Table Of ContentThe Limits of the Green Economy
Projecting win-win situations, new economic opportunities, green growth and
innovative partnerships, the green economy discourse has quickly gained centre
stage in international environmental governance and policymaking. Its underly-
ing message is attractive and optimistic: if the market can become the tool for
tackling climate change and other major ecological crises, the fight against these
crises can also be the royal road to solving the problems of the market. But how
‘green’ is the green economy? And how social or democratic can it be?
This book examines how the emergence of this new discourse has fundamen-
tally modified the terms of the environmental debate. Interpreting the rise of
green economy discourse as an attempt to reinvent capitalism, it unravels the
different dimensions of the green economy and its limits: from pricing carbon to
emissions trading, from sustainable consumption to technological innovation.
The book uses the innovative concept of post-politics to provide a critical per-
spective on the way green economy discourse represents nature and society (and
their interaction) and forecloses the imagination of alternative socio-ecological
possibilities. As a way of repoliticising the debate, the book advocates the con-
struction of new political faultlines based on the demands for climate justice and
democratic commons.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental politics,
political ecology, human geography, human ecology, political theory, philosophy
and political economy.
Anneleen Kenis is a post-doctoral researcher at the Divisions of Bio-economics
and Geography at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research interests include ecologi-
cal citizenship, climate change, activism, air pollution, democracy, post-politics,
feminism, and more broadly, political ecology.
Matthias Lievens is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Ethics, Social
and Political Philosophy at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research interests include
representation, ideology, democracy, the concept of the political, sovereignty and
constituent power, and more broadly, continental political theory.
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The Limits of the Green Economy
From reinventing capitalism to repoliticising the present
Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens
“This is an important and timely book. Kenis and Lievens present
an incisive analysis of the productive plasticity of the contemporary
environmental-political discourse that is epitomized by the concept of the
‘green economy.’ Reading it, for me, felt like scratching an intense itch.”
Sherilyn MacGregor, Keele University, UK
“This beautifully written and engaging book was badly needed. Kenis and
Lievens help us understand why the ‘green economy’ as currently rolled out
will worsen rather than alleviate global social and environmental ills but also
point to a realistic way forward. The Limits of the Green Economy needs to be
read widely and acted on as a matter of urgency.”
Bram Büscher, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
“In this timely book, Kenis and Lievens reveal the ‘green economy’ – a vision
of lush, eco-balanced affluence engineered through smart markets and ethical
enterprise – to be a strategic mirage, a pied-piper panacea that co-opts even
critical spirits into a politics of complicity with hegemonic power. Against
the faux consensus they rehabilitate conflict; against quotidian capitalism
they reach out to ‘the commons.’ Anyone with an interest in a habitable
future on Earth should read this book.”
Gareth Dale, Brunel University London, UK
“With an intransigent analytical power and incisive surgical precision, this
book reveals the limits of the green economy. The alternative political road
Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens aim to open up requires imaginative
power, scientific insight in both natural and social processes (and their inter-
action), a rare intellectual courage, and especially an unwavering fidelity to
the truth that things can and should be different.”
Erik Swyngedouw, University of Manchester, UK
“This book not only provides us with the most authoritative critique of the
‘green economy’ written so far, but also invites us to think in original and
novel ways about the environmental field.”
Guy Baeten, Lund University, Sweden
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The Limits of the Green
Economy
From reinventing capitalism to
repoliticising the present
Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens
The right of Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens to be identified
as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Some of the material in this work is based on the authors’ book De mythe
van de groene economie: Valstrik, verzet, alternatieven, published by EPO
Uitgeverij, Belgium, 2012.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kenis, Anneleen.
The limits of the green economy : from re-inventing capitalism to
re-politicising the present / Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-138-78170-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-315-76970-7
(ebook) 1. Capitalism—Environmental aspects.
2. Environmentalism—Economic aspects. 3. Economic
development—Environmental aspects. I. Lievens, Matthias. II. Title.
HC79.E5K42145 2015
333.72—dc23 2014038936
ISBN: 978-1-138-78170-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76970-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Foreword: Apocalypse now? From the marketisation
to the politicisation of the environment ix
Acknowledgements xvii
1 The green economy: The meaning of a new narrative 1
2 A post-political climate 18
3 The roots of the crisis 40
4 Reinventing capitalism 70
5 Change within limits 108
6 Repoliticising the present 138
Epilogue: Beyond the green economy 165
Index 167
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Foreword
Apocalypse now? From the
marketisation to the politicisation
of the environment
Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated empathically that books are weapons. If I go
to the bookshop or surf to Amazon.com, I am far from convinced that this is the
case, especially when it comes to books about ‘the environment’. Only rarely
one stumbles upon a book that really stimulates reflection, disrupts common-
sense understanding, undermines apparent certainties, turns ecological doom and
gloom into creative engagement and at the same time encourages thought about
new forms of social-ecological imagination and political action. This book is one
of those rare exceptions. Anneleen Kenis and Matthias Lievens combine uneasy
truths and thorough analysis with a clarion call for decisive political action. At
the same time, the book moves beyond both the apocalyptic tone and moralistic
pedantry that is often associated with critical social-economic and ecological lit-
erature, and the limited approach of indicating all too easy solutions. This book
does not promise a golden and sustainable future, as words cannot provide such
guarantees. They can only indicate a direction.
With an intransigent analytical power and incisive surgical precision, this
book reveals the limits of the green economy. The alternative political road the
authors aim to open up requires imaginative power, scientific insight in both
natural and social processes (and their interaction), a rare intellectual courage
and especially an unwavering fidelity to the truth that things can and should be
different. Social-ecological change and transformation is not a pipe dream, it is
an acute necessity.
This is the emancipatory message, which resounds forcefully throughout this
book and radically ruptures contemporary hegemonic environmental thinking.
The dominant argumentation of ‘green economy’ pundits maintains that merely
greening the existing socio-economic relations will bring a sustainable solution.
Ecologising the economy would be necessary and sufficient to evade a pending
ecological Armageddon while permitting the untroubled continuation of civili-
sation as we know it for a while longer. It is precisely the premise of this biblical
promise of a coming ecological catastrophe in the near future that should be
rejected completely. Confronted with cataclysmic images of imminent ecologi-
cal disaster, which predominate the ecological and climate discourse, and whose
ultimate goal is precisely to make sure that the disaster does not take place (if we
take the right measures), the only correct answer seems to be ‘don’t worry’ (Al
