And what is the green economy anyway? One of the big disappointments of the conference has been its inability to get any closer to defining what this term du jour even means. It's hard to define but, as Deutz puts it – citing the famous US Supreme Court case on pornography – “I know it when I see it.”
Part of the issue of defining a green economy in more specificity, however, is that there is not a one-size-fits-all for each country. And Mr. Olivier, in the Guardian post, says that the “green economy idea has not died, and to quote the Venezuelan delegation during the final text release: 'Green economy has changed from something that is being imposed, to something we own.'”
Still there is a great deal of misunderstanding and mistrust surrounding the issue. The global South, in particular, says Shultz, worries that the notion is merely a way to co-opt the natural resources of the developing world. “There is a fight there,” he says. “We need to define what it ought to be, and what it ought not to be.”
