Greening the Economy or Economizing the Green Project? When Environmental Concerns Are Turned into a Means to Save the Market

Abstract

The “green economy” is fast becoming the new alpha and omega for many policy makers, corporations, political actors, and NGOs who want to tackle both the environmental and economic crisis at once. Or would it be better to speak about “green capitalism?” Going green is not only important in the fight against environmental destruction, it also makes a country “stronger, healthier, safer, more innovative, competitive and respected,” argues Thomas Friedman, the well-known New York Times columnist. “Is there anything that is more patriotic, capitalist, and geostrategic than this?” Indeed, the rationale underlying the nascent project of the green economy is that if the market could become the instrument for tackling the environmental crisis, the fight against this crisis could be the royal road to solving the problems of the market. Focusing in particular on the green economy’s impact on climate change, this paper analyzes the green economy as a hegemonic project that tries to retranslate environmental concerns into a new jargon, and to turn environmental conflict into a new motor for economic development.