The notion of green growth emerged in 2009. Since then, policy makers and practitioners have largely adopted the term. Although rather intermittently, there have been academic observations on green growth, with the term often being cited as a paradigm and a policy guide for generating new sources of growth. The most important reasons for the surge in green growth today as a new trend and an international agenda item are the rather unsatisfactory results and pitfalls of sustainable development, which has failed at promoting a tangible international environmental principle or a concrete policy framework. Green growth has been proposed as an alternative simultaneously to foster the dynamics of global environmental governance and to reinvigorate the world economy. This study examines to what extent green growth plays a complementary role in existing global environmental governance. Available evidence provides reasonable grounds for arguing that a positive outcome may well be expected from the evolution of green growth architecture and followed by practical policies. It became a global agenda out of a few influential national governments’ control.
Due to high carbon emission in production and low carbon emission in consumption, China is facing a severe test in economic development and carbon emission control. If the model of western developed countries is followed, it is likely that China will take the old road of high consumption and high emission while enhancing economic growth and living standard substantially. Therefore, a complete and systematic low carbon development pattern is very important to China. The core tenet of low carbon society is to coordinate the conflict between development and carbon emission reduction target. However, it does not emphasize only on the change of economic model but tries to create a completely new form of human society development through overall transformation of social mechanism, institutional design, regional planning and life style.
Many economists and policy makers advocate a fundamental shift towards “green growth” as the new, qualitatively-different growth paradigm, based on enhanced material/resource/energy efficiency and drastic changes in the energy mix. “Green growth” may work well in creating new growth impulses with reduced environmental load and facilitating related technological and structural change. But can it also mitigate climate change at the required scale (i.e. significant, absolute and permanent decline of GHG emissions at global level) and pace? This paper argues that growth, technological, population-expansion and governance constraints as well as some key systemic issues cast a very long shadow on the “green growth” hopes. One should not deceive oneself into believing that such evolutionary (and often reductionist) approach will be sufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change. It may rather give much false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental that can bring about a U-turn of global GHG emissions.