As loss of biodiversity and climate change are “closely linked” to economic growth, there is a need to broaden the debate on sustainability by exploring alternative ideas to current thinking about economic growth and progress, argued the European Environment Agency (EEA) in a briefing published on Monday 11 January.
This note is based on insights by the EEA: not only is there still no consensus among scientists over the possibility of decoupling economic growth from resource consumption on a global scale, but recent studies have also tended to show that such decoupling may not be possible.
Moreover, the paper notes that technological development has so far been associated with an increase in consumption rather than the reverse.
Believing that the notion of economic growth “is culturally, politically and institutionally ingrained”, the Agency therefore advocates that policy initiatives such as the ‘European Green Deal’ require changes both to technology, but also to consumption and social practices so that society can grow in terms of quality rather than quantity.
Finally, while the Agency recognises the strong correlation between economic growth and indicators of health and well-being, such as life expectancy and education, it also notes that growth has not contributed to a reduction in inequalities either between, or within, countries.
See EEA note: http://bit.ly/2K8ra98 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)