This review asks two questions: first, how have the public and policy debates over green growth evolved; and second, does academic research on economic and climate policy support the claims and assumptions made in these debates, and with what consequences for the green growth hypothesis? As the authors make clear, careful scrutiny of the most popular proposals for “green growth” suggests that they may well succeed at reconciling economic growth and emissions reduction. But it’s by no means clear that they offer general proposals for using the transition to a low-carbon economy to generate growth directly.
The authors conclude the review by noting the dissonance between the green growth discussion and the scale of the emissions challenge itself. Throughout the green growth discussion, almost no mention is made of how the chan¬ges required to achieve emissions reduction might catalyze growth in the broader economy. Significant emissions reductions will require the transformation of today’s high-emissions, low-efficiency energy systems. That transformation will require parallel and complementary changes to the markets, technologies, and regulatory structures that dictate how economies produce, distribute, and use energy. In its scale and scope, this transformation - of the electricity network in particular—bears some resemblance to earlier periods of network transformation, such as rail transport or information technology. As section 5 shows, those transformations, far from being a cost, fundamentally altered what was possible for the economy as a whole. Instead, they drove waves of growth by creating a platform on which the broader eco¬nomy could build new innovations, business models, and modes of value creation. To replicate these earlier successes, green growth, if it is to deliver on its promises, must go beyond a short-term focus on jobs or investment. Instead, it must put more emphasis on how to structure the low-emissions energy systems transformation to enable the entire economy to discover that transformation’s potential to alter and expand the possibilities for value creation and growth. Green growth, therefore, must consider how the greening of the energy sector can become the growth engine for the entire economy.