Blackboard Reading, Green & Brown Agenda Briefing Paper Series On Urban Environmental Improvement & Poverty Reduction

Green & Brown Agenda Briefing Paper Series On Urban Environmental Improvement & Poverty Reduction 

a. there are often conflicts between advocates of the “Green Agenda” and the “Brown Agenda”
b. Green Agenda: 1) reduce the impact of urban based production, 2) decrease consumption and waste generation 
c. Brown agenda: 1) need to reduce the environmental threats to health that arise from poor sanitary conditions, crowding, inadequate water provision, hazardous air & water pollution & local accumulation of solid waste

The Two Agendas:
a. Brown: 1) sanitary agenda of the 1800s, 2) short term environmental effects, 3) more local & immediate issues, 4) associated with poverty
b. Green: 1) sustainability revolution, 2) desire to reach a better balance with nature, concerned with, 3) long term environmental effects, 4) more dispersed/delayed issued, 5) issues will effect future generations, 6) associated with affluence

Conflicting agendas: helping the poor vs. protecting the future
a. problem: water shortage, short term solution: use far-off water supply
b. local air pollution, short term: higher stacks, more distant oil/coal power stations
c. local solid waste problem, short term: dumping waste outside urban area
d. problem land shortage, short term: promote urban sprawl
e. problem: sanitation, short term: use vast quantities of water
f. people have the right to have their basic needs met!

Complementary agendas: helping the poor & protecting the future
a. concern with complex & unintended side effects of human activity
b. Brown: immediate
c. Green: delayed
d. prevention is the best cure
e. concern with equity
f. need to make water affordable, subsidize it, have systems that don’t leak
g. the poor are deprived of environmental resources

Brown v. Green
a. human health vs. ecosystem health
b. immediate vs. delayed
c. local vs. regional and global
d. low income groups vs. future generations
e. manipulate nature to serve human needs vs. protect & work with nature
f. work with people vs. educate people
g. provide more environmental services vs. use less environmental services
h. inadequate access & poor quality of water vs. overuse of water, need to protect water sources
i. high human exposure to hazardous pollutants in air vs. acid precipitation & greenhouse gas emissions
j. inadequate provision for collection & removal of solid waste vs. excessive generation, need for recycling 
k. inadequate access of land for low income groups vs. loss of natural habitats and agricultural land to urban development
l. inadequate provision for safely removing poop and waste water from living environment vs. loss of nutrients in sewage & damage to water bodies from sewage released into waterways
m. urbanist vs. environmentalist

1. more careful & equitable use of environmental resources > 1) better environmental services, 2) less ecological damage
2. recycling of waste > 1) remove waste from urban neighborhoods (B) while reducing damage to natural resources (G)
3. preservation of urban wetlands (G) can improve sanitation (B)
4. the Northern Green agenda may not be appropriate for Southern cities

The importance of assisting locally-driven initiatives
a. cities that can address their own local environmental problems efficiently and fairly are more likely to respond to the G & B agenda
b. local environmental issues have to be given prominence
c. Leicester’s environmental city initiative
d. Stockholm: city with good environmental management history
e. far more justification for tackling local environmental issues in the South

Conclusion 
a. it is a major challenge to finance initiatives for the B & G agenda
b. priority: locally driven environmental initiatives in poor communities
c. governance is important