GREEN GROWTH

GREEN GROWTH

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BLUE GROWTH IS GREEN GROWTH - A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But this map of air pollution levels tells us that the air we are breathing is pretty disgusting, with India and China right up their with Africa. Check out carbon monoxide as a gas that kills humans. The countries with black circles need to clean up their act, because lung cancer kills around 8 million people a year.

'Green Growth' is another name for 'Blue Growth.' They both mean fostering economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies.

To do this countries must catalyse investment and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities. But they must realise, that their present course of action is un-sustainable, and de-couple from the economic strategies that have caused the problem.

Improvements in efficiency can only stave off the inevitable for so long, buying politicians, who are dyed in the wool climate criminals, a few more years in power.

Change of course, means tightening your belts, not going beyond the abilities of the planet to repair and sustain life. We have already exceeded those limits many times over. Politicians will not like to hear this, because they like to promise a good time, as the ruse to get themselves elected. If a candidate tells it like it is, they will not become president or prime minister because the voting public, en-masse, are gullible, not armed with the facts, and liable to believe fake news.

For example, Boris Johnson, used 'Brexit' as a battering ram to sway his own party members, and British voters, to elect him Prime Minister, but the figures upon which he mounted his election campaign have since been disproved. He had to be able to lie effectively to achieve this, even deceiving Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as to suspending (the famous unlawful prorogue of) parliament. Itself, a fake (false) move to help him get elected. Mr Johnson also promised green growth, cheap energy, electric cars, and more. But failed to deliver on such promises, using green growth more as greenwashing blah, blah, blah. As Greta Thunberg would say.

GERIATRIC UNDERTAKER - Companies that pay politicians to lobby for them, to continue with fossil fuels and impede the introduction of electric vehicles and green hydrogen, or other sustainable fuels, should be prosecuted for human rights violations.

OECD DECLARATION ON GREEN GROWTH

There are now 47 Adherents to the 2009 OECD Declaration on Green Growth. Romania has joined Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, as well as OECD members in having adhered to the Declaration. Latest reports are now available on Brazil, New Zealand, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Korea, Latvia and Zambia.

In May 2011, the OECD delivered its Green Growth Strategy to Heads of State and Ministers from over forty countries, who (apparently) welcomed it as a useful tool for expanding economic growth and job creation through more sustainable use of natural resources, efficiencies in the use of energy, and valuation of ecosystem services. The Strategy responds to a request from Ministers of the 34 countries who signed the Green Growth Declaration in 2009, committing to strengthen their efforts to pursue green growth strategies as part of their response to the economic crisis and beyond.

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

Several countries and international organizations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Bank, and United Nations, have 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 do not fully account for the underlying economic systems change needed in order to address the climate crisis, biodiversity crisis and other environmental degradation. Critics point instead to alternative solutions such as a circular economy, degrowth, doughnut economics or similar fundamental changes which better account for planetary boundaries.

Green growth and related concepts 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 development can continue while associated negative impacts on the environment, including climate change, are reduced – or while the natural environment continues to provide ecosystem services –, meaning that a decoupling takes place.

On the subject of decoupling, a distinction is made 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 use or emissions occurs, while the economy grows.

Further distinctions are made 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, biodiversity loss), only the domestic level or also impacts along the global value chain, the entire economy or individual sectors (e.g. energy, agriculture), temporary vs. permanent decoupling, or decoupling to reach certain targets (e.g. limiting global warming to 1.5 °C or staying within planetary boundaries).

EMPLOYMENT

The report "Growth Within: A Circular Economy Vision for a Competitive Europe" predicts that there are many opportunities in recycling, producing longer-lasting products and offering maintenance services from the manufacturer.

According to the International Labour Organization, a shift to a greener economy could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030, if the right policies are put in place. Also, if a transition to a green economy were not to take place, 72 million full-time jobs may be lost by 2030 due to heat stress, and the temperature increases will lead to shorter available work hours, particularly in agriculture.

According to a 2020 report by the Green Alliance the job-creation schemes with the best value for money in the UK are: retrofitting buildings and creating cycle lanes; followed by electric ferries, battery factories and reforestation; and that these would create more jobs than proposed road-building schemes. They also say that new investment in nature recovery could quickly create 10,000 new jobs.

LUNG CANCER - Fumes and particulates from car exhausts kills us slowly when we burn it and release the carcinogens into the atmosphere to create smogs. Electric vehicles don't have exhaust pipes and dedicated smart service stations can be used to load level between solar and wind generated, distributed electricity.

THE OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that claims to work to build better policies for better lives. Their stated goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all, drawing on 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.

This is a bone of contention, because it is the present policies that are not working, that must change. The OECD have not been able to influence politicians to action, more blah, blah, blah and greenwashing, than actual strategy development, while sitting on your hands.

That said, with all that sixty years behind them, we are still accelerating to the climate change precipice, from where there may be an extremely difficult return, that could exceed human life on earth. That may sound drastic, but look at what we are doing to the earth. Islands are being flooded, the ice caps melting and deserts are expanding causing mass migration, human suffering and death. Let's tell it like it is!

Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, the OECD work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion. Though with taxes in the hands of the likes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, what good it that? You are just adding more coals to the fire.

They claim to provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.oecd.org/greengrowth/greengrowthincountriesandterritories.htm

https://www.oecd.org/greengrowth/

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