The Pathway to Sustainable Development THE WORLD BANK

2012

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Promoting Inclusive Growth, 2012

Green Growth: Managing the Transition to a Sustainable Economy, 2012

2025

This report delves into the theme of the "Promotion of Sustained Economic Growth and Sustainable Development," as presented in the UN Secretary-General's report. The issue at hand is the necessity of promoting economic growth that is not only sustained but also environmentally and socially inclusive. This is particularly crucial given the increasing environmental degradation, social inequalities, and the global need for resilience amidst climate change and other global challenges. The report examines the background of sustainable development, starting from the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their evolution, and the global efforts made towards their achievement. While significant progress has been made, the report highlights ongoing challenges such as inequality, environmental destruction, and the impact of global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, which have further complicated the path to sustainable development. Several alternatives are considered for addressing these challenges, including green economic growth, inclusive financial systems, and global policy cooperation. However, differing schools of thought on economic growth and sustainability continue to shape the debate. Some argue for market-based solutions, while others emphasize state intervention and global partnerships. This report presents evidence to argue in Favor of green growth models and calls for stronger international cooperation to address global inequality.

APN Science Bulletin

The rise and flaws of green growth Green growth has gained ground in environmental governance deliberations and policy proposals in the last decades. It was initially presented as a fresh and innovative agenda centred on the deployment of engineering sophistication, managerial acumen, and market mechanisms to redress the environmental and social derelictions of the existing development model. But can the green growth project deliver environmental sustainability, social justice and the achievement of economic life upon a materially finite planet? The article argues that green growth has several theoretical flaws and empirical limitations. Even though economic growth has brought tremendous benefits to society, continued economic growth in rich countries faces difficulties, and growth per se is not delivering the benefits for the wider society in terms of quality of life, happiness and health, and environmental sustainability. Unlimited growth poses tremendous challenges to the planetary health, with implications in the long term. Within this context, the article ends with a discussion about the merits and demerits of alternative strategies and policies, asking the vital question: If not green growth, then what?

This book’s content is what its title suggests, 18 articles by 36 researchers on sustainable economic development, the green economy and green growth. It is one of the sets of interdisciplinary books by Springer World Sustainability Series and focuses on economic growth with ecological concerns. This specialization is well defined, as the book features a careful organization of articles, in terms of scope and depth. It overall fulfills its promise of filling gaps in our understanding of green growth, and various chapters of this book discuss some of the most important related issues. Despite a broad consensus that we face a global environmental crisis, the authors differ regarding the scale of the social changes required to overcome it. This book advocates approaching the subject from a green economic perspective and a green growth ideology in order to cope with the crisis. Several chapters analyze sustainable development, the green economy, green growth and related concepts, while others examine the subject descriptively, methodologically and statistically or through country case studies.

WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks, 2005

Addressing environmental problems efficiently should be viewed as a means of raising economic growth and living standards in developing countries, not of reducing them -contrary to the standard historical and contemporary view in industrial countries. Policy Research Woxking Papers disseminatethe findings of work in progress and encourage theexchangeof ideas amongBank staffand all others interested indevelopmentissues.Thesepapers, distributedby theResearchAdvisory Staff,carry thenames oftheauthors,reflect only theirviews,andshould beused and citedaccordingly.Thefindings.interprptations, sndconclusion a retheauthors'own.Theyshould not be auributed to the World Bank, its Board of Directors, its management, or any of its member countries.

E&M Economics and Management , 2019

A frequently asked question lately is whether the traditional measures of a country’s level of economic activity and progress, such as gross domestic product or gross national product, fail to account for the environmental issues. While these measures are highly reliable indicators that reflect the economic performance of a country, they largely ignore the depreciation of assets, non-market economy and especially the damages to the environment caused by growth. There is a consensus that these indicators, (especially) according to the concepts of sustainable development and green growth, appear to be poor measurements. Measuring progress on a complex and multi-dimensional scale and identifying relevant indicators are challenging tasks. No agreement exists yet on an analytical framework or a set of indicators to sustainable economic growth. Building the research on the alternative Green GDP measurement our goal is to provide an alternative ranking scheme by comprehensively considering both quantitative (common methodological algorithm) and qualitative (opportunity costs) features of the so-called green growth. The analysis will be demonstrated by calculating the Green GDP indicator for the variety of developing and developed countries for the period 2008 -2016. Namely, our results could serve to improve the level of debate on different green indicators and inform the wider public. We see this paper as a step forward for a growing academic platform on ‘green economy topics’, a step pointed towards improving, amending, evolving and promoting further development of green growth measurements and indicators. Keywords: Green GDP, green growth, sustainable development, environment and ecology, a cross-country analysis

2013

1980, driven largely by China. South Asia has displayed consistently strong savings rates, fluctuating between 10 and 20 percent since 1985, with India dominating the aggregate figure. Over the past decades, Latin America's rates have remained fairly constant, while Eastern Europe and Central Asia are more variable. In Sub-Saharan Africa, ANS has not only declined in recent years but dipped below zero, suggesting unsustainable development and declining wealth. Freire, M.E. (2013). Urbanization and green growth in Africa. Green growth series report 1. The growth dialogue Primary question asked: What would it take for African cities and countries to accommodate the upcoming urban explosion without a negative impact on the environment? Are there opportunities for green growth from urbanisation? Key findings: As a combined policy imperative, countries and major cities face the opportunity to drive more efficient growth, lower long-term costs of managing cities, and greater ease of metropolitan management. Given Africa's demographics and projected urbanization patterns, green growth is clearly the superior policy approach to create sustainable and inclusive economic growth for its increasing urban populations. Clean / green urbanization is cost effective in the short, medium and long term. Opportunities include integrated transit / land development and drawing on the power of the private sector. Data and information provision will be increasingly important to monitor the effectiveness of policies.

Development Economics, 2024

The global debate surrounding economic growth and environmental sustainability is one of the most complex and protracted issues in contemporary development policy. As nations seek to increase prosperity and reduce poverty, particularly in the Global South, they are confronted with the reality that traditional paths to economic growth characterized by industrialization, resource extraction, and high energy consumption, are inextricably linked to environmental degradation and climate change. This tension between achieving economic development and preserving environmental integrity is particularly pronounced in developing countries, where policymakers face the challenge of balancing immediate economic needs with long-term environmental goals.