DIIS Comment
Green Growth is not only about the market
How can African countries reconcile economic growth with environmental concerns? The answer is said to be “Green Growth”. But the debate on Green Growth tends to focus on economic instruments. That’s not enough. Traditional forms of environmental regulation may seem old-fashioned, but we still need them.
Many African economies have been doing well in recent years. Annual growth rates of 5-7% are not unusual, international investors are increasingly interested in the continent, and the middle class is growing. In the midst of all the optimism, it seems almost unfair to speak about the environmental impacts of this growth. And yet they are increasingly obvious.
A good example is Kenya, where the rapidly growing economy not only threatens to increase the country’s carbon output significantly, but also poses other environmental challenges: The current high pace of urban and industrial development in the country’s cities has led to escalating water and air pollution and a rapidly growing urban sprawl. Meanwhile, plans to extract newly found rare minerals and coal and oil resources have raised environmental concerns, while an expansion of agri-business has resulted in increased clearing of land. At the same time, local governments in both rural and urban areas are benefitting from an ongoing devolution process, and now seek to gain their share in the growing economy through development of roads, small-scale industries, irrigation schemes and agricultural expansion. While very understandable, such efforts often take place with little regard for the longer term environmental consequences.
Efforts to address the growing environmental challenges of development in Africa and elsewhere currently tend to center on the notion of Green Growth. Some African countries – including Kenya – have officially adopted Green Growth strategies. A number of donor agencies, including Danida, also employ Green Growth strategies as a key strategic element in their development cooperation.
Definitions of Green Growth vary and often have a broad scope, but one area that has received particular attention is the use of economic instruments: By creating the right economic incentives (or disincentives), it is hoped that industries, individuals and politicians will adopt environmentally sound technologies, practices and plans. In other words, with a little help the market will solve the problems.
There is little doubt that economic incentives can be a useful instrument in fostering “green behaviour” under some conditions, and that “the carrot” sometimes works better than “the stick”. This is particularly so in situations where questions of poverty and ethics are involved. For example, it does not make much sense to punish poor farmers in Kenya for converting forests to farmlands, if all they are trying to do is survive from day to day. In such cases, incentives that make it economically worthwhile for farmers to manage forests sustainably can be part of the solution.
But in the midst of the enthusiasm for economic instruments, there is also a need for another aspect of green development, namely environmental legislation and law enforcement. This may seem old-fashioned and out of tune with the current tendency to focus on markets and citizens as the solutions to environmental problems. And yet it is necessary:
Firstly, many of the new environmental problems that are emerging from the growth of African economies such as Kenya’s are not driven by the poor, but by the interests of national elites, the emerging middle class and global investors and consumers. For many of these actors, the longer-term benefits of investing and acting “green” are simply not an issue, because the short-term benefits of “business as usual” are so big and so tempting. In such instances, economic instruments will often be unfeasible and must be complemented by more traditional forms of regulation, such as development and enforcement of legal frameworks for environmental management.
This is not easy, but nor is it impossible. Since 2002 the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) of Kenya has been working to implement a fairly ambitious Environmental Act with support from various donors, including Danida. The Act is by no means fully implemented today, and many problems persist. However, there has been progress. For example, Environmental Impact Assessments are now de facto carried out for most development projects from the national to the local level, and because these can stop a development project in its tracks (and have done so), they are treated with a degree of respect by developers. NEMA have also trained environmental inspectors and field staff who play a certain role in monitoring and drawing attention to environmental issues on the ground.
An additional and perhaps particularly important potential of environmental legislation is that it may serve to protect the rights of those citizens who incur the costs of environmental degradation. For some, this may seem counter- intuitive: A common - and correct - critique of past state-led environmental legislation in Africa is that it has tended to marginalize local citizens in order to protect external environmental agendas such as forest and wildlife conservation. But modern environmental legislation has a rather broader scope, including laws that will ideally protect urban and rural communities who live next to a major industrial plant, or downstream from a chemical-intensive agricultural scheme.
In Kenya, communities and civil society organisations have on several occasions successfully used a clause on public consultations in the Environmental Act to counter new schemes that threatened the local environment and their livelihoods. Interestingly, such cases typically show how environmental legislation can be used as a platform for expressing not only environmental concerns, but also broader grievances over inequality and rights. Elsewhere in the South (in Thailand, for example) such a strategy has been employed by civil society organisations for many years.
So while environmental legislation and enforcement may not be very fashionable, it is still necessary. Economic instruments are not enough in themselves to foster “Green Growth”.
It is, of course, important not to be naïve. Many Environment ministries in African countries tend to be fairly weak compared to other agencies. Moreover, while many countries do now have legislative frameworks for managing the environment, a major challenge ahead is to actually implement and enforce them effectively on the ground. This was documented in a recent DIIS study under the ReCom research programme, which recommended a greater emphasis on supporting implementation of legal frameworks on the ground.
