Abstract
Nidhi Tandon argues that women are the first casualties to renewable energy. The current political/economic paradigm ensures that the interests of the global and export economies from the productive capacity of land and water are protected while small farming communities are not. She sees possibilities in the green economy only if it rests on the involvement and engagement of poor people.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The International Energy Agency estimates that biofuels will represent 4–7 percent of the world's road fuel use by 2030 compared with 1 percent in 2005.
The pace of acquiring lands by global investors quickened in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis; this global market in land has very little connection to domestic agricultural plans. Private and institutional investors are seeking ways to diversify their asset bases, including outright purchases or long-term leasing of agricultural lands, more extensive speculation on food commodities and more systemic investments in the entire chain of the field-to-table business. In 2008, agricultural funds made 9.5 percent return on investment, according to BarclayHedge, while almost every other investment lost money. Financial speculation in commodity futures, following the collapse of the financial derivatives markets, fostered a ‘commodities super-cycle’. In 2008 and 2009, speculators seeking quick returns transferred billions of dollars out of equities and mortgage bonds to invest in food and raw materials. This ‘heated-up’ speculation in commodities has a worldwide impact on food prices because of the globalized system of food production and the domino effects between different food sectors. The price impact on food-importing states and citizens around the world has been devastating (Tandon, 2011).
Vilella (2011) The European Union's Double Standards on Waste Management and Climate Policy. Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA). http://www.no-burn.org/eu-double-standards-on-waste-management-climate-policy. The United Nations has been encouraging incinerator projects that burn waste – rotting trash produces the potent GHG methane – to produce energy.
For example, the Chipko Movement in India where village women stopped commercial logging in the 1970s by embracing trees in their community forests, leading to re-evaluation of the country's forest policy and a ban by the Supreme Court of India on green felling in the Himalayas.
It is particularly important that those speaking on behalf of poor communities, marginalized societies and rural women do not further compromise women's position in society by falling into the trap of fine-tuning rather than systemic change.
In this context, the concept of the green economy is distinct from green growth.
Land and nature is about to take on a new value on the global market, a value that costs out the wealth of its wilderness, measured by its biodiversity. Economists are extending their principles and measuring tapes to eco-services and ecological values. TEEB's synthesis report, ‘Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: A synthesis of the approach, conclusions and recommendations of TEEB’ uses three scenarios – a natural ecosystem (forests), a human settlement (city) and a business sector (mining – to illustrate how the economic concepts and tools described in TEEB can help equip society with the means to incorporate the values of nature into decision making at all levels. The report was launched in October 2010 at the Convention for Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan. Its main premise is that the best way to protect biodiversity is to give it an economic valuation. Source: http://www.teebweb.org/TEEBSynthesisReport/tabid/29410/Default.aspx.
More dollar value statistics are available from Roxburgh et al. (2010).
Payments can be international (IPES) and made in cash, in-kind, preferential credit, lower tax rates, employment and so on. Payments can be substantial and support mainstream biological diversity. The US Government spends more than $1.7 billion a year in direct payments to farmers for environmental protection. Payments under the Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentive Program encourage sustainable use of irrigation, nutrients and fertilizers, integrated pest management and wildlife protection. Similarly, the EU Rural Development Programmes, with a total disbursement of Euro 4.5 billion annually, underwrite agri-environment schemes reaching 36.5 million hectares through 1.9 million contracts with farmers (Bracer et al., 2007).
For an example of a PES contract, Scherr and Bennett (2011).
Such as the ‘The Ecosystem Marketplace’ – a global market information service for ecosystem services; http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com.
References
Bracer, Carina, Sara Scherr, Augusta Molnar, Madhushree Sekher, Benson Owuor Ochieng and Gaya Sriskanthan (2007) ‘Organization and Governance for Fostering Pro-Poor Compensation for Environmental Services’, CES Scoping Study Issue Paper no. 4/ICRAF Working Paper no. 39. World Agroforestry Centre, http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/publications/PDFs/wp14961.pdf.
Head, Peter R. (2009) ‘Vision for the Future of Cities “in the Ecological Age”’, London: The Alliance for Global Sustainability, http://www.cces.ethz.ch/agsam2009/panels/AGSAM2009_keynote_Head.pdf.
Roxburgh, Charles, Norbert Dörr, Acha Leke, Amine Tazi-Riffi, Arend van Wamelen, Susan Lund, Mutsa Chironga, Tarik Alatovik, Charles Atkins, Nadia Terfous and Till Zeino-Mahmalat (2010) Lions on the Move: The progress and potential of African economies, Washington DC: McKinsey Global Institute.
Scherr, Sara J. and Michael T. Bennett (2011) ‘Buyer, Regulator and Enabler: The government's role in ecosystems services markets – international lessons learned for payments for ecological services in the People's Republic of China’, Manila: Asian Development Bank, http://beta.adb.org/sites/default/files/buyer-regulator-enabler.pdf.
Tandon, Nidhi (2010) ‘New Agri-business Investments Mean Wholesale Sell out for Women Farmers’, Gender and Development 18 3.
Tandon, Nidhi (2011) ‘From Under Their Feet’ Land Grab Impacts on Women Small Holder Farmers in Africa’, Unpublished Paper.
UNDP (2011) ‘Human Development Report, Sustainability and Equity: A better future for all’, http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2011/.
UNDP India (2009) ‘Global Financial Crisis and India's Informal Economy: Review of key sectors’, New Delhi: United Nations Development Programme, http://www.in.undp.org/content/dam/india/docs/sewa_web_final.pdf.
UNEP (2011) ‘Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to sustainable development and poverty eradication – A synthesis for policy makers’, http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy.
UNESCAP (2011) ‘Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific: Key challenges and opportunities – Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’, Asian and Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Seoul, 19–20 October.
United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000) September http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf.
Zilberman, David, Leslie Lipper and Nancy McCarthy (2006) ‘When Are Payments for Environmental Services Beneficial to the Poor?’ Rome: FAO, http://ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/ag074e/ag074e00.pdf.
Additional information
*This article draws on Tandon, Nidhi (2012) ‘Empowerment of Women in a Green Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication: The case for community-based, gender-equitable and human rights-based green economic development – commissioned by UN Women’, New York.
Warns that ‘green economy’ policies are not helping poor women to sustain their livelihoods
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tandon, N. First Casualties of the Green Economy – Risks and Losses for Low Income Women. Development 55, 311–319 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.51
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.51