Environmental Justice and the Green Economy- Risks and Opportunities

The last decade of environmental advocacy has been characterized by the application of economic principles to environmental challenges, resulting in an interest in using economic instruments to internalize environmental costs in decision-making and reflected in the growing use of concepts such as environmental valuation and resource productivity in policy choices. While many view this greater connection between economic principles and environmental decision-making as key to achieving sustainable development (eg. Keohane & Olmstead, 2007), others fear that the focus on the green economy may undermine goals of social equity and environmental justice (eg. Dobson, 1998; Langhelle, 2000; Hoedeman, 2012). This paper explores the implications of the transition to a green economy for social and environmental justice. It will identify some of the challenges inherent in reconciling a green economy approach with socio-environmental justice as well as some of the opportunities that green economic approaches present. The paper argues that the transition to a green economy is critical to sustainable development, but that it must be done in the context of binding principles that (1) assign responsibility, and create accountability, for how decisions impact upon people and the environment, (2) support the human right to a healthy environment and an equitable and just society; and (3) commit to developing policies – whether green economic approaches or otherwise - in a democratic and transparent fashion. List of References: Andrew Dobson, Justice and the Environment: Conceptions of Environmental Sustainability and Theories of Distributive Justice (Oxford University Press, 1999). Olivier Hoedeman, Transnational institute “Rio+20 and the greenwashing of the global economy”, (January 2012), online: http://rio20.net/en/documentos/rio20-and-the-greenwashing-of-the-global-economy. Nathaniel Keohane & Sheila Olmstead, Markets and the Environment (Island Press, 2007). Oluf Langhelle, “Sustainable Development and Social Justice: Expanding the Rawlsian Framework of Global Justice” (2000) Vol. 9, No. 3 Environmental Values 295