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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the construction of the SDG indicators from an ethnographic perspective. It explored what world view is perpetuated by these statistics, established economic boundaries, errors and internal contradictions and complementarities within the data and Tanzania’s green economy vision.

Paper long abstract:

The Green Economy is touted as a solution to address the adverse impacts of climate change resulting from the capitalist economic system. It is often linked to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Like the SDGs themselves, the debates around and promotion of the green economy gained traction around 2012, mainly as the response from multinational organisations to the financial, fuels and food crises. But moving to a green economy requires changes in the way we make things, move, allocate resources, produce energy and consume goods and services. It requires governments to do things differently, especially developing and promoting policies that encourage citizens, businesses and civil society to change their behaviour and aspirations. Once the policies are implemented, they must be monitored and measured to determine whether they are having the desired impact. However, the SDGs and Green Economy ideas perpetuate a particular world view, determine what economic boundaries are acceptable. As such they contain contradictions and complementarities. Based on analysis of intensive interviews with the people who produce and compile these statistics, those who work in quality control and evaluation, and those who use them, the paper explores the implications of the world views, contradictions and complementarities of the SDGs for the Green Economy concept as envisioned in Tanzania' green economy plans.