Download Publication - Rio+20

More documents

Recommendations

Info

32 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and opportunities The necessarily systemic character of the transition to a green economy Alexandre d'Avignon Luiz Caruso Growth”, first published in 1972, later reissued as “Beyond the Limits” in 1992 and finally republished in 2004 under the title “Limits Growth: 30-Year Update”, which showed that there was still hope because we had not yet exceeded the limits of no return. The limits model, based on the systems dynamics of Jay Forrester, operated in a highly aggregated fashion without taking into account political changes, war or widespread shortages. The second myth discussed in the UNEP publication – that the transition would be a way for rich countries to perpetuate poverty in developing countries – has thornier issues to address. According to Kemp and Soete (1992), we are already in a transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a low-carbon economy. In this phase, greener economic activities would primarily use end of pipe technologies and some cleaner technologies. Moving toward a lowcarbon economy requires investments in the generation and diffusion of cleaner technologies. The diffusion of a range of cleaner technologies is subject to changes in the institutional framework that supports economic activities. A reorientation of policies related to education, and science and technology, and the integration of environmental policies with those of other sectors, would also be necessary. In the long term, many green economic activities will derive from the convergence of technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and information and communication technologies. The UNEP publication calls attention to the fact that the transition from the current economy to a green economy requires a well-planned regulatory framework that creates incentives to drive green economic activities, as well as to remove barriers to green investments. However, the transition depends not only on institutional but also technological innovations. Some of these innovations are complex, multidisciplinary, and require complementarities between companies and research institutes. Miles and Leite (2010), on citing Roco (2007), identify four generations in the process of developing nanotechnologies: passive nanostructures; active nanostructures; systems of three dimensional nanosystems; and nano-systems comprised of heterogeneous molecules. Only in the first generation do we find some evidence of efforts in research and generation of innovations in developing countries. Nº 8 • June 2011 According to Fonseca, Bianchi and Stallivieri (2010), the core of modern biotechnology is built around the basic knowledge of genetic engineering, i.e., molecular biology, genomics and proteomics. In 2009, however, of the total projects in genomics, 91% were concentrated in the United States, Britain, Japan, France and Germany. If this indicates a trend toward domination of new technologies by developed countries, it is appropriate to add a further reflection regarding socio-technical transition. According to Geels and Schot (2007), the socio-technical regime is an extended version of the technological regime of Nelson and Winter (1982), which refers to shared cognitive routines in an
33 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and opportunities The necessarily systemic character of the transition to a green economy Alexandre d'Avignon Luiz Caruso engineering community that explain development patterns along technological trajectories. Sociologists of technology expanded this explanation, arguing that scientists, political decision makers, users and special interest groups also contribute to the standardization of technological development. If there is a technological regime dominated by developed countries that strongly condition the technological development of developing countries, windows of opportunity could be built that would be particularly conducive to the development of cleaner technologies in nanotechnology and biotechnology. Certainly there is no guarantee that this will be done, since the ownership of the technology and the pathways for its development adds value to the product of developed countries. Concerning professional training and qualifications, the UNEP publication emphasizes the need to retrain the workforce as part of the restructuring process needed to transition to a green economy. This emphasis is particularly important for the change in the energy matrix that is taking place in developed countries. The publication also highlights that the withdrawal of investments in fishery assets will generate a need to retrain the workers in this sector. Furthermore, it is worth noting that, according to the OECD (2011), qualified people play a crucial role in innovation through the new knowledge that they generate, how they adopt and adapt existing ideas, and their ability to learn new skills and adapt to a changing environment. The OECD also highlights the importance of becoming familiar with the different types of skills that contribute to innovation and better ways to build them, so as to design policies that contribute to the sustainable development of such skills. Nº 8 • June 2011 In this sense, the OECD also points out that the qualifications for innovation could be any skill, proficiency, competency or attribute that contributes to the implementation of new products, processes, marketing methods or methods to organize the workplace. When it comes to establishing some type of measurement, the focus is on the group known as human resources in science and technology (HRST). The HRST are the people involved or who have adequate training to be involved in the production, development, dissemination and application of systematic scientific and technological knowledge. Within the HRST, researchers are an important group, because the effectiveness of spending on R&D critically depends on the efficient allocation of workers directly involved in its implementation. The number of these workers is therefore an important indicator of a nation´s scientific and technological capacity. In 2006 there were about four million researchers working in R&D in OECD countries, i.e., a ratio of 7.4 researchers per 10,000 employees (OECD, 2011). Although there is not an equivalent indicator for developing countries, and since their rates of completing higher education are lower, we can infer that these countries show a significant difference in their ability to generate innovations in relation to developed countries. Thus, if developing countries do not have clear
Page 1 and 2: ISSN 1809-8185 POLÍTICA AMBIENTAL
Page 3 and 4: 3 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and oppo
Page 11 and 12: 11 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and opp
Page 31: 31 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and opp
Page 83 and 84:
83 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and opp
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
101 GREEN ECONOMY Challenges and op
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
105 Figure 9 Product life cycle in
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
147 Scheme 1 Current situation of L
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
177 General taxonomy of the value o
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201:
show all

Download Publication - Rio+20

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?