Luận án phát triển xanh ở vùng STRING - Một phương pháp tham gia tích cực

IIIEE Theses 2012:11 Pursing Green Growth in the STRING Region A Participative Approach towards a Green Growth Strategy Adrian Mill Thesis Supervisor: Thomas Lindhqvist Thesis for the fulfilment of the Master of Science in Environmental Sciences, Policy & Management Lund, Sweden, June 2012 MESPOM Programme: Lund University – University of Manchester University of the Aegean – Central European University Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management MESPOM This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the Master of Science degree awarded as a result of successful completion of the Erasmus Mundus Masters course in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM) jointly operated by the University of the Aegean (Greece), Central European University (Hungary), Lund University (Sweden) and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus Programme IIIEE Theses 2012:11 © You may use the contents of the IIIEE publications for informational purposes only. You may not copy, lend, hire, transmit or redistribute these materials for commercial purposes or for compensation of any kind without written permission from IIIEE. When using IIIEE material you must include the following copyright notice: ‘Copyright © Adrian Mill, IIIEE, Lund University.

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ISSN 1401-9191 Pursing Green Growth in the STRING Region Acknowledgements I would like to thank a number of people for their kind assistance and support during the development of this thesis. Firstly I extend my gratitude to Jacob Vestergaard of the STRING Partnership and colleagues Patrik Rydén and Marianne Jakobsen for allowing me to develop their vision for green growth in the STRING Region, and for their highly appreciated support in making the consultation process a reality. I also would like to thank the various representatives in the Advisory Group for their interest in taking the concept of green growth beyond just words and their valuable comments and feedback. Next, I thank Thomas Lindhqvist for agreeing to supervise me.

I’m especially grateful that our meetings tended to take place immediately prior to an alcohol-fuelled fika or during an evening ‘social’ visit to Café Ariman. I would also like to thank Mikael Backman, for it was he who originally passed on the email of an email of an email from Jacob that started this thesis in the first place. Oh and as well for allowing us to visit his lovely Greek village of Sigri! I wouldn’t have even gotten into this extremely well-run programme if it wasn’t at least partially due to the recommendations of two other people. Peter Speight, my old boss at Dar Al-Handasah: I’m glad you put up with my youthful exuberance and took me under your grumpy wing – I learned more from you in any given month at work than I have learned before or since.

Thomas Schlacher, my Honours supervisor at the University of the Sunshine Coast: thank you for teaching me the ways of the marine biologist and for regularly supplying your recommendation letters. It may well have been your insightful comments on Australia’s few ‘socio-cultural’ issues that convinced me to leave in the first place! How could I forget my marvellous MESPOM colleagues! I will always remember the night that we crammed most of us into a room in Szimpla as the moment I realized that this was going to be a great, if slightly boozy, Master’s degree. I could easily fill a book with the many wonderful (and potentially incriminating?) stories of our escapades. Jordan “Old Man” Hayes, you get an extra-special thanks because a) I told you I would, and b) you don’t know how much you helped me to snap out of that rough patch, I really appreciate it.

Lastly, I thank my wonderful family. To my Mum and Dad, who keep telling me that I am amazing but for some reason that I could always do a bit better: I am officially amazing, you can stop now. Thank you so much for always supporting me and being there through all the highs and lows. And finally, I thank my brother Darren – you said once that I inspired you, and I want you to know that you inspire me too.

Pursing Green Growth in the STRING Region Abstract ‘Green growth’ is a concept that has gained credence in the literature and wider policy-making circles, broadly referring to the implementation of policy and development strategies that encourage economic growth whilst ensuring that environmental wellbeing is maintained and / or improved. However, few examples of ‘green growth strategies’ have been produced to date, and the literature is sparse regarding methodologies for developing an appropriate strategy. This study has investigated the use of a participative and iterative ‘Action Research’ approach towards developing a Green Growth Strategy that caters for varying stakeholder needs and objectives. The approach utilised the STRING Region, an inter-regional association with five regional partners from Denmark, Germany and Sweden, as a case study for the development of a framework for producing a Green Growth Strategy.

The study found that the Action Research approach was useful in achieving the objectives of generating conditions that encourage implementation of green growth objectives, aligning regional policy directions with green growth objectives and wider EU goals, and facilitating engagement with identified stakeholders. However, a key finding was that sufficient time and resources should be allocated to ensure that consultation with stakeholders can be best facilitated. Keywords: Green growth, action research, stakeholder engagement, STRING i Adrian Mill, IIIEE, Lund University Executive Summary Overview Economic growth is widely regarded as a key precondition for social stability and improving living standards. Yet the negative impacts that traditional patterns of economic growth have had on the environment and society lie in stark contrast to achieving these goals.

