Sustainability

Now the economy has overshot key ecological limits, more sustainable social protection systems that do not depend on environmentally destructive forms of work must be found.

Are smart techno-managerial solutions the perfect alibi for resource extraction and inequality in our cities? We talked to author and academic Maria Kaika about the way that green technology so-called solutions are sometimes anything but, and can displace real action.

Could reforms on the horizon in Greece mean the end of environmental protection?

The European Union is far from perfect – from a Green perspective – yet at times when it is threatened, we must rally to its defence as an idea and as a project.

Bigger cities, more wealth and increasingly complex products demand more metallic ores. This is also true for the transition towards sustainable energy.

It is vital now to distinguish between the terms “sustainable development” and “degrowth”, as while one has lost meaning, another is more relevant than ever. Written before the start of COP21, this piece sets apart the two and highlights the importance of changing our view of what constitutes a healthy, climate-friendly economy.

The UN and EU, taken over by ‘corporate capture’, aren’t doing enough to tackle climate change. Non-governmental organisations are concentrating their efforts on fostering a broad movement that will go beyond Paris 2015, because if governments do fail to deliver, action to tackle climate change will remain essential.

What do the Greens think about the current fatigue with representative democracy?

In recent years, the volume of articles and books dedicated to the democratic crisis has been constantly expanding. The same is true of the literature addressing the ecological crisis. Yet a simultaneous reflection both on the ecological and on the democratic crisis has not accompanied this proliferation.

As Green Deputy Mayor of the 20th district of Paris from 2001 to 2014, Fabienne Giboudeaux, initiated an architectural complex of 47 social housing units, a gymnasium and a 600 m2 roof garden in one of the most densely populated district of Paris.