In less than a decade, clean energy transitioned from novelty products to the mainstream of world energy markets. The sector emerged not so much in a linear fashion as episodic – in fits and starts associated with the worldwide economic downturn, continent-wide debt crises, national policy uncertainty, and intense industry competition. Through it all, however, the clean energy sector moved inexorably forward, with overall investment in 2012 five times greater than it was in 2004.
Although 2012 investment levels worldwide declined 11 per cent, to US$ 269 billion, the clean energy sector weathered the withdrawal of priority incentives and initiatives offered by governments in numerous key markets, demonstrating its resilience. Reliable clean energy investment data have been collected for nine years now. Looking at the data in three-year increments, average clean energy investment increased by at least US$ 90 billion triennially – from an average of US$ 64 billion in the 2004-06 period to an average of US$ 156 billion in 2007-09 and US$ 245 billion in 2010-12.
In the chapter “Competitiveness, Jobs, and Green Growth: A “Glocal” Model,” Geoffrey Lipman of Greenearth.travel and Victoria University Melbourne, with Terry Delacy and Paul Whitelaw of Victoria University Melbourne, present the conceptual and operational research led by the Victoria University Centre for Tourism and Services Research to create a system where destinations can identify optimum green growth development scenarios for Travel & Tourism, to sustainably build wealth and create jobs. The authors present a conceptual global framework for green growth and travelism and show how adjusting it to the local level allowed for a major strategic visioning effort (conducted in Bali Indonesia in 2012), which has resulted in the Green Growth 2050 Roadmap.
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.
This study represents a first attempt within Australia to explore the extent to which a green economy is emerging within different sectors of industry. Its emergence is underway within the energy sector (Newton and Newman, 2013); less so elsewhere. For the built environment sector, given its critical role in sustainable urban development, it is important to understand where the industries that constitute this sector are headed.
The survey on which this report is based probes senior managers in both private and public sector organisations in relation to:
- Perceptions of their current operating environment
- Corporate strategies
- Green business opportunities
- Areas where government can assist business in creating an environment conducive to low carbon green growth.