Environmental damages due to rapid industrialization were treated merely as ‘externalities’. However, today it is accepted as a universal truth that global ecosystem is finite and economic growth strategies are making development unsustainable. Economic thinkers across the globe began to recognize the need to build a prosperous and secure future based on policies that will sustain and expand the environmental resource base. The world needs a new way of assessing development which would include human and ecological well being within its definition.

This growing realization led to a debate across the world over how it was possible to achieve economic growth without unsustainably degrading the environment. Economists began to develop a new approach to growth, growth with equity, management of natural, produced, and human capital for the welfare of today and tomorrow. This broadened the view of ‘Development’ to ‘Sustainable Development’ and in 1987 the Brundtland Commission published the first volume of “Our Common Future,” stating that it was time to frame policies which “ meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The concept of green growth originated in the Asia and Pacific Region. At the Fifth Ministerial conference on Environment and Development, March 2005, Seoul, fifty two governments and other stakeholders from Asia and The Pacific region agreed to pursue the path of “Green Growth” and adopted a declaration ‘The Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth’. The objective was to develop strategies of developing a green economy to eliminate the tradeoffs between economic growth and investment and gains in environmental quality and social inclusiveness.

This paper attempts to trace the path of the concept of sustainable development to the green growth concept, to define green growth, outline green growth indicators and then discuss suitable green growth strategies for growth path that will ensure optimum utilization and sustenance of resources and ecosystem on which the wellbeing of the coming generation relies. The first section briefly traces the path from the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’ to ‘Green Growth’. The second section focuses on the concept of green growth its definition, objectives and indicators. The third section discusses construction of green growth strategies constraints to green growth. The fourth section briefly outlines green growth strategies adopted in India.

I: From Sustainable Development to Green Growth:

The 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1980 World Conservation Strategy of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature shifted the focus of world leaders from growth and development to environmental issues stemming from industrialization mineral depletion, shortage of nonrenewable resources, pollution, CO2 emissions, depletion of biological resources- which had hitherto been considered as externalities. The United Nations saw a growing need for an organization to address environmental challenges which were intertwined with economic and social conditions.

In 1984 the Brundtland Commission came into being and in 1987, published the first volume of “Our Common Future.” Brundtland argued that the "environment" is where we live and "development" is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable. The Brundtland Commission's mandate was to: “re-examine the critical issues of environment and development and to formulate innovative proposals to deal with them; strengthen international cooperation on environment and development”. The commission realized that for sustainable development, issues of rapidly increasing population, food insecurity, environmental degradation, pollution, declining natural nonrenewable resources resources, are interlinked and cannot be treated in isolation one from another. Environment does not exist as a sphere separately from human actions and cannot be treated in isolation. Development strategies cannot be confined to making a country richer without paying attention to the long term consequences of our actions.

Higgins (1996) refined the definition of Sustainable development stating that it “is a concept which encourages both economic growth and a healthy environment” Roberts (2004) stated that sustainable development strategies aimed at promoting “the effective and efficient use and management of natural resources; the promotion of a hierarchy of waste solutions that places the avoidance of waste at the top of the list and the disposal of unsorted waste at the bottom of the list of options; The introduction of new methods and techniques for design, production, distribution and end-of-life management, which emphasize the avoidance or minimization of waste and environmental damage; The establishment of new economic activities based on opportunities for the production of environmental goods and services and for the distribution, maintenance and eventual disposal of such products; energy conservation environmental sound construction, green transport and a wide range of other occupational areas, The Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation stated that “We recognise that poverty eradication, changing consumption and production patterns, and protecting and managing the natural resource base for economic and social development are overarching objectives of, and essential requirements for, sustainable development.”

