Industry

Did the agreements that came out of the December 2015 COP 21 in Paris really hold any meaningful weight? A few weeks later, now that the dust has settled, it is time to critically assess what came out of the climate agreement and what it will mean for countries, civil society and the planet.

The welfare state is no longer affordable, we are told from all sides – neither in the Netherlands, nor in Europe as a whole. Cuts must be made in the social services, the argument runs, to rescue the economy. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Here is a green vision.

Government procurement has long been used to help further public policy goals and European countries such as Italy and France are willing to still use it today to support renewable industries. However, at the European level something quite different is afoot that threatens the ability of procurement to be used to develop industry.

A debate between Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and Reinhard Bütikofer, MEP and co-chair of the European Green Party.

The Green Industrial Revolution is clearly a positive and inspiring story, but there is room for doubting the ability of green technologies to stimulate a new wave of growth comparable to the industrial revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Today’s mainstream economic debate around investment vs. austerity is failing, but a truly comprehensive Green New Deal could offer the alternative. The right support from the EU and national governments could encourage different structures of business ownership, focused on sustainability and social ownership that will help the transition to a truly sustainable economy.

Greening industry is crucial to our ability to combat climate change and maintain a prosperous society. But to achieve this, we need a whole new relationship with the environment.

The German Greens won the premiership of the German land (region) of Baden-Württemberg in 2011, giving them a unique opportunity to implement green policies across a range of areas. For food and agriculture, this meant an ambitious strategy based on high ecological quality standards, versus the industrialisation of our natural resources.

On March 13th the European Parliament (EP), now co-legislator on agricultural and budgetary issues, adopted its position on redesigning the CAP. A period of intense negotiations opens-up between the Council of the EU and the EP. But the complete shift of the CAP towards an ecological transformation of agriculture is now very unlikely to take place. This will not prevent the Greens and other progressive actors to continue to prepare this transition. If the CAP can’t change, can we?

The growth-degrowth debate is a non-issue that hampers a fundamental discussion on the reasons underlying the wish for (or against) economic growth.