Social Dimensions of Green Economy (2024)

INTRODUCTION

Recently, theworld elite, politicians, businessmen and scientists are increasingly often thinking about theproblem what future of themankind is and what we can do for future generations, how we can help in solving global problems of theplanet. In September 2015, attheSummit of theUNO, theAgenda on Sustainable Development 2030 was adopted (UN2015), which determines 17 aims of thesustainable development for transformation of ourworld. One of theaims of sustainable development is development of the‘green’ economy.‘Green’ economy is characterised by theeffective use of natural resources, environment conservation and harmonious interaction of humans and thenature, civilization development.

In December 2017, theRoman Club presented its jubilee report (Von Weizsaecker, Wijk­man 2018), which gives reasons for afundamental change of theparadigm of thedevelopment of our civilization and transition to thealternative economy. This reveals thesociological aspect of thenecessity of development of the‘green’ economy, since theconcept of ‘green’economy is anew perception of theworld, new social being with therational use of naturalresources with acareful attitude to nature. Thegreen economy is anew philosophy, aimed atovercoming and correcting errors of market economy, which had an impact on theecologicalstate. This is anew social attitude to theenvironment.

The authors of thereport of theRoman Club argue that theeconomy of thefuture has to bebased on sustainability principles and circle logic, theideas of optimization of multi-use goods.Today, sociology of thenew era has to rest on theintegral perception of theworld, humanistic,open for development, free from anthropocentrism. Thecentral idea is synergy–asearch forwisdom through thebalance between thenature and theman (it is sustainable development, ecological awareness), thebalance between theindividual and thesocial, thebalance betweenequality and fair rewarding.

In January 2018, at theWorld Economic Forum in Davos, thealternative system of assessment of economic development based on theinclusive development index was proposed,which also reflects theecological component of theeconomy. Thus, ensuring ‘green’ development as an alternative economy is extremely timely and relevant.

The concept of ‘green’ economy from thesocial point of view was considered by suchauthors as Hussien, Alam, Siwar, Ludin (2016), Zenchanka, Korshuk (2015), Mazilu (2013),D’Amato et al. (2017), Jacob (2015), Ehresman, Okereke (2015), Jackson (2011). However, these authors put more emphasis on theeconomic component of ‘green’ development.Theaim of this article is to research thesocial aspects of thedevelopment of ‘green’ economy.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Development of the‘green’ economy influences development of thesociety. Thephilosophy ofthe‘green’ economy is aimed at contribution to enhancing thewellbeing of thepopulation dueto conservation of theenvironment and rational use of natural resources. ‘Green’ economy isenvironmental philosophy (Ehresman, Okereke 2015). As one of thecomponents of sustainable development, ‘green’ economy influences provision of social justice and responsibility,adecrease in social inequality and layering of thesociety, afair access to thelimited naturalresources.

The sociology of the‘green’ economy includes such key features as global transformation to sustainable development (Jackson 2011), wellbeing of thepopulation, rational use ofresources, social progress, balance between individual and social responsibility. Formation ofindividual and collective population awareness of theenvironmental protection is essentialfor ‘green’ development.

There is also theconcept of Green Philosophy (Scruton 2011), thesense of which isthinking about environment from thepositions of future generations that they inherit. Thisis thinking about thefuture of theplanet. Green philosophy is aimed at solving ecologicalproblems, which is also related to social being.

The practice of international organizations emphasizes the need for transition tothe‘green’ economy, which has not only economic but also social substantiation. There areconvincing arguments in favour of combining theefforts of thestate and theprivate sectoraimed at implementation of thetransition to the‘green’ economy. In this regard, thestatefaces thetasks of creating equal conditions for production of the‘green’ products and services by means of therefusal from providing outdated subsidies, reforming environmentalpolicy and creation of new incentives, strengthening themarket infrastructure and marketmechanisms, redistribution of thestate investments and transition to the‘green’ public procurement. Theprivate sector faces thechallenge to understand and use thereal possibilities,offered by the‘green economy’ in anumber of key sectors, as well as to respond to reformation of theenvironmental policy by increasing thevolumes of funding and investing in‘green’ projects.

