GREECO Territorial Potentials for a Greener Economy
This project seeks to identify the territorially relevant aspects of a green economy to highlight particular opportunities for European regions through implementation of strategic territorial development and cohesion policy actions.
All the way from a conceptual approach to the nature of data availability and processing, the GREECO project is at the forefront of research trends in its field: A clear definition of the green economy remains as an open and debateable concept, while a characterization of which specific activities fall under the umbrella of green economy is less certain. Likewise, regionalized analysis of economic and territorial dimensions of the green economy is virtually non-existent within the broader context of Sustainable Development; and not least, the analysis of regional potential of the green economy an entirely new dimension of analysis. Each of these conditions make the GREECO project a challenging endeavour; however, these same challenges provide the opportunity to establish impactful results and guidance for future work.
The green economy concept has evolved from the policy principles of Sustainable Development emphasising that the concept of ‘economic growth’ is much too narrow for measuring social progress. Scientific research has taken up the challenge of operationalising the broad concepts of sustainability and Green Economy is now a widely accepted agenda for economic reform to achieve sustainability. As such, it shall be viewed as a subset of sustainable development; one which is aligned with a notion of strong sustainability where different types of capital (natural, social, economic) are seen as complimentary and should be independently maintained. Natural resources are therefore
essential inputs in economic production, consumption or welfare. These cannot be substituted and are bounded territorially as central inputs into a green economy.
While guidance is being envisioned from national and international institutions, it is being understood that the necessary transformations will take place in the realm of concrete geographical contexts where regional and local administrative and political bodies in concert with the EU structural and cohesion funds and national legislation provide the framework and drivers for the transition. The GREECO project aims to support this approach by substantiating the territorial perspective and developing tools for the planning and political processes to contribute to a greener economy.
GREECO_Territorial Potentials for a Greener Economy.pdf
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