One set of ideas runs counter to the mainstream consensus that technology will save us from climate change. Can degrowth ever win enough converts to persuade humanity to change course?
The idea of “green growth” is appealing, but it is losing appeal among climate policy researchers.
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Ivan Savin, ESCP Business School and Lewis King, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
According to a survey of almost 800 climate researchers, 73% are sceptical of the idea of green growth. Instead, approaches such as agrowth and degrowth are gaining ground.
Mike Joy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Access to fossil fuels allowed humanity to overshoot Earth’s biophysical limits. The crises we now face are all symptoms of this overshoot, and the only fix is to cut our demands on the biosphere.
Degrowth will result in industrialised countries having less income for climate change mitigation
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Human civilisation is headed for collapse. Collectively, we are pushing planet Earth beyond the limits of endurance. There has to be a better way. Now a new book makes the case for systemic change.
Before the pandemic, our cities had a simple plan: let population growth drive economic activity. But the world is changing and the perpetual growth mindset has to change with it.
Degrowth is an opportunity to recentre our economies on what really matters.
(Paul Sableman/flickr)
Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation
We talk to three experts who argue we governments need to find alternatives for their dependence on economic growth. Listen to episode 39 of The Conversation Weekly.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presents the “Green New Deal” plan to fight climate change before the European Parliament in Brussels on December 11, 2019.
Aris Oikonomou/AFP
To achieve sustainable growth under the constraint that consumption is independent from the use of natural resources, we must move along the path of qualitative growth.
The coronavirus is devastating, but failing to tackle climate change because of the pandemic only compounds the tragedy.
The costs of keeping a roof over our heads create a dependence on market growth that puts low-consumption, sustainable living out of reach for many of us.
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The cost of land and, in turn, housing forces people to buy into the rules of market capitalism, making it very hard to ‘downshift’ from consumer lifestyles. But what if we rethink public housing?
Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles