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10 Questions on the Green Economy to the European Commission? PDF Print E-mail
European network against financialisation of nature | Friday, 18 January 2013

1. What is the precise definition of an “inclusive Green Economy”, according to the EU?

2. What reasons or evidence does the European Commission (EC) rely on in its support for a market-based approach to the Green Economy? What are the assumptions and interests being defended with this approach?

3. What lessons does the EC draw from the outcome of its switch of position in the 90's from supporting regulation to backing and implementing a “cap and trade system” to curb CO2 emissions, given the blatant failure of carbon markets and no significant reduction of emissions within the EU?

4. How does the EC think promotion of a Green Economy would help fix the unfolding financial and economic crises in the EU? Which economic interests would be advanced by the proposed Green Economy, and which would lose ground?

5. Is the Green Economy seen by the EC as a response to the unfolding crisis of accumulation affected advanced economies, including the EU, in different forms in the last decade? If so, is it conceived as essentially a financialised response, that is, one which seeks solutions in a further financialisation of society? What theory of political economy lies behind the EU's Green Economy approach?

6. Does the EC see it as strategic to use its competitive advantage vis-à-vis partner countries to impose its (yet undefined) market-based and financialised vision of Green Economy, given the resistance to such an approach that was evident at the Rio Summit in June 2012?

7. What reasons does the EC have for viewing EU business as a, if not the, key implementer of Green Economy policies, while giving short shrift to public administrations and not-for-profit entities (such as cooperatives, citizens' groups, etc.)? Aren’t business practices supposed to be regulated (and not subsidized) by governments and societies?

8. What does the EC think should be the role of public intervention in the Green Economy in order to promote a transformation of European societies toward a just and low carbon economy, given that such a transformation is resisted by the bulk of the private sector?

9. Which interests should the EC prioritise in the setting of Green Economy policies? For instance, will the EC prioritise the interest of European business over other countries' business and peoples? Of the rich in the EU over the poor? Of markets over the commons? What investigations has the EC undertaken over the past five years into the role of commons regimes in environmental and social policy and what have the results of those studies been?

10. Given the failure of the last 20 years in promoting a transformation of our societies toward environmental and social sustainaibility, as decided at the Earth Summit in 1992 by the international community including European countries, what evidence can the EC cite what is different this time and why a renewed global market-based approach to a Green Economy should work in transforming for the better our economies and societies?

 

Download submission letter to Mr. Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment: 

download letter [PDF 80KB] 
 
 
 
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