Conditions for green growth

Greening of the economy would contribute to strengthening its structure in the Netherlands, while also adding to the national budget. In this article, the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency discusses the importance of green growth for the Netherlands, and identifies five main preconditions for achieving a greening of the economy.

Green growth: A matter of strengthening the economic structure

At the request of the scientific council of the Dutch political party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), PBL contributed this article on greening of the economy to a theme issue of the CDA’s journal ‘Christian Democratic Outlooks’ on sustainable development. In this article, PBL placed the greening task in the light of the reforms required to strengthen the economic structure.

The Netherlands has a more than average interest in greening its economy, as the Dutch economy is energy-intensive and the Netherlands is an important importer and exporter of raw materials. The main preconditions for greening the economy are:

  • a stable government policy and vision;
  • incorporating the cost of environmental use into prices;
  • abolishing price incentives that harm the environment;
  • dynamic regulation;
  • sustainable innovation.

This article is a translation of the original Dutch text published earlier in 2012 in the journal ‘Christian Democratic Outlooks’ of the Dutch political party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

Authors

Maarten Hajer, Frank Dietz and Aldert Hanemaaijer

Specifications

Publication title
Conditions for green growth
Publication date
20 November 2012
Publication type
Publicatie
Magazine
Christen Democratische Verkenningen (Christian Democratic Outlooks), theme issue on sustainable development (2012)
Product number
812