The green economy is the economy where public and private investment capitalized on the growth of employment and income in such a way that builds a low carbon, resource-efficient, and socially inclusive economy. Altogether these economic activities, infrastructure, and properties usage aim to reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance the use of renewable energy efficiently, prevent loss of biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Though, green investments need more attention and support by targeting public expenditure, reforming policy, and changes in standard of taxation and regulation. Green economy generates a new focus on the economy where natural capital understands as a critical economic asset and the crucial source of public benefits, especially for poor people. The significant role of the green economy is to provide a macro-economic approach that enables sustainable economic growth predominantly focusing on green investment, green economic activities, infrastructure, and skills.

The main five principles of the green economy

The well-being principle

A green economy purposes to generate genuinely, shared prosperity, growing of wealth to support wellbeing, prioritizes investment and access to the sustainable natural systems, infrastructure, knowledge, and education, offers opportunities for green and decent livelihoods, enterprises, and jobs.

The justice principle

A green economy shares decision-making, women’s empowerment, equitable distribution of opportunity and outcome, provision of sufficient space for wildlife and wilderness. It aims to create wealth and resilience that serve the demands of future generations while tackling today’s multi-dimensional poverties and injustice. It will strengthen solidarity and social justice and support the rights of workers, indigenous minorities, and ensure sustainable livelihoods by enabling vulnerable groups to be agents of transition and innovation.

The planetary boundaries principle

 A green economy safeguards and restores nature to avoid loss of critical natural capital. In addition, it invests in protecting, growing, restoring, and conserving ecosystems, biodiversity, wetlands, landscapes, Waterbodies, and natural systems based on circularity and aligning with communities.

The efficiency and sufficiency principle

The economy supports sustainable production and consumption to build a low-carbon, resource-efficient, diverse, and circular economy by embracing a new model of economic development. A significant global is going to occur to limit consumption of natural resources, addressing the challenges to ensure prosperity within planetary boundaries.

The good governance principle

A comprehensive green economy is evidence-based consisting of integrated, collaborative, and comprehensible institutions with the satisfactory capacity to meet corresponding goals and visions in effective, efficient, and accountable ways. It purposes to deliver wellbeing and sustainability by promoting well-developed decision-making for local economies maintaining a robust, mutual, central standards, actions, and compliance system.

Green Economy and Sustainable Economic Growth

At the current moment, there are three core areas where the green economy is conducting. The first enactment is advocating a macro-economic approach to enhance sustainable economic growth via regional, sub-regional, and national partnerships. The second one is concentrating on access to green finance, technology, and investment by demonstrating green economy approaches. Last, supporting countries to develop and mainstream macro-economic policies to assist in the transition to a green economy.

The multi-stakeholder partnership is one of the strategies to advance a green economy to accelerate sustainable consumption and production and ensure sustainability. Moreover, UN Environment has increased its engagement with the private sector in addition to Governments and non-profit organizations to promote resource efficiency and green economy.

For the advancement of a green economy multi-stakeholder partnerships are stimulated to support, accelerate, and consolidate sustainable actions in both consumption and production. Along with Governments and not-for-profit organizations, UN Environment has amplified its engagement with the private sector that is an essential step in promoting resource efficiency and a green economy.

Day by day, the over-exploiting human population is going to face many environmental severe challenges from climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, land-use change, gender inequality, and many more. However, now the economy is not capable to maintain a good balance between environmental and social goods. Consequently, it is crucial to draw a new economic vision to tackle these global challenges in amalgamation as they are interconnected with each other.

Green Economy VS Circular Economy

The themes of green economy and circular economy are increasingly getting popular the European Directive of 2014 considers the green economy and the circular economy as a governance model that is enabled to grant sustainable growth for the European Union and the entire world. The green economy is an economic system that is connected with sustainable production and consumption of goods and services resulting in long-term human wellbeing to avoid over-exploitation of natural resources. Conversely, the circular economy is a development strategy that accelerates economic growth without over-consumption of raw resources and eliminates the harmful impact on the environment. A circular economy is a clear strategy to close the entire loop of the production system and generate longer durable, reusable, and recyclable products. It is a strategy designed to attract large global corporations to become partners and aims to grow the business which is one of the problems.

The idea and intuition of circular economy are undoubtedly crucial for great transition but it needs integration with a concept and approach like the green economy. This integration can grant to promote holistic green framework and green policies to reach sustainable development goals.

How Green Growth Assist in Achieving Sustainable Development?

It is an intertwined challenge to expand economic opportunities for the rapidly increasing population while maintaining a balance with the environment and natural resources management. Despite these, green growth is the nurturing of economic development and also ensuring natural assets protection to provide the resources, goods, and environmental services on which the present and future generation’s wellbeing relies.

Though green growth is not a replacement for sustainable development. Instead, it facilitates a flexible approach ensuring usage of natural assets based on sustainability to achieve measurable progress in both economic and environmental pillars. Green growth focus to enhance productivity by efficient use of natural resources and allocating it to the utmost value use, reducing waste generation, less energy consumption, prioritizing innovation, and value creation.

Green economy also aims to boosting investor confidence and opening new markets with green goods, services, and technologies. It also beliefs in contributing to fiscal consolidation through green taxes and eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies and other risks. Green growth integrates poverty reduction, human wellbeing, economic growth, employment generation, natural resources conservation, ecosystem management, and restoration, and reduces risks of damaging and potentially irreversible environmental effects.