The ‘green’ economy in thesocial aspect is directly associated with such social areas ashealth care, ensuring ahigh quality of life, educational system and awareness of thepopulation (Menshikov et al. 2017).

Moreover, in social terms, the‘green’ economy has acertain considerable potential asfor solving social problems. We imply an increase in population employment (at new ‘green’ enterprises), an increase in thelevel of living, which is also one of themain tasks of thesocial economy (Simakhova 2017), and in which its relationship with the‘green’ economy ismanifested.

The relationship of the‘green’ economy and thesocial aspect of social being are represented in Fig.1, which shows aconsiderable social effect of the‘green’ economy.

Preservation of theenvironment as one of thetasks of the‘green’ economy affects whatair theperson is breathing, what foods and water he consumes; all this has its impact onthehealth, sickness rate and average life expectancy of thepopulation. In transition economy countries and developing countries, environmental pollution leads to different illnessesof population. For example, in Ukraine among thenumber of diseases by thedisease type,diseases of therespiratory system rank first and make up 46% of all diseases in 2016 (Ukrstat2017). These diseases are directly related to thestate of theenvironment, emissions of hazardous substances into theair. Thedevelopment of the‘green’ economy will have apositive effectof improving thestate of health of theUkrainian population.

Lately, there has been apositive tendency of an insignificant growth of theindicator oftheaverage life expectancy of thepopulation in Ukraine.

From 2010 to 2016, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Ukraine increased by 1 year from 75.5 to 76.5 years of age. At thesame time, theaverage life expectancyat birth for men increased by 1.4 years from 65.3 to 66.7 years of age. These indicators arenot sufficiently high in comparison with those of other countries of theworld, even withtheneighbours of Ukraine. Thus, in Belarus theaverage life expectancy for women is 78.9years of age, in Romania it is 78.7 years of age, in Poland 81.6 years of age, in Slovakia 80.2years of age and in Hungary 79 years of age (Ukrstat 2017: 581–582). We do not take into account thehighly developed countries of theworld. Thesame situation is observed with regardto theaverage life expectancy of men: in Belarus–68.6 years of age, in Romania–71.5 yearsof age, in Poland–73.5 years of age, in Slovakia–73.1 years of age, in Hungary–72.3 years (Ukrstat 2017: 583–584). Thegiven data indicate that one of theaspects of providing alonger average life expectancy is theactive attention and activity on preservation and cleaningtheenvironment from hazardous pollution.

Nowadays theenvironment is polluted by toxic substances from plants, factories, thermal power plants, cars, etc. Emissions of oxides of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, heavy metals, leadcompounds, construction dust and other poisoning substances into theenvironment contaminate theair, soil and water, resulting in severe diseases for thepopulation (respiratory, ofcardio-vascular system, cancer, congenital anomalies).

In addition to industry, one of themain polluters of theenvironment (causing deterioration of thehealth of people) is transport, including private. In cities and outside them,automobile transport consumes more than half the oil and generates almost a quarter oftheworld’s СО₂ emissions (UNEP 2011). This involves significant costs both for power carrier and for cleaning up thepolluted environment. Thus, it is necessary to pursue apolicy oftransport ‘greening’ that combines thefollowing basic components:

–exclusion or reduction of unnecessary travels, transfers due to transport planning andlocalization of production and consumption;

–transition to more eco-efficient, ‘green’ kinds of transport such as public and non-automobile transport for passengers and railway and water transport for freight transportation;

–improvement of theused equipment and fuel in order to reduce their negative impacton theenvironment and human health.

The ‘green’ economy involves not only health care, but also one important element ofthesocial sphere–education. Thebasic relationship is observed in thefollowing direction:education provides awareness of school pupils and students of theneed for efficient use ofresources, caring attitude towards theareas (Stukaloetal. 2018). It is imperative that since hisschool years alittle citizen should understand themain principles and postulates of the‘green’economy and theimportance of complying with them for thesake of ensuring theoverallwellbeing.

