Economic Degrowth May Save the Planet

Momentum Contributing Writer

Lorena Bally

The Momentum Contributing Writer

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Today, global economies must pursue growth at all costs to be considered successful. However, pursuing infinite growth has strained the planet's ability to produce finite resources at these unsustainable speeds. However, since the 1970’s, degrowth theory has challenged the current structures. It proposes countries scale back consumption, prioritize the limits and regeneration of the Earth, and focus on metrics that prioritize social wellbeing. But what would a world that embraces degrowth look like?

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Redefining “Success” Metrics

The current economics of global capitalism relies on the GDP to measure a country’s success. However, degrowth theory devalues systems, because factors like pollution, child labor, and raising the retirement age can all contribute to a more profitable economy. As the first degrowth theorist André Gorz debated in 1972, what’s good for the economy doesn’t necessarily reflect the happiness or well being of citizens.

“If, as is the tendency today, the governing class defines job-creation as its main aim, where will this transformation of all activities into paid activities (with remuneration as their sole rationale and maximum productivity as their goal) finally end?,” wrote Gorz in Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology, “Are we not already transforming ourselves into commodities and treating life as one means among others rather than the supreme end which all means must subserve?”

When a country’s GDP does not experience constant growth, it falls into a recession. According to many financial experts, recessions are the “inevitable result of the business cycle in a capitalist economy.” But well-planned degrowth policies would not result in recessions. Gorz argues that replacing capitalism with other economies may be necessary for the planet.

“Is the earth’s balance, for which no-growth – or even degrowth – of material production is a necessary condition, compatible with the survival of the capitalist system?” Gorz wrote.

Critics of degrowth argue that countries in the Global North are able to reduce their emissions and maintain growing economies due to capitalist “green growth” policies. However, Kohei Saito, author of Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, argues that these countries are still complicit in the exploitation of people and nature.

“We didn’t really recognize this tendency for many years because affluent countries, like the U.S. and Japan, and the E.U., were able to externalize a lot of costs to somewhere else,” Saito said in an interview. “That means that our affluent lives are often supported by cheap products and cheap resources based on the exploitation of nature and humans in the Global South.”

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Time To Make A Change

Degrowth is one of many radical responses to a world rapidly affected by climate change. It prioritizes respecting the limits of people and the natural world. There are five approaches to degrowth that have shaped the movement.

The ecological source, which affirms the primacy of nature
The bioeconomical source, which accepts the limits of economic growth
The anthropological source, which calls into question the uniformization of the world
The democratic source, which re-legitimizes public debate
The spiritual source, which responds to the crisis of meaning in modern societies

Degrowth reframes the perspective of the Earth not as a place full of economic resources (timber, minerals, water), but instead as a living organism that requires reciprocal relationships in order to sustain the wellbeing of all. In Décroissance: A Project for a Radical Transformation of Society, Barbara Muraca examines how Indigenous populations in the Global South resist following Western methods of development in order to preserve their cultural, spiritual, and traditional livelihoods in peace.

“In Ecuador and Bolivia, indigenous people’s struggles for the institutional recognition of the pachamama (Mother Earth) and for the inclusion of the right to a buen vivir (good living) into the constitution of their countries are not primarily inspired by the idea of an intrinsic value of ecosystems, forests and wilderness,” Muraca wrote. “Rather and more properly, they bear a claim for a different understanding of the relations between humans and nature as well as among humans.”

The principles of degrowth already exist in many Indigenous populations, whose leadership in a decolonized global movement would realize many of these ideas. In a post-capitalist world embracing degrowth, we would see a mix of library, solidarity, and circular economies supporting citizens’ wellbeing. We would have less possessions, but we would have more time to engage in meaningful activities.

While embracing degrowth may be temporarily disorienting for countries’ economies, the increasing intensity of climate change requires creative and dramatic solutions. By demanding policies that resound with the principles of degrowth today, we can begin moving forward towards a sustainable future that empowers all people.