In order to address these impacts, international organisations and national governments alike have begun working towards adopting more sustainable approaches to growth that account for environmental and social considerations. It is within this context that the concept of green growth has been developed. While no universally-agreed definition for ‘green growth’ exists in the literature, the term is broadly accepted to refer to the implementation of policy and development strategies that encourage economic growth whilst ensuring that environmental wellbeing is maintained and / or improved. To this end, green growth (or a related term) has been adopted by a growing number of international and national administrative bodies.

The term has become especially pertinent for governments looking to improve economic prospects in the face of the on-going financial crisis and amid rising scientific and societal concern on climate change. As an example, the European Union (EU) has embedded the green growth-related concepts of sustainable, smart and inclusive growth in the ‘EU2020 Growth Strategy’ as a central driver of more environmentally-responsible economic development. This strategy also drives national and regional growth agendas. Project Background – A Green Growth Strategy for the STRING Region One of the key challenges in achieving green growth is developing a strategy to achieve the objectives of improved environmental and social consideration in economic activities.

As the concept is relatively recent, there are few guidelines on exactly how to develop a ‘Green Growth Strategy’ (GGS). From a basic perspective, a GGS should provide a vision for green growth that defines the concept and its objectives, selects which economic sectors it will focus on, and identifies which policies would effectively deliver green growth. The involvement of stakeholders in the GGS development process will also be crucial to the long-term success of the GGS. The outcome of the GGS should be a suite of environmentally-responsible policy instruments for green economic growth that can successfully be implemented within a given regulatory environment.

To this end, the aim of this thesis is to apply a framework for the development of a GGS that achieves the above objectives. In northern Europe, the STRING Partnership is a recent association of that represents the ‘STRING Region’ (also referred to as the ‘Fehmarnbelt Region’), comprising the sub-national administrative regions of Sjælland (Eng.: Zealand) and Hovedstaden (Eng.: Capital Region) in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg in Germany, and Skåne (Eng.: Scania) in Sweden. The STRING Partnership is intended to support economic growth and development in and between the Regional Partners by collaborating on joint development strategies. One of the ways in which the STRING Partnership intends to achieve this goal is by developing a GGS for the STRING Region.

Thesis Objectives and Research Approach The focus problem for this thesis is that the STRING Partnership wishes to develop a strategy for green growth across the STRING Region, but: ii Pursing Green Growth in the STRING Region a) no approach or framework for developing a GGS has been identified in the literature, b) it is not clear exactly how green growth relates to the various participants in the STRING Partnership, and c) limited stakeholder engagement has been pursued in the development of the green growth concept. To this end, three key study objectives have been identified: Study Objective 1 – Determine whether a participative and iterative method is suitable for generating the conditions that ensure green growth objectives are implemented. Study Objective 2 – Examine the policy directions of the various administrative bodies operating within the STRING Region and align these with green growth objectives and wider EU goals. Study Objective 3 – Facilitate the involvement of potential stakeholders in the development of the GGS for the STRING Region.

Given the focus problem and study objectives delineated above, the aim of this thesis is to develop and apply a participative and iterative approach towards the development of a GGS, using the STRING Region as a case study. To better assess whether the approach is indeed appropriate, it will be applied to a number of the initial research component steps towards the development of a GGS for the STRING Region, including a review of the literature on green growth, defining the scope of stakeholder engagement, the development of a common definition and identification of the various sectors that the strategy shall address. This has been summarised into the following Research Question: “How can a participative and iterative approach be applied in the development of a Green Growth Strategy that caters for varying stakeholder needs and objectives?” The research approach adopted in this thesis is ‘Action Research’ (AR), an interactive inquiry process that balances problem-solving actions implemented in a collaborative context with data-driven collaborative analysis or research to understand underlying causes and enable future predictions about personal and organisational change. The AR approach being applied herein is utilised in two key contexts: as a research approach utilised within the proposed GGS Development Framework, and to support the development of a GGS for the specific case study of the STRING Region.

Based on the tasks identified in the framework and the thesis time requirements, the following four key tasks for the thesis case study of the STRING Region were undertaken: Task A) Literature Review Task B) Stakeholder Identification and Engagement Task C) Definition of Green Growth for the STRING Region Task D) Identification of Green Growth Sectors Results and Conclusions This thesis generated a novel framework for the development of a GGS that uses a participative and iterative AR approach as a basis for stakeholder engagement. The proposed GGS Development Framework was designed to deliver progressively more specific outcomes that contribute towards the completion of subsequent tasks. This was paired with an AR iii Adrian Mill, IIIEE, Lund University approach that permitted the author to actively participate in and guide the GGS development process. The overall assessment of this thesis is that the GGS Development Framework and the use of the AR approach is well suited for the development of a GGS in a number of ways.