What Is Green Growth?

This chapter argues that the green economy concept may be influential both in policy framing and as a framework for guiding and carrying out economic and political change. The premise of green growth is that economic security and prosperity are possible within the limits of local, regional, and global ecosystems, but only if the composition of growth changes through new investments, policies, and technologies. Although its intellectual origins may be traced to the fields of ecological economics, business greening, and ecological modernization, the green growth concept gained visibility in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis. Three modifications in the concept would make it more acceptable and relevant for policy debates: rethinking the purpose of growth as well as how it is achieved; shedding more light on economic inequality and its ecological consequences; and emphasizing the intrinsic as well as the utilitarian value of ecological assets and services.