Thus three major categories were identified under ‘what is to be sustained’ i.e nature, life support system and community, through the three pillars of sustainable development - economic development, social development and environmental protection. Sustainable development implies meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a better life. Issues of food security, the loss of species and genetic resources, are interlinked. Living sustainably means living off earth’s natural income without depleting or degrading its natural capital. Societies can become more environmentally sustainable through economic development strategies dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone without degrading the earth’s life-support systems Prescott-Allen, who founded and chaired several influential IUCN-The World Conservation Union projects, defined "sustainability" (which he said is just another way of saying "the good life") as a combination of (a) a high level of human well-being, and (b) the high level of ecosystem well-being that supports it. In other words, according to sustainable development thinkers, ecosystem well-being is more than low resource consumption as well as more than the sum of a nation's environmental policies and practices. It encompasses many dimensions like: Conserving the diversity and quality of natural, land and water ecosystems; Restoring the chemical balance of the atmosphere around the world; maintaining all species; and limiting the resource use through minimization of wastage. In the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 3 to June 14, 1992 major agreements were signed The Framework Convention on Climate Change to reduce the threat of global warming which in turn led to the Kyoto Protocol, The Convention on Biological Diversity for preserving the Earth’s biological diversity through the protection of species and ecosystems, and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The earth summit culminated to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, Agenda 21, and the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).

Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It encompasses issues of social and economic dimensions for combating poverty, especially in developing countries, promoting health, achieving a more sustainable population, conservation and management of resources for development atmospheric protection, combating deforestation, protecting fragile environments, conservation of biological diversity, control of pollution . It envisaged strengthening the role of major groups in implementation of sustainable development strategy through science, technology transfer, education, international institutions and financial mechanisms. The full implementation of Agenda 21 and the commitments to the Rio principles, were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August to 4 September 2002.

United Nations General Assembly in its 57th Session in December 2002, proclaimed the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development for the period 2005 – 2014 with UNESCO as its lead agency. The goal of the UNDESD is to integrate practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning for all sections of the society. Despite greater awareness of the links between environment and development, real progress towards sustainable development has been slow. Most economies show failure to link environment and development in decision making. Development strategies continue to sidetrack the need to sustain the ecosystem services on which long-term development goals depend. Lack of adequate focus to environmental issues, population growth, wasteful and unsustainable use of natural resources, pollution, poverty, exclusion of the environmental costs of resource use from the market prices of goods and services, make growth unsustainable. At the Fifth Ministerial conference on Environment and Development, March 2005, Seoul, fifty two governments and other stakeholders from Asia and The Pacific region adopted a declaration ‘The Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth’ for achieving growth with environmental sustainability.

In June 2009, The OCED Ministerial Council meeting declared that green and growth go hand in hand and decided to develop a green growth strategy to bring together economic, environmental technological, financial and development aspects into a comprehensive framework. Subsequently OCED became a major proponent of Green Growth strategy.

In April 2010, ASEAN submit in Hanoi stated its determination to promote green growth. In May 2010, UNESCAP sixty second session, the Inchon Declaration on Green growth was adopted. In June 2010, Republic of Korea established the Global Green Growth Institute which was later elevated to an international organization at the Rio Conference in June 2012. In the G20 Seoul summit, green growth was recognized as an inherent part of sustainable development. In February 2012, the World Bank, UNEP, OCED and GGGI launched a Green Growth Knowledge Platform to bring together international organizations supporting green growth and green economy.

II. Green growth – Definition and Objectives

OCED, 2011, defines Green growth as “fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well‐being relies.”

UNEP defines a green growth process as one that results in improved human well‐being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities The key aim for a transition to a green economy is to eliminate the trade offs between economic growth and investment and gains in environmental quality and social inclusiveness (UNEP 2011).

ICC Green Economy task Force states “Economic growth and environmental responsibility work together in a mutually reinforcing fashion while supporting progress on social development. Business and industry have a crucial role in delivering economically viable products, process, services and solutions required for transition to a green economy”. Thus objectives of Green growth are:

· Restructuring the economy to synergize economic growth and environmental protection.

· Sustainable management of natural capital.

· Reduction in the intensity of natural resource consumption and environmental impacts of economic activities.

· To pursue low carbon green growth path.

· To make ecosystem accounting an integrated part of the assessment of the environment.

Green growth seeks to build on sustainable development framework by fully intergrating the economic and environmental pillars (which to date have been seen as incompatible) to promote strong and sustainable growth. (Samans, 2013). It is growth that ensures efficient use of natural resources, ensures minimum pollution and negative environmental impacts. The concept of green economy rests on the economy, the environment and the social pillars of sustainable development. Greening growth (GG) and moving towards a greener economy (GE) implies (i) pricing externalities and valuing natural assets for the long-run services they provide; (ii) innovation as a means of breaking with unsustainable growth paths; (iii) the creation and dissemination of new, more environmentally sustainable technologies, goods, and services; and (iv) sectoral shifts and changes in comparative advantage that inevitably imply winners and losers.

