Is There Life Beyond Economic Growth?

When Greta Thunberg attended the United Nations Climate Action Summit last week, and chastised world leaders for believing in “fairytales of eternal economic growth”, she was right to do so.

The problem, as it so happens, is that economic growth depends on resource use and carbon emissions. And no technological innovation is likely to change that anytime soon.

At the moment, the goal of the Paris Agreement is for countries to limit their carbon emissions so that global warming does not rise above pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 °C. This is because any rise in temperature beyond this threshold poses serious risks. Mass thawing of the artic’s permafrost, food insecurity and severe heat waves to name a few.

Doctor Samuel Alexander, a research fellow for the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, notes the fundamental tension here. In order to adhere to a “carbon budget”, developed countries would have to reduce their emissions by 8–10% each year. This, he maintains, simply cannot be achieved by using cleaner, more efficient forms of energy.

Read the Medium story by Francis Taylor - “Is There Life Beyond Economic Growth?”