The concluding chapter summarises the findings of the book and discusses their import. We highlight the constraining and empowering dynamics of IIAs in national governance and how they may influence the designing of more innovative and emancipatory economic policies, especially given the necessary transition to a green economy. We highlight some of the issues that developing countries, in particular, may want to consider.

This chapter interrogates trends in how the natural world is taken up, governed and constituted by international law, in particular the growing marketisation of environmental governance. This chapter suggests it is fruitful to understand these contemporary forms of governance as constituted by the co-articulation of two older anthropocentric modalities of exercising power over nature: appropriative domination and stewardship. It provides a background to both these modalities, showing that though these are often understood as opposites, on a deeper level they are similar. It suggests that the ‘offset’ relation is the paradigmatic example of the co-articulation of these two modalities, as the ‘offset’ establishes a relationship between activities that damage the environment at one site and activities intended to protect, repair, or improve the environment elsewhere. This chapter situates such mechanisms as one element of a broader project to make nature legible in economic terms. In closing, this chapter considers the effects of the rise of ‘green governmentality’ and maps the terrain against which struggles for different nature/human relations take place.

Chapter 8 elaborates further on the public policies needed for “greening” economic activity and promoting better stewardship of the environment. The focus is primarily on strategies that governments might adopt to achieve economy-wide green transformation for more efficient, sustainable and inclusive development. The chapter explores what these short- and long-term policy efforts will look like, providing examples from both major economies and low- and middle-income countries. At the center is ending the underpricing of nature to unleash the economic potential of green developments for generating economy-wide innovation and prosperity, and more equitable income and wealth distribution.

This chapter examines the fraught terrain of REDD+ implementation ‘on the ground’, with a specific focus on three strategies that have been central to efforts towards social safeguards: benefit sharing, tenure reform, and rights to consultation and to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). It reads these three strategies as mechanisms for mediating the potential tensions between different – and potentially competing – demands: those ‘from below’, for rights and recognition, and imperatives ‘from above’, for ensuring that specific obligations are enforceable through the responsibilisation of local actors. This chapter examines how these competing demands play out in REDD+ implementation and suggests that these three strategies might not necessarily be emancipatory for people living in and around forested areas, but rather they may operate to facilitate the greater disciplinary inclusion of forest peoples in the ‘green economy’ and thereby further consolidate the actualisation of new forms of global authority through REDD+.

This chapter introduces REDD+ as an ambitious project that is reorganising how forested land in the Global South becomes an object for international and transnational regulation. It argues that REDD+ operates to reorganise social relations and to establish new forms of global authority over forests in the Global South in ways that benefit the interests of some actors while further marginalising others. This chapter also sets out a unique conceptual apparatus to understand how REDD+ establishes and actualises new forms of authority over forested land and the peoples who live in and around forested areas. It adopts a configuration of four concepts – organised as two pairs – through which to understand REDD+. The first pair of concepts – climate justice and the green economy – provides a means of situating and conceptualising REDD+. The second pair – power and authority – speaks to the amalgamation and consolidation of global authority over forested areas, but also simultaneously the plural and diffuse means by which authority is exercised in REDD+.

This chapter looks at the extent to which the green economy agenda is nothing more than ‘business as usual’ focused on growth and investment in the case of an unlikely green state. Romania had limited credentials with regard to ambitious environmental policy and a difficult transition to market economy and democracy. However, Romania has surprisingly experienced the emergence of a green economy discourse separate from sustainable development and a range of green economy initiatives in niche sectors and across different levels of government, with a peak of activity in 2016-2017. The chapter links this to the agenda of a technocratic caretaker Government, as well as the emergence of subnational actors from the environmental movement and local and regional level, that was able to successfully engage in green economy initiatives, bypassing the national government level. Using the example of the renewable energy sector, this chapter shows that significant growth in this area usually associated with the green economy, does not necessarily ensure either sustained or green practices.

This chapter examines how definitions of the green economy and shaped by and seek to shape norms and discourses of economic development. It draws on multi-level governance theories alongside literature from critical accounting to investigate ways that urban policy actors have sought to make the case for investment in the green economy. The chapter aims to expand existing conceptualisations of the politics of calculation (in a multi-level governance context) to illuminate how calculations represent a range of assumptions about territory, the way people live and the nature of place and society in the present and the future. Empirically, the chapter focuses on a series of ‘Mini-Stern’ reports commissioned by urban governments in England that took as inspiration Nicholas Stern’s influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change. The chapter analyses how these reports use various calculative devices relating to carbon reductionin order to justify, de-risk and legitimise what might be seen as experimental or risky policy options; and the implications for how cities are represented as a result.

