The phrase “Green Economy” was first mentioned in ‘Green Economy Blue Book’ by the British economist Pierre published in 1989. Green Economy promotes economic growth, instead of blocking it in the name of protecting the environment. It advocates changing extensive economic growth with the features of big investment, huge consumption, and serious pollution into intensive economic growth with the features of high efficiency, less resource-consuming, and less waste discharging and calls for harmony between economic and social growth and the proper load that nature can bear. As a new economic model aiming at harmonious development of economy and environment, Green Economy can fully satisfy the requirements of the scientific outlook on development of harmony and people first with energy saving and environmental protection as its goal.
Green economy/green growth is a new terminology for what has been known for 40 years as ecological modernisation, however with its focus on efficiency and innovation it cannot guarantee to fulfil the Brundtland sustainability criteria. A factor analysis based on the I ¼ P*A*T formula demonstrates how optimistic the assumptions regarding future technologies must be to support the green growth concept. Consequently, the authors pledge for a pragmatic, risk avoiding approach by slimming the physical size of the economy. This requires ‘strong sustainable consumption’ (including production as resource consumption), which in turn requires a change of the societies’ institutional settings (formal and informal, mechanisms and orientations). Finally some elements of a strategy towards this end are pointed out, with special emphasis on the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Through networking and advocacy they can both stimulate bottom-up action and mobilise the pressure necessary for the institutional changes which are needed to mainstream strong sustainable consumption.