Green Economy

In the actual context of climate change, world population growth and global economy adjustment, more sustainable production and consumption models have to be adopted to reduce the use of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions and then to move towards low-carbon societies and green economy. In this way economic growth can be decoupled from the environment exploitation and degradation, in both developing and developed countries, as well as economic and social disparities can be mitigated. The purpose of this contribution is to describe what green economy means and which are the economic, social and environmental principles sustaining it. A definition of green economy is then provided based on the guidelines of some international institutions. The economic sectors that mainly characterize a green economy are outlined pointing out the main need of preserving and investing in the assets of key natural resources. Some performance indicators are suggested to measure the progress towards such an economy model. Traditional measures, i.e. ecological footprint and human development index, are described. The new system of indicators proposed by OECD is also suggested to enhance the framework of analysis of two main components of green growth: human well-being and its sustainability over time.