Sustainable development and ecological modernisation◗ Ecological modernisation: the practical solution?
It is clear that the implementation of sustainable development is likely to
confront many deep-seated obstacles. In a capitalist world it will certainly
be difficult to make real progress without appealing to the economic inter-
ests of the business sector. The progress of environmental protection in
individual countries may also be constrained by the centrality of North–
South issues and the development agenda in the sustainable development
discourse. An alternative approach to greening capitalism can be found in
theconcept of ecological modernisation, a variation of sustainable develop-
ment that has emerged in a handful of the most industrialised countries
which, significantly, boast the best records of environmental protection.
Ecological modernisation has its roots in the work of the German social
scientist Joseph Huber, who observed that from the late 1970s some pol-
icymakers in a few countries such as Germany and the Netherlands had
begun to adopt a more strategic and preventive approach to environmental
problems.^9
◗ The concept
Ecological modernisation concedes that environmental problems are a struc-
tural outcome of capitalist society, but it rejects the radical green demand
forafundamental restructuring of the market economy and the liberal
democratic state. The political message of ecological modernisation is that
capitalism can be made more ‘environmentally friendly’ by the reform of
existing economic, social and political institutions,^10 so that the ‘oppos-
ing’ goals of economic growth and environmental protection can be rec-
onciled by further, albeit ‘greener’, industrialisation. Ecological moderni-
sation focuses attention on transforming the nature of industrialisation,
particularly the production process. Two key ideas underpinning ecologi-
cal modernisation aredematerialisation, which means that for each unit of
output (e.g. a car, a mobile phone or a chocolate bar) there will be progres-
sively fewer environmental resources used in its production, and which at
an aggregated societal level can lead to adecouplingof economic growth
and resource use, so that continued improvements in income and living
standards become decreasingly dependent on the input of natural resources
and result in less environmental degradation.^11
The focus on greening capitalist industrialisation distinguishes ecological
modernisation with its forceful and positive utilitarian claim thatpollution
prevention pays(Hajer 1995 : 26) from the sustainable development discourse;
in short, business can profit by protecting the environment. Consequently,
ecological criteria must be built into the production process. On the sup-
ply side, costs can be reduced by improving productive efficiency in ways
that have environmental benefits. Savings can be made by straightforward
technological fixes to reduce waste, and hence pollution, but also through a