In the lead up to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), and 20 years after sustainable development was popularized at the first UN Earth Summit in 1992, the concept of green economy has taken centre stage in international development circles. It emphasizes the need to shift from high to low carbon systems and transform patterns of investment, technological innovation, production and consumption, at a time when multiple global crises—food, fuel and finance—have revealed the limits and contradictions of current development models based on the exploitation of finite natural resources.
Strategies to promote a green economy, and the concept itself, are highly contested. There are widely varying assessments of the opportunities, costs and benefits of green economy transition for different social groups, countries and regions. Opinions also diverge about the feasibility and implications of different approaches for achieving the social, environmental and economic objectives inherent in the concept of sustainable development.
In response to these challenges, UNRISD held the conference, Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Bringing Back the Social Dimension,
in Geneva on 10-11 October 2011. Attended by some 250 participants, the event brought together academic researchers, United Nations policy makers, government officials, civil society actors and activists from around the world; 24 papers were presented by 32 researchers, identified through a call for papers that attracted over 300 submissions.