A WORLD ALIVE GREEN POLITICS IN EUROPE AND BEYOND

The document examines the evolution of political ecology, arguing for a shift from growth-based economic models to a 'social-ecological state' that prioritizes wellbeing and justice. It analyzes the electoral successes and challenges of Green parties across Europe—specifically in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, and Poland—and discusses the 'Green New Deal' in the USA. Key themes include the intersection of climate action with feminism, labor rights, and geopolitics, while critiquing the 'green growth' and 'decoupling' narratives of the European Green Deal.

• The European Green Deal is criticized as a 'new growth strategy' based on the 'illusion' of decoupling GDP growth from CO2 emissions and natural resource use, which may lead to failure.
• Political ecology is currently divided into three primary 'tribes' or approaches: green socialism (focused on state intervention and social justice), radical critics of modernity (seeking autonomy and a break from modernist structures), and elite technocracy (focused on rapid decarbonization via technological and regulatory shifts).
• Ecofeminism argues that the oppression of humans and the subjugation of nature stem from the same logic found in colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchal thinking, necessitating an intersectional approach to climate justice.
• In the United States, the revived Green New Deal seeks to combine climate action with a federal job guarantee and a focus on 'public luxury' in housing to appeal to the working class and marginalized communities.
• The 'carbon divide' creates a political cleavage where right-wing populists represent carbon-dependent regions and populations who view green policies as a threat to their livelihoods.
• In Germany, the expansion of lignite mines in the Rhineland has led to the forced resettlement of villages, causing profound emotional and social loss that monetary compensation fails to address.
• Green parties in Northern Europe, specifically Finland and Sweden, have successfully entered government coalitions, though they face tensions between maintaining radical environmental goals and the necessity of political compromise.
• In Spain, there is a contradiction where high environmental awareness among youth and in cities has not yet translated into significant electoral gains for Green parties, partly due to the absorption of green issues by other left-wing parties.
• The history of green politics in Poland is marked by a transition from early success in the 1980s to a period of irrelevance during the neoliberal modernization of the 1990s, before returning to the parliament in 2019 via coalitions.
• There is a call for a 'legal revolution' to recognize the 'rights of nature' and the crime of 'ecocide' to shift the legal priority from private property rights to the conservation of the living world.

APA

Green European Journal (2020). A WORLD ALIVE GREEN POLITICS IN EUROPE AND BEYOND. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GEJ19_web.pdf

Chicago

Green European Journal. A WORLD ALIVE GREEN POLITICS IN EUROPE AND BEYOND. 2020. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GEJ19_web.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green European Journal |title=A WORLD ALIVE GREEN POLITICS IN EUROPE AND BEYOND |date=2020 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GEJ19_web.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneuropeanjournal2020world, author = {{Green European Journal}}, title = {{A WORLD ALIVE GREEN POLITICS IN EUROPE AND BEYOND}}, institution = {Green European Journal}, year = {2020}, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GEJ19_web.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }