Green Economy Research for Transformative Green Deals

Dear Colleagues,

To stop climate change, biodiversity erosion and other sustainability crises, policymakers around the world call for ‘green deals’. Among forerunners, the European Commission under President von der Leyen fosters a European Green Deal, aiming ‘to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use’. Concrete policy proposals include a European Climate Law and strategies for biodiversity and a non-toxic environment. The deal also underlines that the ‘transition must be just and inclusive.’ In the US, President-elect Biden considers a Green New Deal ‘a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges’, and members of the Congress push for much broader deals. Similar initiatives exist in, for example, Australia, Canada and the UK.

The core ideas of these initiatives are not entirely new and include the green economy concept, which was boosted at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. In parallel, calls are made for a circular, resource-efficient or bio-based economy, often linked to fairness, poverty eradication and well-being. In this general quest for societal transformation strategies towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs), synergies with the fight against the on-going coronavirus pandemic are increasingly identified.

However, despite strong agreement on the urgency to implement green governance strategies for the SDGs, and notwithstanding goal synergies, the debate often focuses on goal conflicts and trade-offs. Policies that increase overall welfare can still cause uneven distribution of costs and benefits and may be perceived to challenge lifestyles, traditions and organisations, resulting in polarisation, politicization and populism. Conversely, the green economy approach is criticised for having a conventional and corporate character that allows mainstream incrementalism. These critical views easily impede green deals.

What insights can research provide in this context? Are common concepts, such as ‘green economy’ and ‘green deal’ sufficiently clear in theory and are they helpful in practice? What lessons can be learnt since they were introduced? Which barriers and opportunities exist in relation to green deals as transformative policies, and how can these be removed and supported in policy and broader governance? Which are the key actors and leverage points to accelerate the transformation? How can green deals be effective and helpful for transformation towards the SDGs? Does green economy research provide insight and help, or does it lead the wrong way. Can non-achievement of goals be explained by weak policy and implementation, or is research to blame for not providing policy-relevant knowledge and science-based advice? Are some scientific disciplines even absent on the societal arena? Does research and policy focus too much on trade-offs, neglecting synergies that may result from realising green deal transformations?

We invite scholars from all academic disciplines to provide policy-relevant research to shed light on these broad questions.

Dr. Eva Alfredsson
Prof. Dr. Mikael Karlsson
Guest Editors

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• environmental politics
• governance
• green economy
• green deal
• policy
• sustainable development goals
• synergies
• trade-offs
• transformation
• transition