China - and to some extent Brazil and India (BICs) - are staging a ”Great Convergence” in terms of industrial strength and incomes. This reverses the past two centuries of the Great Divergence, which has separated them from the West. In the process, the BICs are lifting millions of people out of poverty. But in the great transformation that lies ahead, there is a significant problem to contend with: the model of industrial capitalism that has served the West so well - and which has been held out as a model for the BICs as well - will not “scale” to lift vast new populations out of poverty. A new model of industrial capitalism has to be developed, and in some people’s eyes it is inconvenient that China is leading the way.
This report comprises a series of three perspectives of the ‘Green Economy’ from leading experts Jose Antonio Ocampo, Aaron Cosbey and Martin Khor and an overarching summary by Jose Antonio Ocampo. The core elements of the paper are:
This overview, followed by five supporting reports, identifies these challenges of tomorrow, points to key choices ahead, and recommends not just what needs to be reformed, but how to undertake the reforms. The overview is divided into nine chapters.