III. Green Growth Strategies and Constraints to Green Growth:

The need for green growth strategies towards green growth, OCED, 2011, states “At the core of green growth are constraints or distortions in the economy which inhibit returns to “green” investment and innovation, i.e. activities which can foster economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and ecosystem services on which our well-being relies. Green growth strategies should focus on the most binding constraints, identifying major environmental priorities, and investigating any overlap between structural economic reform priorities and major constraints to green growth”.

UNEP has classified the green economy indicators into three major categories: (i)) indicators of issues and targets to be addressed by green economy policies, (ii) indicators of policy interventions, and (iii) indicators of impacts for ex ante assessment and ex post monitoring and evaluation of adopted policies. In December 2012, UNEP published a 11 framework document “Measuring Progress towards an Inclusive Green Economy,” and it is preparing a manual on using indicators to develop green economy policies. The manual is to be applied in all the countries where UNEP provides advisory services Major constraint to green growth that have to be addressed: externalities, government failures; market failures; and market imperfections.

• Externalities:

These are uncompensated damages imposed by one economic agent on another. For example, Water pollution because factory owners maximize profits from production by releasing untreated effluents into a river rather than incurring the costs of waste water treatment.

· Government failures:

policies like fossil fuel subsidies which reduce overall economic activity and result in environmental damage.

· Market imperfections:

features of markets inherent imperfections like economies of scale or monopoly characteristics in industries which are not resolved by government intervention.

· Market failures associated with public goods:

Many environmental assets are public-goods (non rival and non excludable). Therefore the providers of public goods cannot exploit the market, through product and price differentiation, for maximization of profits. Thus public goods are underprovided by private markets.

· Missing or incomplete property rights:

In case of common pool resources for example, a forest or fishery, the lack of property rights leads to overexploitation and depletion of the resource. In the absence of quotas, exploitation by users of the common pool drives up costs to the point at which economic profits drop to zero. Green growth strategies should establish environmental priorities, diagnose key market constraints, and match these with structural economic reform. A green economy requires social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This requires innovation, collaboration and governance. A framework of green growth policy must include four aspects.

• Redefining the wealth of an economy to include all types of capital: natural, human, physical. The economic policies have to be formulated keeping in mind growth tradeoffs depletion of nonrenewable resources and slow conversion of renewable resources like soil and fisheries into nonrenewable resources.

• Incorporating the dual role played by natural capital in production by providing inputs and providing ecosystem services which affect social welfare.

• Increasing public policy intervention in management of natural capital and increasing investment in natural capital.

• Encouraging innovations in greening growth.

Economists have recommend a variety of incentive based instruments to reduce environmental damage and depletion such as taxes, tradable permits, subsidies, deposit refund schemes, and refunded emission payments and quotas. Price instruments must be used for ensuring that the prices paid for goods and services reflect their full social costs, including externalities for example Carbon pricing (e.g. carbon tax, emissions trading). Countries in the OECD have imposed some 375 environment-related taxes and about 250 environment-related fees and charges /taxes on fuels and cars, tax water usage in agriculture.

IV. Green Growth in India

“Green growth involves rethinking growth strategies with regard to their impact(s) on environmental sustainability and the environmental resources available to poor and vulnerable groups.” Thirteenth Finance Commission Report, India

The greening of the economy requires growing new industries, along with developing and disseminating new technologies. Green industrial policies can help disseminate new technologies and develop new competitive sectors. Greening agricultural production can be achieved by conservation agriculture, which simultaneously yields environmental benefits (by reducing pollution of waterways from nutrients and increasing carbon sequestration in soils); increases the efficiency of production (by reducing the use of energy inputs); increases resilience (by frequently rotating crops); and increases agricultural productivity in the long run (by reducing erosion and enhancing soil structure). Various adopted in measures for green growth have been introduced in India.

• Environmental Protection Act, 1986:

To implement the decisions of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environments. The act aims at the protection and improvement of the human environment and the prevention of hazards to human beings, other living creatures, plants and property. The Act is designed to provide a framework for central government coordination of the activities of various central and state authorities established under previous laws, such as the Water Act and the Air Act.

