What lies “beyond” conventional economic growth? The European Parliament brings together eco-radicals and statespersons to find an answer
High-quality public housing in Vienna - the Alt-Erlaa - can contribute to de-growth. Photo by Nick Night on Unsplash
Things are afoot… when the European Parliament can announce a very high-level conference at the beginning of summer, 15-17 May, taking place in its building in Brussels, seeking to chart a path “Beyond Growth”. Here’s the blurb:
The organisers set the following mutually reinforcing goals for the conference:
Discuss the significance of economic growth as a policy goal and deconstruct underlying assumptions of GDP being the only mean to achieve economic policy objectives.
Shift the discourse towards future-oriented economic policymaking and the benefits of beyond-growth indicators for a well-being European economy.
Shape the EU’s path to a more resilient economic agenda in line the European Green Deal objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Create real policy impact with new proposals to establish a new social, economic and environmental contract.
Create new and unusual alliances between a great diversity of stakeholders.
Not only are major European politicians and executives attending and speaking - like the EU President, Ursula Von Der Leyen, fellow commissioners Magrethe Vestager, Paulo Gentiloni and Virginijus Sinkevicius.
But there’s also a wide range of leading post-growth, de-growth and “economics-not-as-usual” advocates present, with names familiar to readers like Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel, Giorgos Kallis, Ann Pettifor, Adam Tooze, Joseph Stiglitz and others. Whether in person or online, access to the conference is free - register here.
For a flavour of the thinking, here’s a recent piece from the journal Nature, featuring three of the above (Hickel, Jackson, and Kallis), with other eco-notables like Juliet Schor. It’s titled “Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help: Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy, if they abandon economic growth as an objective”.
Some extracts:
The global economy is structured around growth — the idea that firms, industries and nations must increase production every year, regardless of whether it is needed. This dynamic is driving climate change and ecological breakdown. High-income economies, and the corporations and wealthy classes that dominate them, are mainly responsible for this problem and consume energy and materials at unsustainable rates1,2.
Yet many industrialized countries are now struggling to grow their economies, given economic convulsions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, resource scarcities and stagnating productivity improvements. Governments face a difficult situation. Their attempts to stimulate growth clash with objectives to improve human well-being and reduce environmental damage.
Researchers in ecological economics call for a different approach — degrowth3. Wealthy economies should abandon growth of gross domestic product (GDP) as a goal, scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being.
This approach, which has gained traction in recent years, can enable rapid decarbonization and stop ecological breakdown while improving social outcomes2. It frees up energy and materials for low- and middle-income countries in which growth might still be needed for development. Degrowth is a purposeful strategy to stabilize economies and achieve social and ecological goals, unlike recession, which is chaotic and socially destabilizing and occurs when growth-dependent economies fail to grow.
Reports this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) suggest that degrowth policies should be considered in the fight against climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, respectively. Policies to support such a strategy include the following.
Reduce less-necessary production. This means scaling down destructive sectors such as fossil fuels, mass-produced meat and dairy, fast fashion, advertising, cars and aviation, including private jets. At the same time, there is a need to end the planned obsolescence of products, lengthen their lifespans and reduce the purchasing power of the rich.
Improve public services. It is necessary to ensure universal access to high-quality health care, education, housing, transportation, Internet, renewable energy and nutritious food. Universal public services can deliver strong social outcomes without high levels of resource use.
From Forbes
Introduce a green jobs guarantee. This would train and mobilize labour around urgent social and ecological objectives, such as installing renewables, insulating buildings, regenerating ecosystems and improving social care. A programme of this type would end unemployment and ensure a just transition out of jobs for workers in declining industries or ‘sunset sectors’, such as those contingent on fossil fuels. It could be paired with a universal income policy.
Reduce working time. This could be achieved by lowering the retirement age, encouraging part-time working or adopting a four-day working week. These measures would lower carbon emissions and free people to engage in care and other welfare-improving activities. They would also stabilize employment as less-necessary production declines.
Enable sustainable development. This requires cancelling unfair and unpayable debts of low- and middle-income countries, curbing unequal exchange in international trade and creating conditions for productive capacity to be reoriented towards achieving social objectives.
Some countries, regions and cities have already introduced elements of these policies. Many European nations guarantee free health care and education; Vienna and Singapore are renowned for high-quality public housing; and nearly 100 cities worldwide offer free public transport. Job guarantee schemes have been used by many nations in the past, and experiments with basic incomes and shorter working hours are under way in Finland, Sweden and New Zealand.
But implementing a more comprehensive strategy of degrowth — in a safe and just way — faces five key research challenges…
The article goes on to define these five “ways that science can help” as:
Remove dependencies on growth
Fund public services
Manage working-time reductions
Reshape provisioning systems
Political feasibility and opposition
More here (and a PDF download).