Awareness of citizens of the‘green’ economy leads to their ecological responsibility, toenvironmental friendliness of consciousness and actions of thepopulation. Such examplescan include bringing batteries to collection centers, clean-up days, planting trees by population, etc.

Despite acertain promotion of environmental protection and ahealthy way of life, unfortunately, theconscious attitude towards theenvironment of thepopulation of Ukraine hasnot been formed yet. Thus, there is no active propaganda in themass media on theimportance of fulfilling theobjectives of sustainable development.

In our opinion, a shortcoming in this process is the lack of compulsory subjects inschools and universities on the basics of sustainable development and ‘green’ economy,thelack of permanent training for people of adult age, workers of different industries in regard to the‘green’ economy.

While studying such disciplines, there should be asearch for optimization of ecological and economic effects of theuse of primary and secondary resources taking into accounttheimportance of thepreservation of theenvironment (Dynka 2014).

In addition to formation of population awareness, connection of the‘green’ economy with higher education can be traced in theformation of competencies of ‘greening’ ofwould-be specialists. Certainly, it is extremely important, because in terms of developmentof the‘green’ economy in Ukraine, there will be astructural realignment of thecommercial complex, which will require appropriate educated professionals who will be able to applytheprinciples of the‘green’ economy to practice.

Foreign scientists see some possibilities for the‘green’ transformation of thesocio-economic system (Narloch, Kozluk, Lloyd 2016):

–‘Green’ investments (such as renewable power sources or thesocial aspect in publicawareness);

–‘Green’ jobs;

–Increase in production and export of ‘green’ goods and services.

These prospects concern all countries in terms of theformation of the‘green’ economy.

Theproduction of ‘green’ goods and services will create aspecific niche of ‘green’ vacancies inthejob market (see theTable). There arises thequestion what these ‘green’ jobs are. They areprofessionals in treatment of drinking and wastewater, air, forest sanitary, specialists of wastemanagement and recycling, environmental and energy consultants, specialists in renewablepower industry, engineers, technicians, mechanics, ‘green’ inventors, teachers and researchersin thefield of ‘green’ economy. There arises acertain problem because it is very difficult to distinguish between the‘green’ and ‘non-green’ jobs and we must analyse theessence of theperformed work. According to thematerials of theXIX International Conference of theInternational Labour Organization (ILO) 2013, it was decided to refer to ‘green’ jobs not only thosethat are involved in theproduction of ‘green’ goods and services, but also those that maketheir production processes more ‘green’ or use natural resources more effectively (ILO 2013).

According to thedata from the Table, we can make theconclusion about importance of different courses, training and university programs for personnel retraining. That is why therelationship of the‘green’ economy with theeducation sector is very important, since school years, itis necessary to form in little Ukrainians new approaches and new perception of theimportanceof conservation and cleaning of theenvironment, as well as theskills of the‘green’ economy.

The studies of the German scientists have shown that the ‘green’ economy will haveashort-term, medium-term and long-term impact on theemployment of thepopulation ofacountry (Jacob 2015: 21):

Jacob 2015: 22.

1. Ashort-term impact on employment of thepopulation is adirect impact of an increasein production and ademand for ‘green’ goods and services. Theenvironmental conservationpolicy is aimed at increasing prices for pollution and using resources, resource consuming productions will suffer, which will result in redundancy of employees. However, this negativeeffect will be offset by an increase in production in thealternative environmental industrieswith theemployment increase in them. There will be personnel re-training, where an important role will be played by thesystem of education.

2. Amedium-term impact on employment will be felt after personnel retraining. Newindustries and markets for ‘green’ products and services will develop. Theexport of thesegoods and services will rally as aresult of thedevelopment of theworld market for greenproducts and services. Employment will be stable. However, theprices of power carriers, pollutant emissions will rise.

3. Along-term impact on employment of thepopulation will occur as aresult of innovative and technological and inter-industry changes. Labour productivity will increase andoverall wellbeing will rise.