• Energy Conservation Act, 2001:

To provide for efficient use of energy and its conservation. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency was setup as an agency of the Government of India, under the Ministry of Power created in March 2002 to develop programs which would increase the conservation and efficient use of energy in India. The government proposed to make it mandatory for all appliances in India to have ratings by the BEE starting in January 2010. The mission of Bureau of Energy Efficiency is to "institutionalize" energy efficiency services, enable delivery mechanisms in the country and provide leadership to energy efficiency in all sectors of the country.

• Biological Diversity Act, 2002:

for preservation of biological diversity in India, and provide mechanism for equitable sharing of benefits arising out use of traditional biological resources and knowledge. The Act was enacted to meet the obligations under Convention on Biological Diversity.

• National Environmental Policy, 2006:

Intended to be a guide to action; in regulatory reform, programmes and projects for environmental conservation; and review and enactment of legislation, by agencies of the Central, State, and Local Governments.

• Integrated Energy Policy of 2008:

To meet the demand for energy services of all sectors including the lifeline energy needs of vulnerable households in all parts of the country with safe, clean and convenient energy at the least-cost.

• National Action Plan on Climate Change, 2008:

to identify measures and steps to advance climate change-related actions in the public and private domains following the Kyoto Protocol. Eight National Missions in the areas of solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, sustainable habitat, water, Himalayan ecosystem, increasing the forest cover and strategic knowledge for climate change were incorporated under the Plan reflecting India’s vision and domestic strategies for sustainable development and the steps it must take to realize it.

i. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency: Current initiatives are expected to yield savings of 10,000 MW by 2012, mandating specific energy consumption decreases in large energy-consuming industries, introduction of energy incentives, including reduced taxes on energy-efficient appliances; and financing for public-private partnerships to reduce energy consumption through demand-side management programs in the municipal, buildings and agricultural sectors.

ii. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat:

To promote energy efficiency as a core component of urban planning, the plan calls for extending the existing Energy Conservation Building Code; a greater emphasis on urban waste management and recycling, including power production from waste; strengthening the enforcement of automotive fuel economy standards and using pricing measures to encourage the purchase of efficient vehicles; and incentives for the use of public transportation.

iii. National Water Mission:

With water scarcity projected to worsen as a result of climate change, the plan sets a goal of a 20% improvement in water use efficiency through pricing and other measures.

iv. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem:

conserve biodiversity, forest cover, and other ecological values in the Himalayan region.

v. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture:

The plan aims to support climate adaptation in agriculture through the development of climate-resilient crops, expansion of weather insurance mechanisms, and agricultural practices.

vi. National Mission for a “Green India”2011:

Goals include the afforestation of 6 million hectares of degraded forest lands and expanding forest cover from 23% to 33% of India’s territory. The Green India Mission puts the “greening” in the context of climate adaptation and mitigation, aiming to enhance ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; along with provisioning services like fuel, fodder, small timber and NTFPs. During 2011-12 Rs. 49.94 crores was released to 21 States for carrying out preparatory activities

CONCLUSION:

Green growth is a subset of sustainable development. It fosters the necessary conditions for innovation, investment and competition which ensure that growth is consistent with resilient ecosystems. India’s achievement of rapid growth has been clouded by a degrading environment and a growing scarcity of natural resources despite growing awareness of the issues. Today, India ranks 155th among 178 countries accounting for all measurable environmental indicators. Further, 13 0f 20 most polluted cities in the G-20 countries are in India. The deteriorating environment is taking its toll on the people’s health and productivity and costing the economy a staggering Rs. 3.75 trillion each year (US$80 billion) or 5.7 percent of GDP. Thus growth has been achieved at the price of worsened air quality and other environmental degradation. Poverty remains both the cause and consequence of resource degradation and environmental degradation. Environmental sustainability there fore could become the next major challenge as India surges along its projected growth trajectory, For an environmentally sustainable future, India needs to value its natural resources, and ecosystem services to better inform policy and decision-making India can make green growth a reality by introducing strategies to reduce environmental degradation at the minimal cost of 0.2% to 0.4% of average annual GDP growth rate. This alone will help India to maintain its growth rate without jeopardizing future environmental sustainability.

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Received on 13.12.2015

Modified on 12.01.2016

Accepted on 05.02.2016

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 7(1): January- March, 2016, 29-35

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2016.00007.3