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Introduction: Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing back the ‘social’

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Abstract

Any transition to a sustainable and equitable ‘green economy’ will require restructuring patterns of production, consumption and distribution and finding innovative development ‘alternatives’ to achieve justice on a global scale. Social dimensions – including social and distributive policies, social relationships and institutions, and the ability of all groups to participate in or contest policy choices – will be critical in driving this transformation. However, these dimensions have consistently received least attention in the triad of issues that define sustainable development.

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Notes

  1. Sustainable development was defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) as development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.

  2. ‘Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing back the social dimensions’, Geneva, 10–11 October 2011. See http://www.unrisd.org/greeneconomy.

  3. http://www.srfood.org/, accessed 2 December 2001.

  4. http://www.climate-justice-now.org/category/cop-17-durban/, accessed 9 December 2011.

References

  • Brand, Ulrich, Nicola Bullard, Edgardo Lander and Tadzio Mueller (eds.) (2009) ‘Introduction’, in Critical Currents: Contours of climate justice, ideas for shaping new climate and energy politics, No 6, Uppsala: Dag Hammerskjold Foundation.

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  • OECD (2010) Interim Report of the Green Growth Strategy: Implementing our commitment for a sustainable future, Paris: OECD.

  • United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) (2010) Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural change, social policy and politics, Geneva: UNRISD.

  • World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Authors
  1. Sarah Cook
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  2. Kiah Smith
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Additional information

Illustrates why the core development goals of poverty reduction, equity and justice require a rebalancing of ecological, economic and social dimensions

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Cook, S., Smith, K. Introduction: Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing back the ‘social’. Development 55, 5–9 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.120

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2011.120

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