Thread by @jasonhickel

My eyes popped when I saw this. The European Environment Agency has acknowledged that green growth is "unlikely" and calls for post-growth and degrowth alternatives to be integrated into EU policy. eea.europa.eu/publications/g…

"Economic growth is closely linked to increases in resource use and has detrimental effects on the natural environment and human health. It is unlikely that a long-lasting, absolute decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures and impacts can be achieved."

"The ongoing Great Acceleration in loss of biodiversity, climate change and pollution is tightly coupled to economic activities and economic growth."

"Technological development has so far been associated with increased consumption rather than the reverse."

"Europe consumes more and contributes more to environmental degradation than other regions, and Europe’s prospects of reaching its environmental policy objectives are poor."

"An absolute reduction of environmental pressures and impacts would require fundamental transformations to a different type of economy and society — instead of incremental efficiency gains within established production and consumption systems."

References include Parrique et al: eeb.org/decoupling-deb…

Demaria et al: ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/ev…

And "Is green growth possible?": tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… (PDF here: jasonhickel.org/s/Hickel-and-K…)