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Paper short abstract:

The concept of green growth has long been omnipresent in policy discourse about ecological challenges. This talk explores the promises and pitfalls of the concept of green growth in a historical perspective, focusing especially on its Danish trajectories.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of green growth has long been omnipresent in policy discourse about ecological challenges. Governments, international institutions and private businesses has all committed themselves to a ‘green growth strategy’ of research, publications, and concrete initiatives. While green growth seems to connote be a form of economic growth, which also achieves significant environmental protection, the concept is used is several, partly contradictory ways, and its deeper implications are difficult to grasp. Moreover, the concept has often been criticized for serving to maintaining the status quo rather than effect societal transformations.

Where does the concept of green growth come from, who coined it, and why? What meanings and capabilities have been attributed to the concept, and what roles has it played in efforts to address urgent ecological challenges?

This talk explores the promises and pitfalls of the concept of green growth within international and national policy discourse, focusing especially on its Danish trajectories.