The Race to Green

Though the concept of green jobs and developing clean energy technology is beneficial for a country's economic growth and sustainability in the short term, I don't think technological innovation is by any means a good or efficient path toward addressing the real concerns of climate change. By focusing on revenue, competition and job creation specifically for economic benefit the lens is automatically an economic one which changes the game completely. That is to say, for a Market Liberal or Cornucopian-- or anyone obsessed with economic growth-- these factors will become the focus instead of the actual issue of climate change and environmental degradation. Yes, it is important to create green jobs and focus economic priorities on "green manufacturing" to keep up with the green curve and be competitive in the global marketplace but these efforts fall under an entirely separate category from that of potential solutions for climate change. By putting climate change in the same sphere as economics (which often overrides everything else) the core issue of climate change is seen as an economic situation instead of a moral, social, and environmental problem.

It is important to refocus societal and economic priorities on greening but there is danger in blurring the problem of climate change by mixing it with economic growth goals. However, by creating competition out of this core issue of climate change there will be more incentives for countries to overhaul greening efforts which would potentially lessen the issues of climate change in the short and long terms. So even if these incentives aren't necessarily in the name of climate change and are instead to win an economic growth race, at least they will have positive implications for the problem solving of climate change. That said, it is important to maintain a clear boundary between green manufacturing, creating green collar jobs or producing green technologies for economic benefit and greening efforts made to reduce climate change. Although it would be best if these efforts actually were to "save the environment" instead of to win an economic growth race, at least there's an active refocus toward "going green" which could eventually evolve into directly addressing the core problem of climate change. Like Katie mentioned, we have to learn to walk before we can run-- and if economic growth is what will ultimately motivate us to take climate change seriously then more power to economic incentives and "green" (note the double meaning) races.