Why the Green Economy? more

The Green Economy is worth hundreds of billions of pounds (euro / dollars) each year; it spans many sectors including the most fundamental ones of energy, food and water supplies; and in the last fifty years, it’s gone from fringe to mainstream, growing in value and coverage each year …

The economic imperatives that lead to the spiralling of negative externalities into an environmental crisis are well-documented: back in 1968, the inevitable tragedy of the commons was first written of in scientific journals: that a resource used by all but owned by none, would inevitably be over-used until it turned to dust. Though this was not the first description of the phenomenon; approximately 2300 years previously, Aristotle wrote:

    “that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.”

The inevitability of the tragedy of the commons became economic orthodoxy. However, …