Abstract
This paper reviews some theoretical and policy issues that underpin environment-economy interactions, for a preliminary reflection on a conceptual framework of Green economy. Concepts of transition and transversality serve as criteria to distinguish structural and dimensional issues. The former refer to structural processes towards a green economy, whereas the later refer to intertemporal society’s preferences behind the green growth process. Trade-offs between ecological, economic social and institutional constraints suggest that market -based policies should be mitigated through mix policies accounting for green capacities, that is the potential of green technologies for decoupling economic growth from environmental damage.
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Notes
- 1.
Writing (VP)’ = {V’(T)(eδT – 1) + δe‐δT[V(T) – c]}/(eδT – 1)2 = 0
- 2.
Note that Hardin (1968) is also a good reference point here. Though it focused on grazing, it constitutes a classical reference in relation to open access resources/unregulated commons
- 3.
See also Boulding’s (1966) and his striking analogy between the earth and a spaceship
- 4.
This departs from the golden rule of optimal exogenous growth with exogenous technical progress, which aims to maximize consumption in the long run, independently of intertemporal society’s preferences, and is the basic assumption for transitional dynamics (convergence towards a zero growth equilibrium) in neoclassical growth models with diminishing returns to the accumulation of man-made capital
- 5.
The report defines “Sustainable Development” as one “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
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Njomgang, C. (2019). Some Theoretical and Policy Issues in Green Economy. In: Ayuk, E., Unuigbe, N. (eds) New Frontiers in Natural Resources Management in Africa. Natural Resource Management and Policy, vol 53. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11857-0_2
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