A further challenge is that the same state which implements and enforces environmental legislation tends to be an investor and developer itself, and may therefore be compromised by corruption and vested interests. Development cooperation can play a role here, by supporting greater transparency in environmental law enforcement, training environmental lawyers, strengthening civil society “watchdogs”, drawing on local mechanisms for monitoring and safeguarding natural resources, and helping to develop alternative platforms for voicing grievances at multiple levels.
A good example is Kenya, where the rapidly growing economy not only threatens to increase the country’s carbon output significantly, but also poses other environmental challenges: The current high pace of urban and industrial development in the country’s cities has led to escalating water and air pollution and a rapidly growing urban sprawl. Meanwhile, plans to extract newly found rare minerals and coal and oil resources have raised environmental concerns, while an expansion of agri-business has resulted in increased clearing of land. At the same time, local governments in both rural and urban areas are benefitting from an ongoing devolution process, and now seek to gain their share in the growing economy through development of roads, small-scale industries, irrigation schemes and agricultural expansion. While very understandable, such efforts often take place with little regard for the longer term environmental consequences.
Efforts to address the growing environmental challenges of development in Africa and elsewhere currently tend to center on the notion of Green Growth. Some African countries – including Kenya – have officially adopted Green Growth strategies. A number of donor agencies, including Danida, also employ Green Growth strategies as a key strategic element in their development cooperation.
Definitions of Green Growth vary and often have a broad scope, but one area that has received particular attention is the use of economic instruments: By creating the right economic incentives (or disincentives), it is hoped that industries, individuals and politicians will adopt environmentally sound technologies, practices and plans. In other words, with a little help the market will solve the problems.
There is little doubt that economic incentives can be a useful instrument in fostering “green behaviour” under some conditions, and that “the carrot” sometimes works better than “the stick”. This is particularly so in situations where questions of poverty and ethics are involved. For example, it does not make much sense to punish poor farmers in Kenya for converting forests to farmlands, if all they are trying to do is survive from day to day. In such cases, incentives that make it economically worthwhile for farmers to manage forests sustainably can be part of the solution.
But in the midst of the enthusiasm for economic instruments, there is also a need for another aspect of green development, namely environmental legislation and law enforcement. This may seem old-fashioned and out of tune with the current tendency to focus on markets and citizens as the solutions to environmental problems. And yet it is necessary:
Firstly, many of the new environmental problems that are emerging from the growth of African economies such as Kenya’s are not driven by the poor, but by the interests of national elites, the emerging middle class and global investors and consumers. For many of these actors, the longer-term benefits of investing and acting “green” are simply not an issue, because the short-term benefits of “business as usual” are so big and so tempting. In such instances, economic instruments will often be unfeasible and must be complemented by more traditional forms of regulation, such as development and enforcement of legal frameworks for environmental management.
This is not easy, but nor is it impossible. Since 2002 the National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) of Kenya has been working to implement a fairly ambitious Environmental Act with support from various donors, including Danida. The Act is by no means fully implemented today, and many problems persist. However, there has been progress. For example, Environmental Impact Assessments are now de facto carried out for most development projects from the national to the local level, and because these can stop a development project in its tracks (and have done so), they are treated with a degree of respect by developers. NEMA have also trained environmental inspectors and field staff who play a certain role in monitoring and drawing attention to environmental issues on the ground.
An additional and perhaps particularly important potential of environmental legislation is that it may serve to protect the rights of those citizens who incur the costs of environmental degradation. For some, this may seem counter- intuitive: A common - and correct - critique of past state-led environmental legislation in Africa is that it has tended to marginalize local citizens in order to protect external environmental agendas such as forest and wildlife conservation. But modern environmental legislation has a rather broader scope, including laws that will ideally protect urban and rural communities who live next to a major industrial plant, or downstream from a chemical-intensive agricultural scheme.
In Kenya, communities and civil society organisations have on several occasions successfully used a clause on public consultations in the Environmental Act to counter new schemes that threatened the local environment and their livelihoods. Interestingly, such cases typically show how environmental legislation can be used as a platform for expressing not only environmental concerns, but also broader grievances over inequality and rights. Elsewhere in the South (in Thailand, for example) such a strategy has been employed by civil society organisations for many years.
So while environmental legislation and enforcement may not be very fashionable, it is still necessary. Economic instruments are not enough in themselves to foster “Green Growth”.
It is, of course, important not to be naïve. Many Environment ministries in African countries tend to be fairly weak compared to other agencies. Moreover, while many countries do now have legislative frameworks for managing the environment, a major challenge ahead is to actually implement and enforce them effectively on the ground. This was documented in a recent DIIS study under the ReCom research programme, which recommended a greater emphasis on supporting implementation of legal frameworks on the ground.
A further challenge is that the same state which implements and enforces environmental legislation tends to be an investor and developer itself, and may therefore be compromised by corruption and vested interests. Development cooperation can play a role here, by supporting greater transparency in environmental law enforcement, training environmental lawyers, strengthening civil society “watchdogs”, drawing on local mechanisms for monitoring and safeguarding natural resources, and helping to develop alternative platforms for voicing grievances at multiple levels.
DIIS Experts
Green Growth is not only about the market