The global failure to develop in a sustainable manner has led to attempts to adopt green economy approaches in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Given South Africa’s high carbon footprint and other negative environmental externalities, the government, in partnership with civil society and the private sector, is taking steps to green its economy. The efforts range from large-scale solar installation projects to small-scale grassroots level projects where green jobs are created for the poor, predominantly women, by paying them for environmental services. This paper addresses if and how green economy can be used to alleviate poverty and protect the environment at a grassroots level. In a project under the management of a local environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGO), poor urban women in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, are utilising the concept to generate income, improve their livelihoods and contribute to environmental sustainability.
The paper investigates the current practices of the green economy, and challenges and opportunities in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The paper is based on a baseline study designed to gather data from key informants in Limpopo provincial, district and local municipalities. Twenty-three key informants in the province were interviewed. Primary data collected from key informants was supplemented by secondary data from document reviews. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data on the current practices of green economy, and challenges and opportunities in the province. Findings from the study suggest that there is generally significant awareness of the green economy concept across the provincial district and local municipalities in Limpopo Province. However, there are gaps in terms of information gathering, storage and sharing on green economy activities in the district municipalities, provincial and national departments.
Adaptation presents developing countries with the ultimate dual challenge – building a rapidly evolving, sustainable economy within an environment increasingly altered by the impacts of climate change. To meet this challenge, adaptation policy must find balance and create synergy between the two, as climate resilience and economic resilience go hand in hand.
Economic development is associated with structural change, including an evolving sector composition, the emergence of new comparative advantages and skills, and shifts in consumer demand as a result of rising incomes – all of which has implications for adaptation. Existing attempts to adapt developing economies to climate change have nonetheless ignored these economic dynamics. Current approaches to adaptation often seek to preserve current structures, for example by protecting agricultural output, which neither acknowledges nor takes advantage of the fact that the status quo is evolving.
If everyone lived the global middle class lifestyle of London or Shanghai it would require three planets to support us. And yet the average citizen of Bangladesh consumes the equivalent of just a third of a planet. What is needed is one planet living where people can live happy healthy lives within a fair share of the world’s resources having left sufficient space for wildlife and wilderness. Sustainable communities and businesses around the world show how one planet living is attractive and achievable. A simple approach and framework makes it easy to deliver it. This paper proposes that world leaders make a statement that recognises the planetary boundaries in a world with a large, growing human population and commit to take action through a multilateral framework to enable the world to define and deliver a safe operating space within the timeframe that science and morality deems necessary.
Three perspectives frame this challenge paper: 1) energy is at the very core of sustainable development, and not just a sector among others; 2) the combined challenges of inadequate access to energy among the world’s poor, the imperative to avoid climate catastrophe and the need to deal with rising and volatile energy prices require an unprecedented, fundamental transformation of the world’s energy system, and 3) that there are technological solutions that already exist that can effectively tackle these challenges over the course of 10-15 years.