SUSTAINABLE POLITICS: THE RISE OF GREEN PARTIES

The agitation towards the massive environmental damage has grown up fast in the last few decades. It has reached now beyond the personal stakes and political parties are taking growing responsibility across continents. In European countries, it is a sigh of relief that certain political parties have taken climate change and the environment to the core agenda. This has incarnated in the perception of green political parties and attempts to encode the future of politics. What is after all a green party? Green political parties reflect a broader social movement seeking to reorient civilization in what supporters say is a more sustainable and human direction and way of socio-economics. The environmental concerns began with opposition to nuclear power but have expanded to include climate change, pollution, and industrial agriculture. Apart from climate, these so-called green parties encompass some grass root issues such as socio-economic challenges, democracy, non-violence, and ecological sustainability.

However new this idea seems to us, it has its roots in the wave of social movement in industrial societies beginning in the 1960s. The student movement of 1968 in Europe broke with the earlier forms of class-based worker organizing, preferring instead radical critiques of industrial civilization itself and the utopian vision of life in harmony with the environment. The first green party was formed in Australia. The UK ‘s people’s party was the first in Europe warning the collapse of ecological wrap-up. “It was not until the 1980s that the first green party went mainstream- in West Germany a stronghold of green politics. The west German greens contested nationwide in 1980 and then in 1983 became a full-fledged political force by entering parliament with twenty-seven seats. By the 1990s, green were contesting, and often winning seats at local, state, and national level across Europe”. The beginning of the 21st century witnessed an increasing breakthrough into the European mainstream. Latvia`s Emsis became the first-ever prime minister from a green party in 2004, and greens entered governments in Belgium, France, Italy, and elsewhere. By 2022, with mainstream parties continuing to lose popularity and climate change getting hold of the voter’s attention, green parties were in national governments in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Luxembourg. If we move our attention to Asia, the Middle East, and a huge continent Africa, we find not so big of a favorite pie in green politics. However, naturally, rich Africans seem they have less of a foothold in the green concept of political theory. “Africa has seen a range of environmental activism, including the Green Belt Movement, led by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, but few electoral gains. Rwanda is the only African country with greens in parliament.

The nuclear disaster in Japan has led to some awakening in commotion. It led to a force in the political arena but remains not so popular. In Middle east, the green perception is fragmented and has not seen the rising popularity of green political ideology to its peak. In India green thinking has made some inroads as Indian politics seems to be on the threshold of green politics with energy policies and environmental safety issues gaining popularity. India as the leading technological giant and one of the largest growing economies across the globe carries a huge influence on world politics and is very impressionable. Green future politics has gained the support of hundreds of political parties from all over the world, revealing the evolving ideology and expansion from local environmental groups to decision-makers. The gap between the urban class ideology and worker class real-life issues, which was seen initially as a massive challenge seems to be bridged everyday brick by brick. “Climate and environmental protection is a question of equitability between present and future generations.” In this, we as voters and citizens have a special responsibility: How we act today determines the conditions governing the life of tomorrow’s generation. It’s not only cutting down the emission waste from cars or lessening the vehicle sounds, maybe promoting kids to biking. This is something fundamental that every child deserves. That’s why not only to bequeath to future generations modern, environmentally sensitive technologies: not only energy use from renewable energy sources, and recycling and energy-saving systems, but also systems providing environment-safe mobility instead of gridlock in all arenas of life. These are the outcomes that will guarantee the life quality of a safe future in the long term. This is a task that transcends the borders of any country alone and functions across borders.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

DR JYOTI JOSHI  The writer is a soft skill, yoga trainer, business coach and English language instructor in Germany, Europe