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INCLUSIVE GREEN GROWTH A WAY OUT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

Green growth is a pathway of sustainable development policy. It means the continued inclusive economic growth needed by developing countries to reduce poverty and improved environmental management needed to tackle resource scarcities and climate change Inclusive green growth requires growth that is efficient in its use of natural resources, minimizes pollution and environmental impacts, and inclusive for the population. This paper stresses that sustained growth is necessary to achieve the urgent development needs of the world’s poor and that there is substantial scope for growing cleaner without growing slower. Green growth is necessary, efficient, and affordable. Current growth patterns are not just unsustainable; they are also deeply inefficient. As a result, they stand in the way of sustainable development and its objectives of social, environmental and economic stability. This paper reveals that for inclusive green growth it is important to understand the political economy and social psychology. Moreover, it will require systemic adjustments to better link economic, environmental and social policies and institutions – as far as possible identifying synergies. The paper concludes that greening growth is neither unaffordable nor technically out of reach, rather inclusive green growth is good economics and good development policy. While we are still far from being able to price ecosystem services properly, they clearly are valuable. As such, neglecting natural capital, like neglecting human and physical capital, is simply bad management, bad economics, and bad for growth.

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