The external impact of the Green Economy: An analysis of the environmental implications of the Green Economy

The Green Economy has increased its popularity among international organizations and OECD countries, as the solution to the current economic and ecological crisis. This strategy consists of a transition to a low-carbon economy and the achievement of resource efficiency, whose assumptions are grounded in environmental economics. Despite its international recognition, Green Economy indicators reveal an uneven distribution of the benefits of its implementation reflected by the externalization of the environmental damage. What is more, empirical studies enlighten its physical boundaries in terms of environmental damage through the extraction of the required raw materials and their future scarcity problems. This evidence is in line with the theory of unequal ecological exchange, which posits that environmental cost is displaced from core countries to the periphery countries. Additionally, the Green Economy can be framed within the concept of environmental fix, in that it lies on the marketization of the environmental problem to solve it.