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Green growthand sustainabledevelopmentgovernance:Rio+20 andbeyondGlobal Green Growth Summit2011Seoul, Korea20 June 2011The topic of green growth and the governance of sustainable developmentis a compelling one because the green economy formsone of the two substantive items on the agenda for the forthcomingUnited Nations Conference on Sustainable Development also knownas Rio +20 which will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in justunder one year. Moreover, recurring crises in food, fuel, finance andclimate change events have highlighted the need to adopt new approachesto growth. In addition, the debates that we have had on thetheme so far shows that several constituencies are still struggling toreach a common understanding of what the green economy meansfor the sustainable development agenda. Some people wonder whythe switch to talking about a green economy if it means the samething as the tried and tested notion of sustainable development?Fortunately, we do not have to grapple with such differences of opinionas our focus is on green growth, which fits in well under the rubricof sustainable development. There is now no debate about theneed to rethink the existing growth paradigm given the challengesof environmental sustainability such as climate change, degradationof natural resources and loss of biodiversity. It is now evident to allthat humanity needs to move from old resource intensive methodsof growth in which progress has been at the expense of the environmentto one in which productivity is boosted by using and managingnatural resources more efficiently and effectively. At the same time,Integrating Africa319