This chapter assesses the attempts of maritime port cities to use the green economy in a bid to overcome long-term structural disadvantages. It argues that these cities perceive climate change not only as a threat but also as an opportunity for ‘green’ growth in the form of new technologies and industries (such as the renewable energy industry). However, the emerging literature on the green economy underlines the dangers of uneven chances to exploit economic opportunities, reinforced locational competition, and the prevalence of technocratic, instead of transformative, strategies. Bremerhaven (Germany) and Hull (UK), two coastal cities that suffered major economic setbacks as a result of severe declines in local maritime industries (e.g. fisheries and shipbuilding), are used as case study cities. Albeit with differing strategies, both cities have turned to renewables, especially offshore wind, and the ‘green’ improvement of public housing as a source of jobs and growth. This chapter analyses how local green economies can develop, and what impact they may have on cities’ economies. The cases also exhibit the challenges that cities can face in trying to maintain their role as centres for the green economy, including through financial restrictions (a hallmark of structurally disadvantage cities exacerbated by austerity), regional competition and changing national policy contexts.

The term ‘green economy’ re-emerged over a decade ago as a buzzword in notably inconclusive discussions across the globe amongst politicians, civil servants, business, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community interest groups, the media and academics. By offering the possibility of integrating economic priorities with more ecologically sensitive and socially just forms of overall progress, the concept of a green economy outwardly seems to provide some guidance and direction for achieving long-term sustainability across a range of tiers of governance and different types of economy. We argue that the notion of a green economy remains elusive and is deeply disputed, often poorly understood and unevenly applied. Hence, it is in danger of remaining both unworkable and marginalised. This chapter traces the development of the concept, not only in Europe but beyond, in order to provide context for the deliberations in Europe. The chapter also outlines contemporary debates, and identifies emerging themes in order to argue that the idea of a green economy, as currently practiced, requires urgent rethinking and application. This chapter also furnishes background for the remainder of this edited volume, in which European case studies are presented that grapple with definitional issues and the practical challenges of implementation.

The traditional model of European energy company has been characterised by big entities that usually play a relatively important role as national champions in terms of market share, assets value, vertical integration, political influence and employment volumes, among other factors. However, last decade has seen how these big dinosaurs are losing market power in favour of new actors. On one side Russian and Chinese competitors have started showing interest in the Western European energy sector, and they are developing purchasing strategies to acquire part of the business in different countries, taking advantages of the vulnerable financial position that many of these companies suffer. On the other side having been unable to change their business models away from the focus on fossil fuels into the renewable energies sector has made traditional companies lose market share in favour of a new model of companies, smaller in terms of assets but quite focused on a market segment with a privileged institutional support, particularly thanks to the European Union targets for 2020 on renewable energy. This chapter uses the framework of green economy as the one that approaches macroeconomic issues through innovative ways, promoting green investments through the most adequate regulatory measures, and considering green energy as one of the sectors where these investments should be focused. Bearing this in mind, the paper will try to point out the existing constraints to reach the new model of development (sustainable development, as promoted by a green economy) and also the barriers that energy companies impose themselves through old fashioned strategies that don’t take into consideration the wider demands from a much larger group of stakeholders in a changing society. It will also address the changing governance framework caused by recent political events such as Brexit and the shifting EU institutional discourse towards 2030 targets.

This chapter provides an introduction to the collection of eight cases studies presented in this edited volume, all of which are concerned with the processes of ‘greening’ of the European economy, analysed through the lens of governance or multi-level governance. In doing so, the main aims of this chapter are to briefly outline the following: the notion of a ‘green’ economy; the academic origins of the book and the rationale for the volume and the choice of case studies; the chosen conceptual framework and the research questions; and, finally, the structure of the book. However, before turning specifically to the idea of a ‘green economy’, the chapter first sets the scene by examining the real world context that has triggered and surrounds the debate.

In this chapter, we consider the ways in which policy actors may advance the notion of a ‘green economy’ by trying to make it compatible with or equivalent to ‘good governance’. The backdrop to this is that as one possible approach to creating order in advanced industrialised societies, the discourse of governments and non-state actors can be employed to characterise a green economy as 'the right thing to do'. In this way, economic activity can be interlocked with governance arrangements that are also designed to meet environmental objectives. This chapter reflects on current theoretical debates about the idea of a green economy in the European Union (EU), viewing it as a manifestation of good governance, the latter being an umbrella concept that espouses principles of so-called ‘legitimate public policy-making’ such as accountability, transparency, public engagement or institutional reform. In so doing, in this chapter, the discussion encompasses environmental and sustainability policy at the EU and national levels of governance. This line of deliberation reignites an interest in normative power and the ‘will to govern’ as potential forces for governance and sustainability and permits a review of the means though which certain types of economic ordering may be achieved.

The promise of an economy that creates good jobs, promotes social justice, and improves environmental quality is an alluring one. Proponents of a green economy argue that businesses and communities can overcome contradictions and conflicts between economic, social, and environmental goals through pursuit of the triple bottom line. Yet there is little consensus on what the green economy is and how to achieve it. In this chapter, we review the empirical studies on existing green economic arrangements in different parts of the world. We identify four streams of activities: macroeconomic restructuring, spatial replanning, industrial redesign, and local revitalization. Our review suggests that existing empirical studies remain overwhelmingly practical in their orientation, which leaves much room for theoretically motivated environmental sociological analyses. We conclude with a call for an environmental sociology of green economies that has the potential to enrich the academic literature and enable real-world transformations.