is the most appropriate for measuring our collective welfare? What do you think? Do leave comments at the end of the article and join the debate.
In the know how section of our website we are building up a knowledge bank of ideas, suggestions and analysis on how we can accelerate the transition to a fairer and greener economy.
We are on the lookout for inspired thinking and innovative thinking. Get in touch if you would like to contribute a piece. We would love to showcase your ideas and inspire debate.
Coalition updates
Our next global meeting will be in London on the 14 -16 November. Places are limited and will be prioritised for those individuals and organisations who are contributing to our shared work. Please respond to Kate Lines kate.lines@iied.org if you would like to attend.
Global updates
IISD's Global Subsidies Initiative has just launched a campaign focused on fossil fuel subsidies [PDF] for Rio 2012. The campaign aims to generate a commitment from all Member States to 1) sign a voluntary commitment to phase out fossil fuels that undermine sustainable development; 2) assist other countries phase out fossil-fuel subsidies that undermine sustainable development.
IISD will be gathering signatories for the initiative over the coming months. If your organisation would like to get behind the campaign contact: Kerryn Lang, klang@iisd.org, +41 22 917 8920.
GEC secretariat contact details
The GEC is supported by a secretariat hosted by IIED in London.
International Institute of Environment and Development, 80-86 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH
Oliver Greenfield, Convenor,
oliver.greenfield@greeneconomycoaltion.org
Emily Benson, Project Manager,
emily.benson@greeneconomycoalition.org
Kate Lines, IIED Partnerships Officer,
kate.lines@iied.org
