The Impacts of the Global Crisis on South European Environmental Politics

Abstract

The impacts of the current financial crisis on the environment are of vital significance for Southern European states, since in addition to those by climate change on the sensitive Mediterranean ecosystems they are likely to influence their tourism and natural resource based economies. Although recessions slow down growth and to an extent limit negative environmental impacts, overall, financial crises have increased pressures for natural resource exploitation and facilitated investments, in part by easing environmental controls and regulations. In their struggles to confront and overcome the politics of austerity and move towards a more competitive, growth and export oriented economy, Southern European states are likely to promote the intensification of natural resource exploitation, even under Sustainable Development, Ecological Modernization or the recent Green New Deal policies. At the same time however these states, compelled to implement neo-liberal policies (including large scale privatizations of undeveloped public land), tend to authorize more lenient environmental policies, practices and legislation, in order to cut down on public spending or facilitate growth. Given two decades of EU environmental policy and legislation harmonization, Southern European countries come at a cross-road. Will the global financial crisis allow them to maintain the significant progress made towards environmental protection, in the context of Europeanization, or will only fiscal austerity and growth dominate? Southern European environmental NGOs, green parties and grassroots activists are voicing grave concerns related to the endangerment of the environment under austerity and neo-liberal priorities. Which development trajectories would guarantee the safeguarding of an already fragile Southern European environment, while simultaneously rescuing this Eurozone region from the abyss of deeper austerity policies and their consequences? The panel invites papers addressing such issues in a theoretical, and/or empirical manner, including country case studies (on Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta), or, comparative Southern European studies on environmental/green politics.

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