AGRICULTURE – democratisation, power structure, ownership

CONVERGENCES

- More education about cooperatives

- Learning from the past and presenting „good“ experiences – Denmark, Austria

- Ask the producers about their needs and problems

- Connect producers with consumers – cut the intermediates

- Society or community need to have a strategic plan on agriculture

- Encourage guerilla gardening

- Promote non-monetary value and benefits of agriculture

- Need to transform the big agricultural corporations

- Increase transparency of agricultural subsidies

- Revision of agricultural land ownership

DIVERGENCES

- The role of the state in agriculture – for example strategic plan on agriculture imposed by the state

- How to transform the big agricultural corporations

ENERGY - democratisation

CONVERGENCES

- Reducing energy consumption in developed countries

- De-centralisation of decision – making on energy

- Encourage local energy production which benefits local community

- Encourage communal grid ownership because of the costs of grid connection

- Bureaucracy is a problem for new renewable energy projects

- Financial support prioritising energy micro-projects

- Inclusion of local community in project development

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- There should be democratic control of energy distribution

- Control and transparency of energy tariffs

DIVERGENCES

- privatisation of the big energy companies vs liberalisation of the energy market

- energy production should be separated from distribution in the sense of ownership

ENERGY – greening the energy, ideal energy mix, region specific for Western Balkans

CONVERGENCES

- current energy sector in the Western Balkans is unsustainable (regarding energy production and use)

- having more renewable sources of energy is more diversifying energy portfolio which is making energy supply more secure

- existing accumulation hydro power plants should be part of future energy mix and technologically upgraded and made sustainable – new large hydro only near existing large hydropower and only if its better for biodiversity and water storage

- district heating systems based 100 % on renewables (biomass, geothermal and heat pumps= + energy efficiency

- priority is making the heating systems more appropriate rather than insulating old buildings

- professional associations have to lead the way in energy transition

- education is important in the whole energy sector

- wood industry as key for energy transition and re-industrialisation

DIVERGENCY

- energy intensive industries like aluminum, copper, steel which are using lot of subisidised energy– to be shut down or left or re-oriented to different production

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FINANCE – greening the finance through role of state

CONVERGENCES

- education of prosecutors and judges about corruption in public sector

- public awareness on corruption, legislative changes, enforce punishments

- transparency of property of all politicians and public servants that deal with financial transactions

- transparency of all financial transactions between private and public sector

- legal protection of whistle blowers

- party finance reform

- maximum net salary should be determined + progressive taxation

- EU level universal tax on capital

- Ecological taxation which should be spent on ecological transformation

- Banning companies with parents in off-shore jurisdictions from public procurements

- cap on budget of political parties

DIVERGENCES

- ban on donations from companies to political parties and cap on private citizens

- How to control corruption through transparency private information on incomes and property of citizens? to other private citizens (data privacy vs corruption control)

- Should the "revolving doors" effect be banned? Should moratoriums for public servants becoming CEOs exist?

– What should be the ratio of minimum to maximum salary?

ALTERNATIVE FINANCING: ETHICAL BANKING

CONVERGENCES

- crediting production rather than (over-)consumption

- alternative ways for financing the green industry:

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- alternative/complementary currencies for development of local communities (trust, social capital etc)

- alternative funding: crowd-funding, peer-to-peer banking

- financial institutions in between the two (scalable banking platforms)

- ethical banking (explain what it is)

- crucial: transparency of social enterprises (e.g. Mondragon: one member one vote, access to information, power in decision-making etc)

– knowledge more important than financing (money is in the system)

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DIVERGENCES

– micro-crediting (know-how to do sustainable business)

– the role of the commercial (conventional) banks (whether they can finance green initiatives projects)

INDUSTRIAL POLICY

CONVERGENCES

- markets treat environmental costs as externalities

- strategy: in the short-run, greening existing industries and long-term, structural changes so that the ecological transformation will apply to the entire economy, and the reconstructed industry would produce added value

- advocating circular economy (thinking of products in terms of life cycles, and re-cycle, re-use efficiently the resources)

- our industrial strategy within the green transformation should include productivity, labor intensity, working conditions, means of production etc

- transition time is needed for restructuring current industry (huge industrial complexes, polluting industry etc)

- EU policies restrict the current policies

– we cannot produce every product, import is not bad, agreement needed on what to be produced locally

– the existing knowledge should be kept and provide further education through professional training

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DIVERGENCES

- the role of the state in structuring the industrial strategy?

- is it meaningful to impose a damage tax as a tool of green transformation? Should it be enforced by the government or?

- is the anti-capitalist agenda needed in structural changes within the ecological transformation or the green revolution is incompatible with the capitalist agenda?

- can the environmental costs be internalized in the market based society?

- is prosperity without growth possible?

- are the electric cars a solution? their production (+ batteries etc) can be a harmful as the fossil fuels?

- is privatization a solution for ecological transformation?

DEMOCRATIZATION OF INDUSTRY

CONVERGENCES

- clustering of cooperatives creates more resilient coops, but there are limits to it; an ecosystem is needed

- the solidarity system is crucial (bankruptcy mechanisms)

- capital invested by coop members should not be backed by state guarantees (becomes state owned)

- coop members when democratically deciding what and how to produce care for the environmental impact in their local community. Yet what happens with the overseas environmental impact?

– there is maximum size for coops to be democratic (to know the members on a personal basis)

DIVERGENCES

- Yet what happens with the overseas environmental impact? international regulation (labor, environment)

- Is the ecosystem or exposure to diversity suitable for a life span from birth to death?

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