Green Transition

Have the Greens lost their connections to political movements? Did they become just another political party like all others?

On Sunday, June 16th, 2013, between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., the price of electricity in Italy (the PUN or Single National Price) hit zero for the first time in history. In other words, electricity demand was fully covered by renewables. For the Italian energy sector and consumers this was an historic moment and an historic date.

The professional NGO world is unable to reverse the major global trends. It can, however, prevent projects and policies by forging powerful alliances – and build alternatives.

If the Green movement is to change the status quo, it will have to change too. The interrelationship between the plundering of the earth and the exploitation of people requires a much more principled and more consistent struggle against the capitalist system than we have seen in recent decades.

The European Union can find a democratic revival by supporting social innovation and by extension contribute significantly to the ecological transition. That is the primary conclusion of the framing paper that was just published by Professor Olivier De Schutter in preparation for the Francqui International Conference that will take place on May 8-9th, 2014 in Brussels.

As Green Deputy Mayor of the 20th district of Paris from 2001 to 2014, Fabienne Giboudeaux, initiated an architectural complex of 47 social housing units, a gymnasium and a 600 m2 roof garden in one of the most densely populated district of Paris.

As the world rapidly continues to urbanise, cities will have to play a progressively greater role in the move towards a low carbon economy. By working towards the creation of a closed circular economy and a slow economy cities could be well placed to lead the transition.

Government procurement has long been used to help further public policy goals and European countries such as Italy and France are willing to still use it today to support renewable industries. However, at the European level something quite different is afoot that threatens the ability of procurement to be used to develop industry.

A debate between Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and Reinhard Bütikofer, MEP and co-chair of the European Green Party.

The Green Industrial Revolution is clearly a positive and inspiring story, but there is room for doubting the ability of green technologies to stimulate a new wave of growth comparable to the industrial revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.