Seoul Initiative on Green Growth

Today, the conference could agree on an impressive document, called the Seoul Initiative on Green Growth. This initiative is the main result from the MCED 2005 conference. It includes a new approach of green growth, shifting away from the old paradigm of "grow first and clean up later". Rather, the new paradigm is to present the environment as an opportunity for economic growth, investment, marketing, industry, employment and so on.

How can this be done? The Seoul Initiative suggests to internalize environmental costs into the price of products and services, or by using tax incentives (lower tax if you are more environmentally friendly) and by promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns (one suggestion is to link them to traditional lifestyles and cultural values).

I was glad that the Seoul Initiative also wants to promote the Polluter Pays Principle to manage and protect the quality of air, water and the natural ecosystem.

Unfortunately, it does not mention the Precautionary Principle, a tool that has become common in Europe and other countries.

Finally, I would like to mention that the Seoul Initiative wants to enhance consumer awareness of environmentally friendly products. This is always a priority for consumer organizations, so I was glad to see it in the final document!