Constructing Meanings of a Green Economy: Investigation of an Argument for Africa’s Transition towards the Green Economy

Context for a Green Economy 
The recent global financial crisis drastically reduced the activities of major economies (Edey 
2009, Jessop 2012). As spending and production were curbed in reaction to its peak manifesta-
tion, a palpable contraction of global and national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was wit-
nessed by many countries, with only a handful being spared (e.g. the Asian Tigers) (Edey 2009). 
This crisis undoubtedly impacted abilities to curb other crises, all of which are complexly inter-
linked (Jessop 2012). 
Elsewhere, the food crisis manifested itself with rising food prices, increasing instances of 
extreme weather critically low levels of global grain reserves threaten not only food security but 
are feared to have spill over effects of social unrest at multiple geopolitical scales (Headey 2013). 
Recovery from the 2012 is crisis is still in progress for consumers and producers worldwide.
In spite of many nations either turning or seriously considering the turn towards alternative 
energy sources, the dilemma that is the energy crisis persists as fossil fuels remain at the centre of 
many a national economy and access to them is increasingly proving to be problematic from fi-
nancial, stock, environmental and socio-political dimensions (Bradshaw 2013). 
Climate change on another end, despite being countered with numerous international and 
national efforts is yet to be stalled, let alone be reversed , although a minor denial lobby over the 
manifestation of its impacts the legitimation of the science supporting its state remains strong 
(Dunlap and McCright 2011, Oreskes and Conway 2010). Across policy making scales, climate-
related threats remain one of the strongest motivators for the changes in growth patterns and 
environmental stewardship inspired by concepts such as sustainable development, green growth 
and the latest, Green Economy.
A basic recognition from all fronts is that the environmental aspects of the crises are not 
sufficiently countered by current patterns of economic growth (Jacobs 2012). However, the cou-
pled atmospheres of disappointment with sustainable development efforts on one side (Zaccai 
2012) and persistent sense of crisis on the other over the last decades have created an entry point 
for new paradigms of economic growth.
Such paradigms would not only need to look towards closing the gaps existing in efforts to 
achieve environmental sustainability but would also look to redress environmental degradation, 
as well as socio-political inequities that the past economic systems had established worldwide 
(Brand 2012). A general endorsement to the fact that national and international economic sys-
tems need cleansing or “greening” appears to have been given by world leaders. 

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