Page 12 - Environmental_Green Technologies

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Chapter 2 Strategic Alternatives

for Green Future

2.1 Green Growth

Nowadays, our society is facing two main challenges:

• The need of expansion of the economic opportunities for everyone;
• The environmental pressure and need for change toward sustainable ways of life.

Green growth is the one that connects both in order to meet the challenges and allows the exploitation of
possible opportunities to face both challenges. Green growth is the combination of economic growth and
development while considering environmental issues, ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the
resources. It provides a different approach for sustainable development, in order to achieve concrete and
measurable progress across environmental and economic pillars. By focusing and developing green growth
strategies added to the canalisation of innovation and innovation, it is possible to promote an economic
development on sustainable basis.

The Green Growth initiative appeared in 2010, developed by the OECD and officially launched in 2011. The
OECD described this initiative as a promotion of economic growth while making sure natural resources
remain at a high level, with the required quality and quantity. The Green Growth initiative was highly
connected to green economy, as it was also devoted to stimulating investment, competition and
innovation that support sustainable growth and result in new economic opportunities.

Green Growth is fed on a series of sources and channels that can facilitate the effective impact it can have
when addressing environmental challenges:

- Incentivate the productivity through a more efficient use of resources, while reducing waste and energy
consumption.
- Encourage innovation, allowing the appearance of new job opportunities.
- New markets creation through the increased demand for green technologies.
- Boosting the confidence of investors by ensuring a higher stability regarding the environmental issues.
- Promote stability with balanced macroeconomic conditions that recude the volatility of resource prices
and support fiscal consolidation.

When Green Growth Strategy was presented by the OECD, it also included a series of next steps planned
to promote a national growth of the government policies regarding green strategies. It is expected by the
OECD to collaborate with other international organisations (such as the UN, the World Bank or the Global
Green Growth Institute), as well as with relevant stakeholders, in facilitating an exchange of experience
and best practices that promotes a growth in all countries based on green strategies. (OECD, 2011)