Green economics is a wide phrase that covers any theory that considers the economy as a component of the environment in which it is founded (a term that has been co-opted by organizations ranging from green anarchists to feminists). A green economy, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is “low carbon, resource-efficient, and socially inclusive.”
Green economists, as a result, adopt a wide and holistic approach to understanding and modeling economies, giving equal attention to the natural resources that power the economy as they do to the system’s functioning. Supporters of this branch of economics, in general, are concerned about the health of the natural environment and feel that steps should be made to conserve nature and promote the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. These economists advocate for the environment by claiming that the environment plays a critical role in the economy and that the health of any decent economy is largely determined by the health of the environment in which it is embedded.