The Green Economy and the Global South

The idea of a “green economy” is one of the latest attempts to bridge the environment and development aims, with a focus on economic growth that makes it appealing to countries that still see a significant development gap to make up. Yet the green economy—most often studied in the Global North and made the target of explicit policy initiatives there, often with substantial public and private resources—also presents additional challenges for the diverse states and populations of the Global South. In this commentary, I sketch a research agenda on three questions that reflect those challenges: (1) To what extent are the promises of the green economy credible in the national conditions of the Global South? (2) Will the green economy reduce poverty and reach the poorest populations of the Global South? and (3) How do the green economy activities of the Global North reverberate in the Global South?