Growth: Critical perspectives from Asia

5^th International Conference
13-14 June 2013 – Asian Dynamics Initiative – University of Copenhagen

Green Growth

Panel convenors: Lau Blaxekjær (Dept. of Political Science), Jørgen Delman and Nikolaj Blichfeldt (Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)

Green Growth has in a short period of time moved from being a fairly marginal concept discussed at the UNESCAP’s Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific, 24-29 March 2005, to becoming the centre of discussions at several international conferences since 2009 like the G8 and G20 Summits, the Rio+20 Summit and the COPs, as well as featuring in flagship reports from the OECD, the World Bank, and UNEP. A global network of Green Growth partners with South Korea and Denmark taking the lead has emerged. Korea, Denmark, and Mexico formed the Green Growth Alliance at COP16 in Mexico, 2010. In 2012, China, Qatar, and Kenya joined the Alliance. Central to this international alliance are the South Korean and Danish organisations, the Global Green Growth Institute and the Global Green Growth Forum, respectively – each with a range of other country, business and international organisation partners. Asia and Europe stand out as Green Growth regions with many bilateral projects and cooperation between countries and regions as well as within ASEM.

Green Growth posits at its core that the environment and economic growth go hand in hand. Green Growth was born in Asia, and thus also deals specifically with the challenges of sustainable development known to that region. But Green Growth is much more than a new economic model for sustainable development – it is also a way of defining and expressing soft power in the international society and it is an example of new governance structures at the national level and through global public-private partnerships. Green Growth could also be seen as a critique of the paralysed UN climate negotiations.

This panel will explore the political and socio-economic meanings of Green Growth, specifically in the Asian region. The panel invites papers that study and discuss Green Growth conceptions and discourse, development options and implications, governance challenges and adaptations at national and international level. The panel aims at attracting both practitioners and scholars.