The relationship between the‘green’ economy and ensuring thewellbeing of thepeopleis traced in thelong-term prospects. It is not accidental, since poverty in itself is asignificantmanifestation of social injustice and inequality, caused by an unequal access to educationand health care, unequal opportunities with regard to financial resources and incomes (Stu­kalo, Simakhova 2018). One of thefeatures of the‘green’ economy, as it was mentioned,is provision of social justice and an increase in separation and poverty of people, becauseit creates different opportunities for thesocio-economic development of thecountry anddecreases poverty.

For thedeveloping countries and, to acertain extent, for thecountries with transitiveeconomy, one of thesources of income is natural resources and agricultural products. ‘Greening’ of agriculture, especially private farmers, would contribute to decreasing poverty andincreasing theinflow of investments in thefield, on which thepoor layers of population depend (UNEP 2011). Given this, development of organic farming as aprivate initiative, aimedat thedevelopment of the‘green’ economy and conservation of environment, is important.Moreover, it will increase theamount of food in theface of thecurrent global food problem(Stukalo, Simakhova 2018).

One of theinteresting ideas of the‘green’ economy is creation of ‘green’ or environment­friendly places. They are small settlements, which are distinguished by agreater density ofpopulation and housing development, existence of trade and entertainment infrastructure,special road planning in order to avoid theproblem of traffic jams. These cities are characterised by high employment and productivity. Properly designed and accessible from thestandpoint of thetransport system areas with population density of 100–1,000 people per hectare(up to 3,000, depending on acountry and region) make it possible to achieve an effective or­ganization of public transport and can be considered as astarting point for creation of ‘green’cities (Hasan, Ahmed, Sadiq 2010: 7). At ahigher population density, creation of an infrastructure, including anetwork of streets, public transport, railways, water supply, sanitationand other utility service, costs per one inhabitant are significantly lower. In general, duringtheprocess of urban development, there is apossibility to take into account theproblems ofthesocial system and thehealth of residents in thecity, which, as arule, are optimally solvedunder conditions of ‘green’ communities and areas. In order to help municipalities in realization of thepotential of the‘green’ economy, it is also important to give them responsibility andincrease their powers to perform therole of observers in application of thenational ‘green’legislation at thelocal level, with theright to introduce, when necessary, even more severerestrictions than those required at thenational level.

Moreover, except thedevelopment of ecological farming and ‘green’ cities there are twobasic directions to increase thepopulation welfare and involve thedevelopment of the‘green’tourism, which also contributes to theinflow of foreign investments and thetransition toalternative power sources, which will significantly reduce expenditures of thepopulation forpower resources, thereby increasing thelevel of people’s lives.

CONCLUSIONS

Summing up, it is possible to argue that the‘green’ economy is anew social aspect, innovative integral perception of theworld, which ensures theharmonious development and theinteractionof thesociety and thenature, aimed at solving ecological problems that arose under market conditions. Moreover, based on theconducted analysis, it is possible to make thekey proposals forstrengthening thesocial effect of thedevelopment of the‘green’ economy on social life (Fig.2).

According to theinformation of Fig.2, themain perspective areas for strengtheningthepositive influence of the‘green’ economy on society’s life are (Stukalo, Simakhova 2018):

–Active advertising of the‘green’ economy in mass media, big-boards etc.;

–Demonstration of basic principles and postulates of the‘green’ economy at trainings,master classes for thegeneral public, as well as for individual entrepreneurs, government offi­cials, representatives of public organizations;

–Lectures on thefundamentals of the‘green’ economy in schools to raise awareness ofthepopulation since childhood;

–Raising awareness of thepopulation regarding theinfluence of thestate of environmenton health and theeveryday actions of citizens for improvement of thestate of environment;

–Formation of theniche of ‘green’ jobs;

–Development of organic farming;

–Development of thenew energy strategy of thecountry, based on theuse of alternativeenergy sources, which will decrease theexpenses of people for power carriers;

–Pursuing thepolicy of ‘green’ transport;

–Support of socially significant projects on ‘green’ economy at all levels of public administration.

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