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Volume 6 October 2013 Green industry in a post-industrial society www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu Contents 1. MAJOR: GREEN INDUSTRY IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY 3 From the green industrial revolution to the ecological revolution 3 Editorial Board – Benoît Lechat ‘Make Do and Mend’: industrial conversions and sustainability transitions 7 Molly Scott Cato and Jonathan Essex European industry needs to RISE! 13 Reinhard Butikofer Black tradition, green future 18 Adam Ostolski The aspirations of the green industrial revolution: a historical perspective 22 Patrick Verley – Damien Demailly Towards a Green renaissance of European industry 32 Natalie Bennett – Reinhard Bütikofer Government procurement: how the EU is giving away a fundamental industrial policy tool 41 Chiara Miglioli Cities as Eco-factories of the Future 47 Dirk Holemans Industry meets Green Economy: real potential for reconversion 55 Andrea Gandiglio II. MINOR: TOWARDS A GREEN WELFARE STATE 57 A sustainable welfare state 57 Jasper Blom Europe of Knowledge: Paradoxes and Challenges 63 Jana Bacevic 1. MAJOR: GREEN INDUSTRY IN A POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY From the green industrial revolution Benoît Lechat to the ecological revolution Greening industry is crucial to our ability to combat climate change and maintain a prosperous society. But to achieve this, we need a whole new relationship with the environment. Food: the (agri)cultural revolution By the end of the seventies, many European Green Broader than measures of carbon intensity, the parties were created to counter the negative statistics on the Total Material Requirement (TMR) of consequences of industrialisation on the environment the EU take into account all material flows generated and on people. The Greens fought against polluting by European consumption and production patterns. factories and many of their political opponents The resource intensity of Europe can make us dizzy: described them as a threat to employment and the 22 billion tons, which is the equivalent to a freight economy, mostly in the old industrial parts of Europe. train about 9 million kilometres long! Thirty years later, the picture might be reversed: a different kind of industrialisation must help us to We can and must debate the respective shares take on the environmental challenge and deliver of increased energy efficiency and reduced a new prosperity for Europe. Even if in 2013, the consumption that are needed in order to reach our resistance against this project seems to be growing, sustainability goals, but it is absolutely obvious the Greens must remain at the forefront of the that industry will play a key role. Even if in the last ecological transformation of European industry. few decades the closing of polluting industries and Why and how? the global recession contributed to the reduction of Europe’s GHG emissions, there are many good 1. Why? reasons to think that de-industrialisation is not the Without falling into the trap of catastrophism, way to reach our ecological goals. one can never dedicate enough attention to the ecological challenges we are facing in this century: The first reason is that we have – at least currently if we want to limit global warming to 2°C, humanity and in the short term – no real idea of how we needs to half its total amount of greenhouse gases could finance European welfare states without the (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2050. And as we nearly tax income coming from the European industry. all know, more effort is required from industrialised Strengthening the financing of these welfare states in countries: they need to reduce their emissions by the long term implies a progressive switch from taxes 80%. For Europe, this means a drastic reduction from on labour to other sources of taxation that must take an average of 10 tonnes per capita in 2008 down to place over many years. two tonnes of CO2 (and we should even add 4 tonnes CO2 per person if we integrate the impact of imported The second reason, closely interconnected with the goods). According to the IEA report, in order to reach first, is that the transition to a more resource efficient the 2° target, then the reduction of carbon emitted industrial sector brings hope for the creation of new per unit of GDP should be 2.8 percent a year (which and sustainable jobs. Even if we know that some is double the rate of the last decade) reaching an existing jobs will also disappear in this process, there annual rate of 5.5 percent during 2020-2035. are many studies that indicate that the final balance will be positive. Page 4 Food: the (agri)cultural revolution Some very big consumers of energy and resources, for example the steel industry, are key players in the global reduction of consumption. Even the supporters of a zero growth economy must recognise this. The third reason is that the areas of expertise and that this is far from unrealistic. But it is also a difficult products of European industry are absolutely and long term process. The resistance that the Greens indispensable to the transition to a sustainable are facing around Europe – for example with the way of life. Some very big consumers of energy and energy transition – are signs that we are probably in resources, for example the steel industry, are key the middle of what some economists call ‘innovation players in the global reduction of consumption. conflicts’ between potential winners and losers from Even the supporters of a zero growth economy must the transition to the new type of economy. And like recognise this. We will always need renewable energy in former transitions, the lobbies of the old sectors – sources, better insulated houses and public buildings this time, the carbon and nuclear industries – often and radically more resource efficient patterns of have solid supporters in the political sphere. production and consumption. This resistance at least partly explains why the required The fourth reason is that it would be ecologically tools for the new economic revolution are still lacking. counter-productive to import our industrial goods We need to develop a real industrial policy, not from other parts of the world where weaker only at the national but also at the European level, standards are applied. which is in contradiction with the neoliberal ideas currently dominating the European institutions. The The fifth reason is that the industrial sector is new European industrial policy must include policies already a key player in the improvement of resource regarding research, procurement, standards and labour productivity. In the two last decades CO2 emissions market. It must also be supported by completely decreased by 25.1 % in manufacturing and different social and fiscal policies. construction and by 12.1 % in the residential, tertiary and agriculture sectors and grew by 23.8 % in the As Roosevelt’s New Deal was about internalising the transport sector. social costs of labour, the Green New Deal is about internalising the external costs to the environment Thus there will be no transition towards sustainability in the production process. Its story will not be in Europe without a strong and innovative industrial finished until we have decoupled the link between base that is able to lead on resource efficiency. economic growth and our ecological footprint. But for the moment, there is absolutely no direct link 2. How? between improvement of resource efficiency and With its triptych of financial regulation, social the reduction of CO2 emissions, on the contrary. inclusiveness and industrial transformation, the Luxembourg for example is the European champion Green New Deal project must be continued. Many of resource productivity, but it is the worst performer concrete experiences and industrial successes show in terms of per capita CO2 emissions (in 2009 it was Volume 6 greeneuropeanjournal.eu Page 5 Food: the (agri)cultural revolution A cultural project? 21.7 tonnes per capita). On the other hand, Bulgaria The transition towards a green economy is not only with its average 6 tonnes of CO2 per capita, has the driven by technological change, for example by the weakest resource productivity. development of renewable energy. It will also be conditioned by fiscal, social and cultural changes. It is obvious that this situation will not change On this level, our main difficulty is perhaps how to without adequate carbon pricing as it is the only truly change the existing conception of the industrial efficient way to tackle the famous rebound effect – society and its underlying dream of the domination where resource efficiency does not lead to reduced of nature. The social progress of the new deal emissions but to a growth of emissions. However, society was based on the never ending growth of green taxation is lower in the EU than it was ten fossil energy and on the systematic organisation years ago. A possible explanation of this evolution of the rebound effect – and as a consequence on the is the depletion of non-renewable resources. But complete transformation of the natural fundamentals we also know that some attempts at introducing of human life. What we are trying to invent is or reinforcing ecotaxation have met resistance in a completely new kind of relationship with nature. various European countries. The context of the rising And this brings the project of green industrialisation inequalities of income is not propitious to a real shift back to the roots of the Green parties. in the fiscal policies. So long as we do not make an explicit link between ecotaxation and social justice and a reduction in inequalities, it is dubious that References: the internalisation of the environmental costs of all GALGOCZI Bela (Ed.) , Greening industries and production processes will happen. There lies the creating jobs, European Trade Union Institute subject of an important discussion that the Greens (ETUI), Brussels, 2012.

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