Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, presented and discussed her ideas on „Green Ways to Growth“ at an Ecologic/IEEP Dinner Dialogue arranged in her honour on 28 February 2005. Considering the tensions related to emphasising synergies between the economy and the environment on the one hand and the plea for a strong independent environmental policy in its own right on the other, participant statements highlighted aspects of and debated solutions for a green path for growth.

At the Dinner Dialogue, Jacqueline McGlade started the evening by mentioning the following issues:

• Environmental legislation is commonly perceived of as being diametrical to competition and thus is hostage to being anti-competitive.
• Sustainable development is inextricably intertwined with our consumption patterns, quality of life, inclusive wealth and health.
• Competitiveness and innovation are defining conditions for delivering sustainable economic growth. However, the current trend to strengthen the Lisbon process is extending environmental exploitation across Europe while neglecting the fact that managing Europe's natural resources is increasingly important for ensuring the viability of Europe's economic and social capital.

Jacqueline McGlade has been Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen since 2003; she is on leave from her post as Professor in Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London. Until 2003, she was a Board member of the Environment Agency of England and Wales with responsibility for Thames Region, navigation and science. Formerly she was Director of the NERC Centre for Coastal and Marine Sciences, Professor of Biological Sciences at Warwick, Director of Theoretical Ecology at the Forschungszentrum Juelich and senior scientist in the federal government of Canada. Her research has focussed on the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, with particular reference to marine resources, climate change and scenario development. In her non-academic life she is a mother of two daughters, director of a software development company and has written and presented a range of radio and television programmes.

The ensuing discussion following the input statement touched upon several issues, including:

• the use of standards versus market-based instruments to manage demand, the incorporation of "external" costs into prices and decisions as well as the role of environmentally-targeted subsidies;
• the costs of non-action in the area of the environment;
• ways to change consumption patterns;
• the role of growth in relation to the value of sustainable development,
• problems in and the potential role of the new Member States;
• global funding of environmental actions.

Links & Downloads:

• CV Jacqueline McGlade [pdf, 12 KB, English]
• European Environment Agency
• Ecologic Project: Job creation potential of clean technologies
• Ecologic Project: European Environmental Economic Activities (3EA)
• Ecologic Project: Effects of Germany's Ecological Tax Reforms
• Ecologic Project: Action Programme ''Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns'' for Germany
• Ecologic Project: The Role of Labour Unions in Sustainable Consumption and Production