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Green growth cannot make a sustainable world

André Reichel

14th April 2014



In discussions of the future of economic growth, 'business as usual' is not an option. The alternative, say many, is 'green growth': growth that is resource-efficient, low-carbon and socially-inclusive.




Green growth - achieved by outsourcing 'grey growth'


But Germany has achieved this largely by doing away with lots of its own energy-intensive industries, and outsourcing this part of the supply chain to other parts of the planet - most notably to China.

The same is true for the UK economy, and that's the key issue: what happens to green growth when there's nowhere left to outsource the most important causes of your problems?

The central concept of green growth is 'decoupling' - in other words, how to increase the efficiency of the economy by detaching production from its current heavy use of finite resources. The idea is that the ‘greener you shop', the 'more the earth is saved.'


And yet impacts keep on increasing ...

Examples of 'relative decoupling' abound, as in German and UK economies above. However, there's no evidence that green growth leads to any 'absolute decoupling' or permanent reduction in ecological impact, whether through lower carbon dioxide emissions, reduced extraction of raw materials, or less biodiversity loss.

Fuel consumption per miles travelled may be declining in these economies, but total consumption is growing. Refrigerators may use less electricity, but there are far more of them in use and their combined ecological footprint is increasing. Growth is still growth, even if it is more energy efficient. In this sense, decoupling is also a myth.

The social and human consequences of absolute decoupling are profound, and that provides a clue to the continued popularity of green growth, even though it can't deliver on its promises.



De-growth, de-development

The problem - identified by proponents of an 'End to Growth' or a 'Great Disruption' - is that ecologically, any kind of growth pushes against the limits of a finite planet: the rising economic costs of climate change and resource extraction - especially unconventional gas and oil via hydraulic fracturing and tar sands.

Economically, there are clear, diminishing returns to growth in most industrialized economies. In this sense, post-growth or de-growth become the 'new normal' of economic activities.

The same is true for productivity gains: the more efficient a process becomes, the more difficult it is to squeeze out that extra one percent of increased productivity. Mats Larsson even argues that "innovativity" - the ability to innovate new products and production processes - has inbuilt limits.




Voluntary contraction



In this vision, the goal is a 'steady state' economy which is both ecologically sustainable and socially equitable: where the physical size of the economy stays within the carrying capacity of planetary boundaries, while at the same time ensuring a fairer distribution of, and access to, all natural and social resources. Post-growth is not just an economic goal - it's the key to the realization of a just society.

The narrative of post-growth does have its problems. An economy that doesn't grow might look rather dull. 'Steady state' appears to imply a static economy, perhaps even a static society.


Growth can go on - in culture, joy, learning, fulfilment ...

So post-growth doesn't spell the end of the entrepreneurial spirit, or of human creativity or personal development - quite the opposite. As John Stuart Mill once noted, it


Are green growth and post-growth incommensurably at odds? Some say "yes"Ralf Fücks, president of the green political think-tank Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Germany, argues for renewed optimism about the possibilities of green growth.

It would be achieved via new technologies, new forms of social innovation, new taxes on resource use, and "green" ordo-liberalism, the German approach to economic questions that sits somewhere between social liberalism and neo-liberalism by emphasizing the role of government in ensuring that market actors are able to produce socially and ecologically desirable results.



Green growth can only be part of the solution

In the green growth paradigm, ideas about sharing and the entire notion of the collaborative economy are missing. But if these social, political and personal innovations became part of the paradigm as well as technology, then green growth might actually be able to deliver on its promises, so long as relinquishes the belief that growth is an end in itself.





A new 'civil economy'

We might call this new post-growth economy a 'civil economy', a productive economic system beyond the growth imperative that promotes every kind of wealth in cities and communities - cultural and human as well as social and economic.





André Reichel is a research fellow at the European Center for Sustainability Research at Zeppelin University in Germany. He holds a doctoral degree in economics and social sciences from the Universität Stuttgart where he coordinated the research cluster on 'Sustainability in Manufacturing' at the Graduate School for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering. More information can be found at his website.

This article was originally published at Open Democracy.


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