In May 2021, in an article published in Nature Communications, authors Lorenz T Keyber and Manfred Lenzen considered the possibility of degrowth scenarios, wherein economic output declines due to stringent climate change mitigation.

Degrowth as a whole refers to a framework that criticizes the economic-growth centered model we live in. Although the idea of slowing economic growth to mitigate the effects of climate change are considered nothing less than blasphemy by economists, today the theory is becoming less taboo as many seriously consider the impact of such a movement. 

The Degrowth Movement

This year, the UN climate science agency called for cuts in consumer demand – a key premise of the Degrowth Movement – to tackle the growing effect of climate change. The think tank that runs the Davos forum also published a degrowth primer in June, further evidence that the world is warming up to the idea. The movement took off in the early 2000s and modern degrowth evangelists include French economist Serge Latouche, amongst others.

“It is a provocative term,” says Aniket Shah, Global Head of ESG and Sustainability Strategy at Jefferies, of the New York-based bank’s June 13 note on the “Degrowth Opportunity”. “But it’s not about going to a low-income country saying ‘You can’t grow anymore’,” he added. “It’s saying: We need to look at the entire system and see how we over time decrease total consumption and production in aggregate.”

The word ‘degrowth’ comes from the French word décroissance, it first gained prominence in 1972 after a computer simulation by MIT scientists revealed a world destabilized by growing materialistic consumption. The simulation has been mired in controversy from the start, as it garnered support and opposition in equal parts. While attacked the theory by poking holes in its premise others considered it a prophecy and the world veered heavily towards consumerism. However, in the last few decades, the world economy has grown faster than the carbon emissions it generates. In an interview to Forbes, Shah stated that industries are working on the uphill task of steering the global $100 trillion economy towards net zero emissions by 2050.

The IPCC’s biodiversity counterpart IPBES last month included degrowth among a number of alternative economic models with insights that could help to reduce environmental degradation.

Economic Growth and Environmentalism

Approved by representatives of the 139 member States of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), its assessment report found that political and economic decisions on short-term profits and economic growth are responsible for the current biodiversity crisis.  IPBES report co-chair Unai Pascual told Reuters that even the word ‘degrowth’ wasn’t challenged in the plenary.

The article on degrowth published in June by Davos-organizer the World Economic Forum hinted at degrowth impacts, suggesting “people buying less stuff, living in empty houses instead of building new ones, and growing your own food. It exhorts us to radically scale back on our consumption habits and to put environmental well-being above profits.

 Scientists believe that global warming, caused by humans, started around the 1830s, at the height of the industrial revolution. Degrowth evangelists are of the opinion that we must first move away from the assumption that growth is good. One way to address this is to stop considering Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of economic progress.

“It is important to clarify that degrowth is not about reducing GDP,” says Jason Hickel, a University of London academic, “but rather about reducing [energy and resource] throughput.”

Experts state that degrowth is really about true sustainability. Jennifer Wilkins, a researcher on emerging business sustainability issues whose work was featured in the Jefferies note, told Reuters that the degrowth movement is “about delivering what is needed in terms of meeting human needs, within planetary boundaries.” Although there is considerable opposition to the degrowth theory, environmentalists are united in the opinion that a different kind of economic structure is needed to build a safe, sustainable world for the future.

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