Examples in this report, from both developed and developing countries, from small-size companies to large multinationals, demonstrate how integrating sustainability into core business activities can generate a positive return on investment. Returns that go beyond the financial component and contribute to the socio-economic and envi-ronmental framework conditions necessary for business to grow and operate successfully.

Projecting win-win situations, new economic opportunities, green growth and innovative partnerships, the green economy discourse has quickly gained centre stage in international environmental governance and policymaking. Its underlying message is attractive and optimistic: if the market can become the tool for tackling climate change and other major ecological crises, the fight against these crises can also be the royal road to solving the problems of the market. But how ‘green’ is the green economy? And how social or democratic can it be? This book examines how the emergence of this new discourse has fundamentally modified the terms of the environmental debate. Interpreting the rise of green economy discourse as an attempt to re-invent capitalism, it unravels the different dimensions of the green economy and its limits: from pricing carbon to emissions trading, from sustainable consumption to technological innovation. The book uses the innovative concept of post-politics to provide a critical perspective on the way green economy discourse represents nature and society (and their interaction) and forecloses the imagination of alternative socio-ecological possibilities. As a way of repoliticising the debate, the book advocates the construction of new political faultlines based on the demands for climate justice and democratic commons. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental politics, political ecology, human geography, human ecology, political theory, philosophy and political economy. Includes a foreword written by Erik Swyngedouw (Professor of Geography, Manchester University).

As of 2018, 85 percent of global energy consumption was made up by fossil fuels, including petroleum, coal, and natural gas. However, the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, which has drawn negative attention as the effects of climate change wreak havoc. Consequently, governments, citizens, scientists, and companies are now in search of more environmentally friendly sources of energy. The shift to the green economy is intended to reduce negative environmental impacts, but how this would affect consumers, communities, and the economy and whether it is economically and political feasible are up for debate, and for your readers to decide.

Outlining how the concepts of green economy and green growth have become the forefront of policy and political debates within the last decade, this compelling Research Handbook investigates the policies and plans that utilise these concepts at both the local and global level to achieve a truly green economy. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

How do Middle East energy transitions fit into international energy markets? In this book, energy analysts, geopolitical experts and specialists of political economy examine the new energy potential in the Middle East. The particular focus surrounds how the region's access to finance, combined with the new global regulations and considerations of economic development, shape the region's energy transitions overall. The Middle East is revealed to be a key site of new energy production, sharing and transmission as well as technology innovation. At the same time, the authors examine the variables that determine the success in each country and energy source, including the advantages that hydrocarbon producers will have in renewables and transition fuels, and the risk that these might slow down the energy transition overall. In doing so, the book situates the energy transition in the Middle East in a broader context of economic development, financing models, and regulations, and explains how this context interacts with the development of new energy sources. Energy Transitions in the Middle East is an account of the challenges Middle Eastern states will face in navigating the global energy transition, as well as their key areas of opportunity.

Written by 18 authors, this book on Sustainability, Climate Change and the Green Economy brings together insights at the nexus of the four key concepts embedded in its title. The book is unpacked in six parts. Part 1 is a single chapter that covers the context of the topic. Part 2 looks at the green economy and green jobs, and addresses the challenges of government coordination and socio-economic development, with emphasis on skills and immigration regimes. Part 3 reflects on sustainable development, with a focus on relearning our wants and needs, and provides critical reflection on engineering for sustainable development. Management of natural resources and wetlands makes up Part 4, which teases out issues on timber harvesting, as well as challenges and opportunities in addressing environment-economic development and growth conflicts. A critique of climate change coverage in news media, mainstreaming climate change into wildlife policies, and tourism, are matters covered in Part 5. The last part (Part 6) is another single chapter, which articulates emerging issues from the whole book and presents some policy and take-home messages. Given the growing literature in the field of sustainability, climate change and the green economy, this piece will prove a must-read for policy makers, academics, industry and civil society.

This book explores how climate institutions in industrialized countries work to further the recognition of social differences and integrate this understanding in climate policy making. With contributions from a range of expert scholars in the field, this volume investigates policy-making in climate institutions from the perspective of power as it relates to gender. It also considers other intersecting social factors at different levels of governance, from the global to the local level and extending into climate-relevant sectors. The authors argue that a focus on climate institutions is important since they not only develop strategies and policies, they also (re)produce power relations, promote specific norms and values, and distribute resources. The chapters throughout draw on examples from various institutions including national ministries, transport and waste management authorities, and local authorities, as well as the European Union and the UNFCCC regime. Overall, this book demonstrates how feminist institutionalist theory and intersectionality approaches can contribute to an increased understanding of power relations and social differences in climate policy-making and in climate-relevant sectors in industrialized states. In doing so, it highlights the challenges of path dependencies, but also reveals opportunities for advancing gender equality, equity, and social justice. Gender, Intersectionality and Climate Institutions in Industrialized States will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate politics, international relations, gender studies and policy studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003052821, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In the context of the economies of the world becoming greener, this book provides a global and interdisciplinary overview of the condition of the world’s water resources and the infrastructure used to manage it. It focuses on current social and economic costs of water provision, needs and opportunities for investment and for improving its management. It describes the large array of water policy challenges facing the world, including the Millennium Development Goals for clean water and sanitation, and shows how these might be met. There is a mixture of global overviews, reviews of specific issues and an array of case studies. It is shown how accelerated investment in water-dependent ecosystems, in water infrastructure and in water management can be expected to expedite the transition to a green economy. The book provides a key source of information for people interested in understanding emerging water issues and approaches that are consistent with a world that takes greater responsibility for the environment.

Since the Rio ‘Earth’ Summit of 1992, sustainable development has become the major policy response to tackling global environmental degradation, from climate change to loss of biodiversity and deforestation. Market instruments such as emissions trading, payments for ecosystem services and timber certification have become the main mechanisms for financing the sustainable management of the earth’s natural resources. Yet how effective are they – and do they help the planet and developing countries, or merely uphold the economic status quo? This book investigates these important questions. Providing a comprehensive analysis and the latest research on sustainable development, the authors compare the divergent approaches to emissions trading. Included is a detailed investigation into illegal logging and the effectiveness of policy responses, with an evaluation of different forest certification schemes. Biodiversity offsets and environmental payments are also explored. Integral to the book are interviews and opinions of the key stakeholders in the political economy of sustainable development. This uniquely comprehensive analysis of the governance quality of different sustainable development mechanisms, unprecedented in its panorama of comparative case studies, is essential reading for all those in the policy, academic and non-governmental communities.