IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/khkgcr/27.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The "new" environmental narratives and the resurgence of old debates

Author

Listed:
  • Sconfienza, Umberto Mario

Abstract

The paper takes a critical view of the narrative of sustainable development and argues that three different environmental narratives - ecomodernism, environmental authoritarianism, and degrowth - are now providing alternative problem-solving accounts of environmental governance. The paper analyses the three narratives according to a common set of categories. Furthermore, it argues that these three narratives are bringing again to scholarly attention debates - over the limits to growth, the limits to technological innovation, and the potential limits of democracy in guiding environmental politics - which, at the end of the last century, had been effectively defused by the hegemonic sustainable development narrative. Finally, the paper explores the significance of the resurgence of these debates for environmental politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Sconfienza, Umberto Mario, 2021. "The "new" environmental narratives and the resurgence of old debates," Global Cooperation Research Papers 27, University of Duisburg-Essen, Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:khkgcr:27
    DOI: 10.14282/2198-0411-GCRP-27
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/234738/1/175979807X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.14282/2198-0411-GCRP-27?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    2. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2011. "Environment versus growth -- A criticism of "degrowth" and a plea for "a-growth"," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 881-890, March.
    3. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    4. Panayotou, Theodore, 1997. "Demystifying the environmental Kuznets curve: turning a black box into a policy tool," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 465-484, November.
    5. James D Ward & Paul C Sutton & Adrian D Werner & Robert Costanza & Steve H Mohr & Craig T Simmons, 2016. "Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    6. Jennifer Clapp & Peter Dauvergne, 2011. "Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262515822, April.
    7. Herman E. Daly, 2012. "Moving From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Julien-François Gerber & Rolf Steppacher (ed.), Towards an Integrated Paradigm in Heterodox Economics, chapter 9, pages 176-189, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David I. Stern, 2017. "The environmental Kuznets curve after 25 years," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 7-28, April.
    2. Stern, David I., 2014. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Primer," Working Papers 249424, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    3. Vandeventer, James Scott & Cattaneo, Claudio & Zografos, Christos, 2019. "A Degrowth Transition: Pathways for the Degrowth Niche to Replace the Capitalist-Growth Regime," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 272-286.
    4. Jie He, 2007. "Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis valid for developing countries? A survey," Cahiers de recherche 07-03, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    5. Guowei Che & Zeming Wang & Zhengli Yang, 2021. "Construction and application of a comprehensive coordination and cross-efficiency sustainable development evaluation model: a case study of 31 provinces and regions in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 151-171, January.
    6. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.
    7. Muhammad Shahbaz & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Mantu Kumar Mahalik & Perry Sadorsky, 2018. "How strong is the causal relationship between globalization and energy consumption in developed economies? A country-specific time-series and panel analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(13), pages 1479-1494, March.
    8. Daniel Fiorino, 2011. "Explaining national environmental performance: approaches, evidence, and implications," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 44(4), pages 367-389, November.
    9. Stern, David I. & Gerlagh, Reyer & Burke, Paul J., 2017. "Modeling the emissions–income relationship using long-run growth rates," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 699-724, December.
    10. C. Seri & A. de Juan Fernandez, 2021. "The relationship between economic growth and environment. Testing the EKC hypothesis for Latin American countries," Papers 2105.11405, arXiv.org.
    11. Thomas Longden, 2014. "Going Forward by Looking Backwards on the Environmental Kuznets Curve: an Analysis of CFCs, CO2 and the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols," Working Papers 2014.74, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    12. Canfei He & Fenghua Pan & Yan Yan, 2012. "Is Economic Transition Harmful to China’s Urban Environment? Evidence from Industrial Air Pollution in Chinese Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1767-1790, June.
    13. Baiardi Donatella, 2014. "Technological Progress and the Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Twenty Regions of Italy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(4), pages 1501-1542, October.
    14. Richard T. Carson, 2010. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Seeking Empirical Regularity and Theoretical Structure," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(1), pages 3-23, Winter.
    15. Achuo, Elvis & Nchofoung, Tii & Asongu, Simplice & Dinga, Gildas, 2021. "Unravelling the Mysteries of Underdevelopment in Africa," MPRA Paper 111556, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Oktay KIZILKAYA, 2017. "The Impact of Economic Growth and Foreign Direct Investment on CO2 Emissions: The Case of Turkey," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 106-118, March.
    17. Wang, Sophie Xuefei & Fu, Yu Benjamin & Zhang, Zhe George, 2015. "Population growth and the environmental Kuznets curve," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 146-165.
    18. Shahrouz Abolhosseini & Almas Heshmati & Jorn Altmann, 2014. "The Effect of Renewable Energy Development on Carbon Emission Reduction: An Empirical Analysis for the EU-15 Countries," TEMEP Discussion Papers 2014109, Seoul National University; Technology Management, Economics, and Policy Program (TEMEP), revised Mar 2014.
    19. Jie HE, 2005. "Economic Determinants for China’s Industrial SO2 Emission: Reduced vs. Structural form and the role of international trade," Working Papers 200505, CERDI.
    20. Datu Buyung Agusdinata & Rimjhim Aggarwal & Xiaosu Ding, 2021. "Economic growth, inequality, and environment nexus: using data mining techniques to unravel archetypes of development trajectories," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 6234-6258, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    degrowth; environmental authoritarianism; ecomodernism; sustainable development; geoengineering;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:khkgcr:27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.gcr21.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.